Last updated on 2017-04-17
In a April 6, 2017, letter, 20 legislators led by Representative Elizabeth May (R-27/Kyle) ask their colleagues on the Government Audit and Operations Committee to hold public hearings investigate “the operations and fiscal affairs of SD departments, institutions, boards, agencies, and their personnel” involved in the GEAR UP and Mid-Central Educational Cooperative “scandal.”
Yes, they use the word “scandal” in their letter.
Worded as such, the request does not include asking questions of their colleague, Rep. Kyle Schoenfish (R-19/Scotland), whose private accounting firm Schoenfish & Company conducted the audits that failed to sound any alarms about Mid-Central business manager Scott Westerhuis’s heist of possibly millions of dollars from federal GEAR UP grant funds.
But how many millions?
Public inquiry results, reported in local news across the state of this now notorious breach of trust, indicate up to $100 Million in lost taxpayer monies intended to prepare and educate disadvantaged SD Native American youth for college. Unofficial reports indicate the inappropriate and apparent illegal misuse of these monies occurred over many years and under the supervision and direction of persons officially associated with South Dakota departments, institutions, boards, and agencies [Rep. Elizabeth May et al., letter to GOAC Chair Senator Deb Peters, 2017.04.06].
$100 million? Grant expert Michael Wyland has estimated that, from the beginning of South Dakota’s involvement with GEAR UP under the Rounds Administration in 2005 to the revelation of the GEAR UP scandal with the Westerhuis suicide-murders in 2015, South Dakota appropriated $48 million in federal and state funds to the program, and not all of that money was lost. Rep. May and company appear to be alleging crimes of much greater financial scope.
GOAC Chair Senator Deb Peters tells KELO-TV that the Department of Legislative Audit will issue a report on Mid-Central by the end of April. GOAC meets in Pierre on Tuesday, April 25, at 9 a.m.
The signers of the April 6 letter include seventeen Republicans and three Democrats. Two signers, Nelson and Tapio, are members of GOAC.
- Rep. Thomas Brunner (R-29/Nisland)
- Rep. Blaine Campbell (R-35/Rapid City)
- Rep. Drew Dennert (R-3/Aberdeen)
- Rep. Lynne DiSanto (R-35/Rapid City)—majority whip
- Sen. Jason Frerichs (D-1/Wilmot)—minority whip
- Rep. Julie Frye-Mueller (R-30/Rapid City)
- Rep. Tim Goodwin (R-30/Rapid City)
- Sen. Troy Heinert (D-26/Mission)—assistant minority leader
- Sen. Phil Jensen (R-33/Rapid City)
- Rep. Dan Kaiser (R-3/Aberdeen)
- Rep. Isaac Latterell (R-6/Tea)—majority whip
- Rep. Steve Livermont (R-27/Martin)
- Rep. Sam Marty (R-28B/Prairie City)
- Rep. Elizabeth May (R-27/Kyle)
- Sen. Stace Nelson (R-19/Fulton)
- Sen. Reynold Nesiba (D-15/Sioux Falls)
- Rep. Tom Pischke (R-25/Dell Rapids)
- Sen. Lance Russell (R-20/Hot Springs)
- Sen. Jim Stalzer (R-11/Sioux Falls)
- Sen. Neal Tapio (R-5/Watertown)