Bob Mercer digs and digs and finds a tidbit of self-dealing in the Bureau of Administration.
At first, it looked like we had a simple case of silliness in advertising (and that’s nothing new for the state government that brought us, “Why Die on Mars?“, “Don’t Jerk and Drive,” and “Meth. We’re On It™“). The Bureau of Administration procured a logo that featured a capitol dome in its O, and the dome looked like the U.S. Capitol rather than the South Dakota Capitol. Mercer asked the state about the logo, got the Governor’s attack chihuahua Ian Fury to bark that “we are quite happy” with the design, and then saw the logo quietly change to a new design that harkens more clearly to our own dome.
But then Mercer noticed that the state appears to have paid $2,000 for BOA branding to the wife of a BOA boss:
The bureau paid $2,000 to a firm for designing the first version. The additional work that produced the second version was done, for free, by the same firm, DesignWorks, led by Tara Berg of Pierre.
The address on the DesignWorks invoice to the bureau is the same as the home address for Steven Berg. He is head of the bureau’s office of procurement management. They are married [Bob Mercer, “Billing for a State-Government Logo Was from Same Address as Home of a Key State Official,” KELO-TV, 2020.12.01].
Mercer finds an August 10, 2020, email attached to the Designworks $2K invoice that says Director Steven Berg approved the invoice.
Mercer notes that the Legislature created a Government Accountability Board in 2017 to ameliorate the bad feelings created by the Legislature’s repeal of the voter-approved Anti-Corruption Act. According to Mercer, the GAB has yet to even hold a hearing, let alone punish anyone, over complaints of corruption.
An Executive Branch office thinks it needs a new logo. It pays the wife of one its chief officials to design a new logo. That doesn’t look like either the U.S. Capitol or the South Dakota Capitol; that looks like corruption.
Isn’t this pretty normal the way State government does business in SD? Andy Gerlach and Scott Bollinger approved this and Ian Fury has no problems with it. The wives of state employees always get first dibs on contracting jobs. How dare you even question it.
Let’s see. $2K for shoddy work. Shovelling taxpayer money to a spouse. Spending revenue on fluff.
Is this what the “fiscal conservatives” do? I hate government waste, and this is government waste. $2000 would feed a family for several months. Unfortunately that $2K is going to feed the fat face of a state government grifter rather than an honest family down on their luck.
No wonder COVID Kristi says handwashing is so critical during the pandemic. One hand washing the other is how they do business among political pals in Pierre.
Cory. Maybe you could contact Fury. I’m sure Noem won’t talk to you but maybe Fury will
If you just called up the young Ms. Berg and asked I bet you a gravy-laden breakfast she would have all sorts of information.
Fury might talk, but I doubt he’ll be truthful. It probably isn’t part of his DNA.
It’s just 2,000 bucks, so it took her 100 hours to design. It’s just spare change in taker state government.
Well Mark, you know you gotta give the wife some work during an economic covid slump. Drawing up some funny pictures on the computer doesn’t look too hard.
This will be just like the E-B5 where these Messrs. Gerlach and Burg get drug in front of some minimized committee of the legislatures to answer but refuse to appear. And then it will go away.
A former legislator told me that he never saw any corruption in state government. Conversely, he continued, he thought state government was competent.
He never sees what one refuses to see. A legislature that does not want to provide government oversight will not find corruption. Yet, state government corruption is so rampant in Pierre (and Sioux Falls), that it’s almost a weekly shrug in the media.
Amen John! And what little would we be aware of if it weren’t for Dakota Free Press and SD Standard? And the likes of Bob Mercer etc? Major newspapers seem to exist as a cash cow for the owners, a billboard for advertising and Chambers of commerce and governing officials politicking.