Minnehaha County auditor salary discussion veers into 'mob mentality,' 'election denialism' discourse

In an at-times contentious meeting, Minnehaha County Commissioners approved a salary increase for elected department heads, including County Auditor Leah Anderson, whom the board initally considered excluding from a pay raise.

The commissioners unanimously voted 5-0 on Tuesday to raise the salaries of all elected department heads by 7.5%. This came after an hour-long discussion that largely centered around Anderson, whose work performance was previously derided as "disappointing" and "embarrassing" at times by Commissioner Joe Kippley.

More: Commissioner: Minnehaha County auditor's performance 'unprofessional' and 'embarrassing'

Anderson, who was sworn into the role in March after running a campaign based on election integrity, has had a strained relationship going back to the November 2022 election.

In a September commission meeting, Anderson suggested the idea of hand counting ballots in future elections during a routine discussion on renewing a three-year service agreement with Election Systems & Service Software, the county's Omaha-based election vendor. Board members said they felt "ambushed" by the topic at the time, since the agenda item was specific to approving the agreement with ES&S.

More: Minnehaha County auditor says she’s not sure she can trust county’s voting system

Then, on Dec. 8, Anderson surreptitiously included at least two dozen of her supporters in a call between ES&S, six members of the Secretary of State's office, including Secretary Monae Johnson, and herself. During the call, Anderson expressed doubt in the county's voting systems and processes, repeatedly criticized Johnson and later revealed to the meeting attendees she secretly allowed her supporters to listen to the meeting through her laptop.

The resolution discussed by the commission Tuesday brought three suggested salary adjustments for elected department heads to the table. One version considered a 7.5% salary bump for all elected members. A 5% pay raise was also weighed by the commission.

However, at least a dozen people criticized a proposed 7.5% salary bump during the Tuesday meeting, which included a stipulation to explicitly exclude Anderson. More than 70 of Anderson's supporters attended the meeting.

Anderson started her role this year with a $89,232 salary, the minimum base for the position. When former County Auditor Bob Litz retired at the end of 2020, Citibank official Ben Kyte was appointed to the role, and was paid a salary of $114,400 in 2021, a figure that increased to $120,120 in 2022.

Rick Weible, a prominent Midwestern election denier, chalked the commission's proposed exclusion of Anderson up to "political retaliation" and "sexual discrimination" against Anderson.

"Each of you are currently paid the same amounts regardless of experience, regardless of gender, regardless of age, regardless of performance, and even if you've violated election laws and rules," Weible said of the commissioners.

Weible ended his public comment with a warning: "Do not go down this path. Intimidation of an election official will not be tolerated."

Some of Anderson's backers called for the commissioners to reach some sort of compromise with the auditor. Sioux Falls resident Michael Stangeland told the commission Anderson's raise should not be withheld because of her political platform.

"The fact that there is even in discussion the idea of explicitly excluding her from any increase at all, it sends a very bad message," Stangeland said.

Former Minnehaha County Commissioner ridicules 'mob mentality' of Anderson backers

Jeff Barth, a former Minnehaha County Commissioner who served for 16 years, was one of the only members of the public to speak in support of the exclusion proposal. He said Anderson has "done a couple of good things since getting in this job," but he accused the auditor of forming what he called "a mob" to try to intimidate the commissioners.

"There's a habit you Republicans have of − when you don't get your way, you call in a mob, and that's not what they should do," Barth said. "There are 190,000 people not in this room. You have to represent them."

The former commissioner then labeled Anderson an "amateur." He also directed the same critique at Litz.

In an interview with the Argus Leader later Tuesday, Barth clarified his statement. He juxtaposed the county auditor role, which is an elected position open to anyone eligible to run for public office, with attorneys and law enforcement officers who are specially trained in their respective roles. Someone with experience working within the county auditor's office, and not an "amateur" auditor, should be selected to head the department, Barth suggested.

"In a different form of government, we might have professionals in all of these positions," Barth said. "What we don't have is professional auditors and treasurers and stuff like that. Some counties have already moved away from the old ways, so to speak."

Responding to Barth's comments, Anderson defended her background, saying she does not consider herself an amateur.

"I've had 30 years-plus of accounting and auditing experience, so I am not, by far, an amateur," Anderson said later Tuesday in an interview with the Argus Leader. "I may be a first-year county auditor, but I have adequate experience to do this position that I was elected for."

The compounding tension coming from Anderson's supporters and in the wake of Barth's comments surfaced during the commission discussion on the agenda item.

