SD Searchlight-Josh Haiar
State Sen. Tim Reed opened a bill hearing Wednesday by saying a former state economic development commissioner “complied with the statute as it exists today” when the ex-commissioner waited one year before becoming an executive of a company he helped recruit while working for state government.
But Reed said the law needs to change, and a committee of South Dakota lawmakers at the Capitol in Pierre agreed.
Under current law, state officers and employees involved in a state contract with a company have to wait one year to take a job with that company after leaving state government. The bill would extend the waiting period to two years when a contract exceeds $1 million.
“What this bill is about,” said Reed, a Republican from Brookings, is whether the current law “adequately protects public trust.”
Reed was referring to South Dakota Searchlight reporting about a former state economic development commissioner, Steve Westra. A year after leaving state government, Westra took a job with CJ Schwan’s. While working for the state, Westra had signed the first pledge of state aid benefiting construction of the company’s $550 million, 650-employee food production plant in northern Sioux Falls. State aid benefiting the project now totals $69 million worth of tax rebates, loans and grants.
Without opposition, the Senate State Affairs Committee advanced Reed’s bill to the Senate.
No one besides Reed testified for or against the bill. Reed expressed support for the CJ Schwan’s project.
“This bill is not about the CJ Schwan’s economic development project, and it is not intended to slow, discourage or second-guess economic development efforts in South Dakota,” Reed said.
After the committee vote, the bill was placed on the Senate’s consent calendar — a list of broadly supported bills the Senate can pass in a single vote without debate unless a senator asks to withdraw a bill from the list.