Ravnsborg Inflates 21 Plain Words in Statute to 745 Words of “Official Opinion”

Have you ever wondered if a county that combines the offices of auditor and register of deeds could have that person assume the register of deeds position in January and the auditor position in March?

No, of course you haven’t, because that would be dumb. The whole point of combining county offices is to save money. If you have your new person start registering deeds in January but keep the old person at the courthouse auditing until March, you’re writing two paychecks for two months. You’re also going to need to bring another chair and another computer into the office, and in small counties like Buffalo that combine that office, there’s probably not room for two chairs.

Besides SDCL 7-7-1.3 says combined register-auditors start work on the first Monday of January:

If a majority of those voting shall approve the question at the special election pursuant to § 7-7-1.5 or if the offices are combined pursuant to § 7-7-1.2, an officer shall be nominated and elected at the next general election to the combined office in the same manner provided by law for the election of other county officers. Such officer shall hold office for a term of four years commencing on the first Monday of January following his election. The salary of the elective officer shall be the higher of either office combined [emphasis mine; SDCL 7-7-1.3].

So if you asked my legal opinion about staggering those start times, I’d cite those 21 bolded words and be done. That answer should be as plain to any attorney as it is to any regular citizen reading the law.

Evidently that plain legal fact was not apparent to Buffalo County state’s attorney David Larson… or he just wanted to give unqualified Attorney Corporal (“General” exaggerates in this case) Jason Ravnsborg a powderpuff question on which he could pretend to legal expertise. Despite the plain language of SDCL 7-7-1.3, Larson asked if counties could violate SDCL 7-7-1.3 and seat combined register-auditors in their combined duties on separate dates. Boy-blunder Ravnsborg responded with earnest eagerness, piling three case law references and 745 unnecessary words to fluff up his first big Official Opinion, a response that could have consisted of a simple citation of 21 words in statute.

But keep those cards and letters and easy legal questions coming. Jason needs to sound smart and busy….

Bonus Google Juice Metaphor: Buffalo County maintains its web presence under the GannValley.com domain. Evidently Gann Valley has programmed its website to end all of its webpage search results with admirably exuberant exclamation points:

Sometimes when you’re small, you’ve got to shout more.