Christians, Thovson Challenge Codington County Commission Chair Johnson

Former Watertown city councilman Michael Christians took out a petition in January to run for the District 3 seat on the Codington County Commission. He makes his intention official with a press release highly critical of his opponent, commission chairman Myron Johnson:

It is a privilege to announce my candidacy for District 3 County Commissioner for the seat currently held by Commission Chairman Myron Johnson. I will be running as a republican.

Tax and spend agenda, two failed bond issues, fraud allegations against an employee of the accessors office. It is very evident that leadership change for the Codington County Commission is prudent and reasonable. The leadership of Commission Chairman Johnson is the tail wagging the dog.

Commission Chairman Johnson has failed to listen to the voters after the first justice center vote and then supports a second bond issue which also failed to create a need to jail more citizens. Justice Gilbertson in his State of Court address made it very clear drug court graduates re-offend at substantially lower rates than their counter parts that are jailed. The time has come to look at better options for rehabilitation.

Many voters believe the jail bond issue will be brought back until it passes. If we elect commissioners who believe in alternate methods of rehabilitation not locking up people, the jail will not be built saving millions. I will not support a new jail, I support alternate reforms.

Codington County has nearly $5,000,000 in the building fund. A remodel or expansion of the current facility is a reasonable solution that would not require a tax increase to support a property tax bond.

I will support reasonable setbacks for wind towers. Wind Towers have become larger while creating larger flicker effects while creating more noise requiring larger setbacks.

I will support working together to improve the water quality in our lakes, rivers and streams. High quality water is our greatest resource.

I believe the commission needs to address employee matters before they rise to the level they did during the March 6, 2018 commission meeting when a private citizen made allegations of fraud against the accessors office, Commission Chairman Johnson’s demonstrated a lack of leadership with his weak response. Assuming the assessment issue was a mistake. Why did it rise to this level?

We can only speculate until a full investigation of the accessors office is complete, how many citizens are potentially being wrongly over taxed?

If elected I will work to restore integrity with conservative values to county government.

I would appreciate your support June 5, 2018 [Michael Christians, press release, 2018.03.11].

Christians and Johnson have both filed their petitions for the county’s District 3 commission seat, as has Bill Thovson. All three are Republicans; absent a challenger of another party affiliation, local Republicans will be the only voters who get to choose their next county commissioner.