With Governor Dennis Daugaard’s endorsement, Pam Roberts won her current position as South Dakota Republican Party chair last year. Now just beginning her second year in that partisan position, the longtime SDGOP favorite has received another plum appointment, this time to the Board of Regents.
Can Roberts do both jobs? Sioux Falls radio commentator Rick Knobe doesn’t think she should:
Her gubernatorial appointment to the Board of Regents begins on April 4th. That should be her last day as gubernatorial appointed Chair of the State Republican Party.
The Board of Regents has great responsibility deciding the direction of Higher Education in South Dakota.
The Chair of the Republican Party has great responsibility keeping Republicans in elective office all over the state.
…The appointment of Pam Roberts to be on the Board of Regents and Chair of the Governor’s party at the same time appears to be a continuation of enmeshed board memberships with partisan politics thrown in. It might not a a direct conflict of interest, but it sure looks odd [Rick Knobe, “Governor Daugaard: What????” KSOO Radio, 2016.03.24].
Appointing friends of the GOP establishment is business as usual on the Board of Regents and elsewhere in state government. But as the Board of Regents assumes management of the federal GEAR UP grant, a program in which corruption bloomed amidst the inattention, complacency, and/or fear bred by one-party rule, the Governor might have bolstered public trust and accountability by choosing a new Regent who doesn’t owe her entire professional career to the political favors of the current regime.
Just goes to show that the GOP party bench is not very deep. Nobody available to replace Melody Schopp. Nobody for the Board of Regents but an old retread.
On the brighter side, he could have appointed Melody Schopp for her exemplary work as Secretary of Not Paying Attention.
To be fair, Republicans appoint Republicans and Democrats appoint Democrats. That’s politics. What really needs to happen in South Dakota is the formation of an independent ethics committee with a mix of both political parties. The people selected should have a hunger for the truth and a keen sense of emotional intelligence. Until we have an INDEPENDENT ethics committee, it will be business (and corruption) as usual in our great state.
LKB,why not an outside, non-partisan panel to avoid inevitable turf wars between parties? There has to be someone out there with no interests in partisan bickering. Just asking is all.
The significance of this appointment is that it extends and intensifies the trend implemented by Bill Janklow when he purged the Regents of anyone who had anything to do with higher education or education in general and replaced them with loyal political operatives. The credentials for Roberts stated by Daugaard are “a career in senior leadership roles, including Secretary of Labor, Commissioner of Personnel, and Chief of Operations, in the administrations of governors Janklow, Mickelson, Miller, Rounds and Daugaard. She is a 1977 graduate of South Dakota State University.” Well, at least she went to college.
Both of the incidents of corruption which have boiled up to the surface in state government were creations of the educational agencies in state government. Education has been used by state government as a cover for the graft and complicity it fosters. The EB-5 fraud was originated and incubated by the Regents. The NSU administration and faculty was excluded from any authority over the scheme, except for the occasional pat on the collective ass conferred by the Regents for being good, docile dolts. The Gear Up rip off was presided over by the Department of Education and its leaders with no managerial oversight but plenty of financial rewards for their service. Now it has been placed under the care of the Regents who seem able to evade public exposure more successfully than the Department of Education.
Roberts seems well qualified to continue the great South Dakota tradition of using educational agencies as centers of excellence for graft and corruption. God forbid that any genuine educators get anywhere near these educational agencies.
David hit the nail on the head. Pam is most famous as the hatchet wielder for Janklow, Mickelson, Janklow again, Rounds and now Daugaard. The Board of Regents is now home to both of the biggest scandals in state history, and Pam’s political hatchet role is to make sure no more bad news leaks out through the BOR. She’s the bulldog at the gate.
The daughter of the original Marlboro Man. If I remember right the best thing he did for South Dakota was set on a horse, look good, with a cigarette in his mouth.
Graduating from SDSU doesn’t do much for me. Its one of those East Dakota schools, like a votech on Viagra.
Pams done ok for herself with a resumay anyone would be proud of. She is smart, she knows all the players, and most important in $D, she understands that politics not education is the reason she is there.
The Blindman
She is basically a rubber stamp vote, like MMR in the Sinate.