Kippley: Anderson is 'representative of an echo chamber,' not the general public

Speaking to the room, Kippley started by making the motion to approve the 7.5% raise for Anderson and all other elected department heads.

Kippley told the Argus Leader the county has historically increased the salaries of elected department heads in the past by smaller amounts but recent percentage-based raises, including Anderson's, were increased to adjust for inflation.

However, in the wake of her "unacceptable behavior," Kippley said the exclusion of Anderson from the pay raise was being considered to "make a point" and was "at least a good opportunity to put something on our agenda to say to what authority and what accountability we have over an elected official."

"If we hadn't given her the raise … they would wave the bloody toga and say, 'You're out to get her.' But I think she's out to get herself," Kippley said in an interview. "I think she's running meetings very poorly. I think the public can kind of judge her conduct on its own."

When asked if Anderson's supporters successfully intimidated the commission into deciding on raising her salary, Kippley declined the sentiment.

"They didn't affect the outcome at all," Kippley said.

Following the motion action, Kippley slammed Anderson for deceiving the Secretary of State's office and ES&S staff by inviting her supporters to the Dec. 8 call.

"I really don't care what the topic was," Kippley said. "To reveal at the end of the meeting that there's a room full of people [recording the call] … The conduct there is what's in question … the group took that recording and put it on a website, that thought they had this slam dunk in our age of social media and website based journalism that this is the how-to guide on how to establish trust in our elections. I can't express how misguided that is."

South Dakota is considered a one-party state under state law, which means only one person who takes part in an in-person, telephone or electronic conversation needs to consent to having their communication recorded, including the recorder themselves.

Kippley went on to say Anderson's actions is emblematic of what he sees as a loss of trust between elected auditors county-to-county.

"[County auditors] don't like sending out emails to their group of fellow auditors … because one auditor will take that language, strip it from its context and weaponize it against them," Kippley said.

Kippley also called attention to a letter of the editor article Anderson submitted to this paper, in which she explained why her supporters attended the ES&S call.

In the piece, Anderson said she invited people to the meeting because she "works for the people." Kippley specifically took issue with this statement during the meeting, calling her statement a "misdefinition" of the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution's "We the People," but he was interrupted by groans and sniggers from Anderson's supporters.

"Is 'The People' your group of core supporters you want to ambush on a call with a vendor?" Kippley asked after the room settled. "An auditor's office would well know how to publish public notice for a public meeting. If you wanted to have a public meeting and have a town hall style where you can hold people accountable if there's witnesses to what they do, we have those all the time."

Asked whether her inviting her supporters to a meeting is the same as inviting the general public, Anderson conceded: "I'm sure it's different."

"I guess the main rationale behind it was just to have others witness, you know, just the tactics that have been used [by ES&S]," Anderson said.

More: Minnehaha County auditor responds to criticism of her comments on county's voting system

The auditor contended she introduced herself and Mike Mathis, an elections coordinator for the county who has been involved with South Dakota Canvassing Group, an election security group that has called for banning machines and electronics from the voting process, as well as preventing mail-in voting and ballot harvesting, when asked during the call.

"They didn't ask if anyone else was on the call, honestly, so, had they asked, I would have told them right up front," Anderson said.

She later argued ES&S and the Secretary of State's Office could have also had others recording the meeting and claimed she "wasn't allowed" to ask if they were.

"[Anderson] claims she's a representative of the people, but I think it's more … [she's] representive of an echo chamber that kind of go down a cycle with one another, this vicious circle of conspiracy-minded thinking that a machine tabulating pieces of paper is hijacking our elections," Kippley said.

Kippley also made comments about the intentions of Anderson's supporters, saying their actions are based in "performative politics" around election denialism, which earned more groans from the attendees.

More: Minnehaha County Auditor floats idea of hand counting ballots in Sioux Falls elections

At one point, Kippley attempted to cite the Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network defamation lawsuit, in which the media company acknowledged it had spread lies about the outcome of the November 2020 election, but he was asked to return to the salary discussion by Commissioner Jean Bender.

"ES&S is a software company, and if we're throwing around words like the commission is committing 'treason' by supporting them or the SOS using these machines is 'treason' … I'm just putting up a warning sign that this group of people are kind of in this online fever swamp that is just wallowing in grievances from the 2020 election, and it's really not a healthy place to be," Kippley clarified in a follow-up interview.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Minnehaha County auditor backed by election deniers, receives salary bump