Inadequately atoning for his lawbreaking, Attorney General Marty Jackley posted his final title and explanation for Brenda Anderson’s raw-milk-deregulation initiative August 10, a whole three days earlier than the law required. But his original draft of that document should have been posted July 13, and his final title and explanation should have been the hands of the Secretary of State and the sponsor by August 3. So Jackley’s alacrity this week still leaves Anderson’s vital work for milk and democracy delayed by seven days.
Those seven illegal delay days and the twenty legal delay days before that were a complete waste of Anderson’s and the public’s time. The ten-day period prescribed by SDCL 12-13-25.1 for public comment on the Attorney General’s draft title and explanation drew only one comment, not on the draft title and explanation but on the initiative itself. Jackley mentioned that legally irrelevant comment in his press release Tuesday but properly ignored it in preparing his final title and explanation. Jackley made no changes from draft to final:
As usual, the 20-day period for public comment on and redrafting of the Attorney General’s title and explanation for a citizen initiative added no value to the initiative process. In this case, the sponsor lost 17 days (on top of Jackley’s illegal delay in responding to the sponsor’s submission and starting the public comment/redrafting period) that could have been spent preparing petitions and circulator handouts, submitting final documents to the Secretary of State, and publicizing the final language to raise public awareness and raise money to launch a petition drive on November 7. Had the sponsor started the initiative process later than the end of July, the delay caused by the Attorney General’s public comment/redrafting period would have denied the sponsor actual petition-circulating/signature-gathering time.
The public largely ignores or misuses the ten-day period for commenting on the Attorney General’s draft titles and explanations for citizen initiatives. The Attorney General rarely uses the subsequent ten-day redrafting period to make substantive changes in those titles and explanations. Those twenty days waste valuable time and do not serve the interest of the public or state government and should be stricken from the initiative process.