Bill, Pam married into the Roberts family. Her son Hunter runs the energy office in the Governor’s office, which provides him a fat paycheck for essentially doing nothing. As to Clint, it is a total lie to ever refer to him as the Marlboro Man. He submitted a photo in a competition, along with hundreds of other dim witted fame seekers, and was never selected. Yet, the news media in South Dakota let him run away with the moniker (which indicates the media was just as dumb and lazy back then as they are today). Clint was famous for collecting state government paychecks for doing little or nothing when Janklow was governor. As the District 2 congressman, Clint was a complete zero.
I don’t know if Pam Roberts has collected a paycheck in the private sector. She managed to suck a great living from the public teat by smooching GOP patootie after GOP patootie. Perhaps her most impressive accomplishment is getting a government paycheck for her unemployable son.
Ah, Clint did OK considering he was probably illegitimate.
Here is her professional experience,according to her biography-
Owner/Operator, Farm and Ranch, present
Chief of Operations, Office of Governor Janklow
Commissioner of Personnel, Office of Governor Mickelson
Commissioner of Personnel, Office of Governor Miller
Head, Transition Team, Office of Governor Rounds, 1994
Wow! A lot of people know something about a lot of “different stuff” that a lot of us know nothing about! We’re just out here, wandering around in the hinterland. If, only…
Roberts was the inaccurately alleged “Marlboro Man” of the 1970s as 96Tears accurately points out. However, today we are represented in Washington by a “Basketball Jones,” which sadly is the truth.
But in defense of Roberts. at least he was once a “Schlitz Man” during 1975 Super Bowl:
FF: 00:49
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qouUdQsKP5k
With “Basketball Jones” there is no need for an authenticating commercial. We just need to get the message out that we are currently being represented in the US Senate with an image that truly does not standup to its claims.
So the way that I understand it membership on the Board of Regents is set up so that not all members can be from the same area. However your residency is determined by where you are registered to vote, not on where you actually live. Theoretically all regent members could live in Pierre just so long as they are not all registered to vote in Pierre.
egads! after reading of his signing 159 this reeks…
What did she get her degree in at SDSU?
Her degree? MRS
Ror, every job on her LinkedIn profile except for her odd current listing is a gubernatorial appointment:
Advisor, mentor & lifelong learner
Self Employed
2013 – Present (3 years)Pierre, South Dakota
Active Nana, family gofer, Century Farm/Ranch wife and Business Manager at Dentistry at the St. Charles
Cabinet Secretary – Governor Dennis Daugaard
South Dakota Department of Labor & Regulation
January 2011 – October 2013 (2 years 10 months)Kneip Building, Pierre, SD
Cabinet Secretary – Governor Rounds
South Dakot Department of Labor
2003 – 2011 (8 years)Kneip Building, Pierre, SD
Chief of Operations, Governor William J. Janklow
South Dakota Governor’s Office
1995 – 2003 (8 years)State Capitol Building, Pierre
Commissioner, Governor Mickelson & Governor Miller
South Dakota Bureau of Personnel
1989 – 2003 (14 years)State Capitol Building, Pierre, SD
Special Assistant to the Governor – Governor Janklow & Governor Mickelson
South Dakota Governor’s Office
1979 – 1989 (10 years)State Capitol Building, Pierre, SD
Hey, Dithmer! Don’t be bagging on SDSU! I know, I’ve got to put up with Roberts and Kristi Noem as fellow Jackrabbits, but I’ve also seen some great people graduate from that fine university.
Residency is a flexible concept, Paul, depending on what area of government and what statutes we are looking at. Residency for Regental students is very different from residency for voting.
Another bad decision brought to us by the creators of GEAR UP and EB5. Had enough yet?
Website: http://win17.ruck.us/
Donations: https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/win17
So, theoretically Cory a resident of beautiful downtown Buffalo Chip could be on the Board of Regents?
Cory, we cannot forget MMR as a fellow “State” graduate.
Rohr, citing the same LinkedIn profile Cory referenced, it appears Pam’s degree’s in Economics. I guess this is the latest example of Daugaard’s nuanced willingness to consider graduates from the social sciences after making disparaging remarks about their employability to current and future college students. Must one’s social science degree be decades old to be relevant to them?
Regarding Clint (the younger)/Hunter’s “unemployability,” as a member of his cohort at Riggs, I would like to say we should give him the benefit of the doubt; however, I concede this is probably due largely to me being labeled unemployable, overeducated, etc. It is incredibly disheartening to be viewed and referred to in such a manner. I have not interacted with Hunter in decades, so maybe you know more about his recent employment circumstances than me.
