When Governor Kristi Noem canned the Corrections Secretary and the State Penitentiary Warden last week in response to alarms raised by an anonymous letter about bad working conditions behind the wall, I noted that the Governor must have more evidence that she’s not releasing, as an anonymous letter is no basis for personnel action or policy action.
Now I have two anonymous letters alleging bad management in another state agency.
I usually throw anonymous letters straight into the trash. No return address, no name, no invitation to direct conversation—if sources don’t trust me with their identity, how can I trust them?
But I read the letters and I decided that what the authors were talking about was serious enough that I’d at least take a shot at making contact and getting them to respond with something I can work with.
I say authors, plural, because they use the first-person plural in their letters. “[W]e are writing you…” they write in their letter to me. “We are contacting you…” they write at the start of a copy of a letter they enclose that they say they sent previously to the Governor. Neither letter has a date on it.
The letters allege sexual misconduct, favoritism, and falsification of data. The letter to the Governor names an allegedly malfeasant supervisor; the letter to me alleges that the Governor and the agency have failed to respond to multiple complaints of misconduct “more open” than whatever misconduct is prompting action in the Department of Corrections.
But what am I supposed to do with these letters? The authors include no signatures or return address or other contact information. I thus have no way to contact these anonymous sources privately to ask questions and confirm their story. The authors exhort me to “look for yourself, and ask about the complaints that have been filed or interview almost any employee”, but where do I start looking? If I call the Governor or the agency chief and ask, “Have you received complaints from staff that manager so-and-so is boinking employees?” and if they don’t just summarily hang up on me, they’ll say, “No, of course not” or “We do not comment on personnel matters.” Then, if they really have received complaints, they’ll pull those names, call those complainers into the office, and can them or transfer them to Bison. I don’t dare follow up with higher-ups on a tip from a source who wants to remain anonymous unless the source and I can confirm that my inquiries won’t put the source at risk.
Nor can I start throwing the name of manager so-and-so around. I certainly can’t blog that name here, not without expecting a call from so-and-so’s lawyer in the middle of supper telling me they’ll be filing a libel suit in the morning. Calling around to various state offices and asking if so-and-so is the subject of any sexual misconduct complaints or investigations could get me in similar hot water for besmirching a good public servant’s name. I have no evidence that so-and-so committed any illegal or unethical act. I have no evidence that the letters I received came from a reliable source.
All I can responsibly do is try to contact the authors, give them my assurance that I can keep their identities confidential (as I have done for every other source behind various stories on this blog), and ask for more information, more documents, and a name or two of state employees whom I could contact for the investigation the authors urge me to do. I need to know that the multiple complaints have come from so many employees that my speaking about them to superiors won’t tip them to specific sources and get specific workers in trouble. And I need to know that, if blog push comes to legal shove, multiple people are willing to come forward and say, “That’s not libel; that’s the truth.”
And the only way I can contact the authors for such confirmation is right here, with a blog post saying, “Yeah, I got your letter, but I can’t act on anonymous allegations. Give me another shout, and let’s talk.” Without that further shout, without the trust that shout entails, there’s no story here.
Well..obviously , Sexual Harassment issues have been around State Government long enough for this administration to have developed a confidential investigation and response system through its HR personnel assigned to each Department.If this reporting system does not work, We (meaning the people who fund the government of South Dakota) are being badly misserved or unserved by the Noem Administration.
You are right, Cory. Either these are real people who are still State Employees afraid for their jobs, or a setup from the cult party. I am a retired State Employee and know the fear they feel. I truly trust you and wish I knew about your blog when I was still working.
I know how you are feeling. I often tell people 70% of information I am given about city corruption never makes the blog because of anon sources or no one wanting to go on the record. I barely scratch the surface if half of what I am told is true.
This reminds of when governor DooNothing fired the financial director after complaints from employees about similar incidents, but Dennis never denied or confirmed as to why he was fired. I believe the same dude was fired by Janks also then hired back by Rounds(?).
If you talk to the gossipers in Pierre this kind of stuff goes on quite a bit, but I guess we will never know, especially with a complacent media and chickensh!t anon tattle-tails.
I have a friend in Sioux Falls who has lived here for about 5 years or so and is originally from the South but has lived all over the country. They told me they have never seen so much corruption in local government like they have seen in Sioux Falls (and they are a Republican!!!)
Until people start going on the record Cory, I guess all we have is hearsay and speculation, and we are the ones labeled as the conspiracy theorists. Well at least we keep our pants on.
SDSEO (South Dakota State Employees Organization) begins it’s page with, “We are not a union.” As if having a union to present your complaints to the Governor and legislature, without using your name, is a bad thing.
Unions are bad, Mr. Lansing. They are very bad.
Unions are dying institutions.
You are completely right. Anonymous complaints are a dime a dozen. The people spilling the information usually have some valid points to make, but they can’t remain anonymous to you and expect you are going to publish their gripes.
When I worked from the Technical Information Project and the Rapid City Reporter we would get anonymous tips or get documents sent to us anonymously. Documents were different from tips. If it was of some interest to us, we might follow up with questions about the document to the appropriate agency or company, but otherwise, it was just not something we would handle.
Wow .. it’s not even October.
So afraid that workers can’t even call themselves a union, because the idea of workers standing up for their rights is anathema to South Dakota government. Sad.
Donald makes a keen distinction between tips and documents. Documents can stand on their own. Documents have provenance that can be more easily verified. Documents make the source irrelevant. I’ve run stories in the past based on documents received from anonymi.
My experience sounds like DL’s above: lots of anonymi and nymous sources contact me purporting to have big stories. My first response is, send me documents. Often they respond, it would be easier just to tell you over the phone, to which I say, no, it really isn’t easier over the phone; it’s easier to look at the actual documents. It’s easier for me to analyze and excerpt documents for key information, and it’s easier to prove the point to the public by putting the document online and letting people see for themselves.
But there’s the problem with South Dakota corruption: so much of it happens off the record that those conscientious but nervous state workers can’t prove it. Pierre is full of gossip, but the corrupt regime knows that more often than not, the sources won’t ever be able to provide anything to tip the evidentiary balance in their favor past the regime-favoring we-said-they-said stage.
State employees can bring the corruption down if they start making copies, taking pictures, and recording conversations.
Genie, the possibility that an anonymous tip is just a trap set by the ruling party weighs significantly in my thinking.
My first thought is that the letters are written by victims and they are reaching out to you Cory because they trust you. Hopefully, they will respond to your plea for names after having read why you can’t go further with this. Most victims are very scared yet they wrote AND sent you a letter and that’s a huge step. Giving a name is more complicated depending on what part they play in these allegations.
I hope they give their names because this is a really big deal. We can not let the governor bury this scandal like so many others before her.
Still no follow-up from the sources.
Dear Tipsters:
Cory would die on the cross of confidentiality before he revealed your names, especially to Noem’s goons.