Nevertheless, in my jaded opinion, Pierre agencies/employers do seem to exhibit ethically suspect hiring practices; I suppose Pierre’s pragmatists might say that I should “hate” the game, not the player. I will freely admit that many in power in Pierre are considerably more skilled than I at playing the game (or the excuse I use is that I refuse to compromise my principles and just collect a paycheck in order to “succeed” in said game). Hopefully candidates like Cory and Mark can help improve the culture and practices in Pierre.
Former NFL All Pro and two time Super Bowl Champion,right guard Adam Timmerman from my hometown Cherokee,iowa is a SDSU grad. He did pretty good for hisself.
Paul, SDCL 13-49-2 sets the qualifications for Regents:
I don’t know how much probity and wisdom we’ll find at Buffalo Chip, but as long as they are registered to vote there, sure they can be picked.
Interesting that the statute includes the line, “best known citizens.” Do we have a way to quantify “best known”? Could we do a Google search and calculate which South Dakotans get the most online mentions? Should we factor in which ones have the most Friends and Followers on social media? ;-)
MMR, Timmerman, Vinatieri….
Jake, hear hear for more economics degrees in government! I promise to appoint a Cabinet of real eggheads. :-)
Thanks Cory. Probity huh! Had to look that one up. I can think of at least one regent without a whole lot of probity.
The thing that got me is that Sutton who lives in Sioux Falls and is registered to vote in Hughes County changes his voting registration in order to make way for Pam. This doesn’t seem very probitious.
can we familiarize ourselves and each one’s contribution to the state and self contribution in return? (e.g. c. Johnson (below) likely secured heather Wilson to sdsm&t so we can have nuclear waste dump here)
Members of the Board
President
Randy Schaefer
Vice President
Bob Sutton
Secretary
Terry Baloun
Executive Director
Michael G. Rush
Members
John W. Bastian
Harvey C. Jewett
Kathryn Johnson
Jim Morgan
Joseph Schartz
Kevin Schieffer
k. Johnson, phd., hill city, rapid city
Leslie,The one regent with whom I’m a little familiar is Kevin Schieffer. Kevin was the principle owner of the DM&E railroad. The old Chicago Northwestern that ran through Pierre. The DM&E used eminent domain in Fall River County to gain access to land on which he planned to build an extension to the coal fields of Wyoming. His plan was to haul coal to the power plants further east. He somehow was able to sell his DM&E to Canadian Pacific. Under CP ownership the coal train plan was promptly discarded. During this whole episode Schieffer was able to convince the SD legislature to pass a law that gave the governor (then Mike Rounds) power to speed up the eminent domain process for railroads.
What Kevin Schieffer’s qualifications are to be a regent I have no idea. I don’t consider probity to be one of them.
Now, now, Ms. leslie. You likely don’t know much about Ms. Johnson. She’s a very nice lady, I am sure.
Grudz-Lt Colonel GAC assured his superiors he and his 7th Cavalry could whip the entire Sioux Nation. How did those assurances work out?
Mr. Mike, I know you are from Iowa, but what does that yellow-haired fellow after whom are named a number of the nicest places in the Great State of South Dakota have to do with anything and why in the name of snail poop are you asking me?
But I guess since you are asking, I would say that after General Custer failed to take along gattling guns and was whooped, it pretty much sealed the deal for the Indians because the Army got pretty angry and it was the beginning of the end for many of them. Ironic, init?
Ms. Johnson. She’s a very nice lady, I am sure.
Lt Colonel GAC assured his superiors he and his 7th Cavalry could whip the entire Sioux Nation.
Try roll hard to figure out the connection,Grudz. Being from South Dakota isn’t a handicap.
Hard rolls hurt my teeth and I usually have somebody crack them open so I can pull out the soft, warm innards and dip them in butter.
Well Cory, Tom Daschle and Richard Kneip are also SDSU alums, so that should help balance the ledger
My nephew Josh Stamer is a Coyote Alum,former little All American at USD and played in the NFL for several years as a special teams linebacker. That balances the ledger for me.
Nephew by marriage.
Daschle and Kneip—now there are a couple of Jackrabbits I’m happy to have on my team!
Paul, Sutton is moving to Minnehaha County, so it makes sense that he switch his voter registration to Minnehaha. The only monkey business I’d see there is if he had completed his move but not changed his voter registration so has not to create a conflict with seving alongside Sioux Fallsian Terry Baloun, whose resignation takes effect April 2, after this week’s meeting.