PROPERTY OWNER JAILED FOR NOT CLEANING UP IN ARMOUR, SD

ARMOUR, S.D. (Bart Pfankuch / South Dakota News Watch) – Businessman Dudley Schroeder was convicted of a crime and spent two days in jail. The infraction? His downtown auto shop was declared a nuisance property and he didn’t clean it up as ordered by a judge.

Schroeder’s transmission repair service is located on U.S. 281 on the southern end of this small town 45 miles southwest of Mitchell. City leaders said they had tried for many years and attempted far less invasive methods to get him to clean it up before resorting to legal action. After multiple legal proceedings, a judge ordered Schroeder to be jailed for two days in late 2023.

Unless Schroeder, 65, removes the vehicles, old transmissions and other debris that have accumulated in the front of his business and on the 1.5 acres behind the building, he could spend 28 more days in jail due to his October 2022 public nuisance conviction. The city also filed a civil lawsuit in May that could require the property to be forcibly cleaned up and Schroeder assessed for the cost and court fees.

“It’s been a nightmare,” Schroeder told News Watch.

The legal cases in Armour are a small sample of how property code enforcement remains a point of contention in many small towns and cities across South Dakota. The disputes often pit property owners seeking to assert their rights against municipal officials trying to spruce up struggling communities trying to attract new residents and commerce.

Advocates for stricter code enforcement said poorly kept properties located within municipal boundaries can draw rodents, reduce neighboring property values and lead to lower community standards that allow others to let their properties deteriorate.

But as News Watch reported in July, code enforcement crackdowns can go awry in some communities, such as in Faith, where residents became so angry that the city council rescinded a new, stricter code enforcement plan.

Schroeder said cleaning up has been challenging as he battles health conditions including prostate cancer, meningitis and long-COVID, which he said he contracted while in jail.

Schroeder said his illnesses have sapped his strength and left him with more than $250,000 in medical debt. The code enforcement cases have cost him more than $20,000 in legal fees, and he said some former clients no longer want to do business with him.

However, the city attorney for Armour said a county judge felt he had no choice other than to throw Schroeder in jail because all other legal options were exhausted.

‘Extreme eyesore’ for years

Attorney Mike Fink, who serves as prosecutor in the criminal and civil cases against Schroeder, said Schroeder was given multiple opportunities to clean up his property long before being charged and well after being convicted.

“It was an extreme eyesore for many years, and it’s only after all other efforts have proven fruitless that I got involved,” Fink said.

Armour city ordinances passed in 2010 prohibit nuisances and refer to South Dakota Statute 9-19-3 that allows for fines of up to $500 or imprisonment up to 30 days for violating a municipal ordinances that are considered Class 2 misdemeanors.

Fink said it is a “very rare occasion” in which someone convicted of a nuisance property charge ends up in jail.

“The judge basically put him on probation and said, ‘If you clean the place up, you don’t have to do any jail time,’” Fink said.

Schroeder and his family members said city officials in Armour and the legal system in Douglas County have gone too far by using criminal laws and the threat of jail time to push Schroeder to bring his property up to code.

“It’s an older place, an old gas station when he bought it, used for mechanic work, and I think he has done things to clean it up,” said Marci Schroeder, Dudley Schroeder’s sister, who lives in Las Vegas. “He is a reasonable guy, a good guy, but they want his place to be all tulips and rainbows.”

Mayor: Many attempts to encourage cleaning

In an interview with News Watch, Armour Mayor Travis Sparks said city leaders have tried for more than a decade to encourage Schroeder to clean up the property.

“It’s been going on for at least 15 years,” Sparks said. “He didn’t want to work with us, so we ended up going the legal route.”

Sparks said Schroeder is not the only resident of Armour who has been warned over code enforcement violations. He said the city of about 700 people contracts with an independent code enforcement firm to uphold city ordinances because the city wants to portray a positive image to both existing and potential residents or employers.

“It comes down to aesthetics,” Sparks said. “When people drive through town and see dilapidated buildings or properties with junk all over them, they’re not going to want to stop or do any business in the town.”

Fink said both he and the judge were not persuaded by Schroeder’s apparent attempts to “mask” the debris at the property

Fink said the civil order he filed against Schroeder is pending as he, the city and the code enforcement officer monitor Schroeder’s progress in getting the property up to code.

Schroeder said he’s hopeful –  though uncertain – if he has done enough to keep the city, courts and code enforcement officer at bay. “How do I know when it’s over or it’s not over?” he said. “Do I just walk around on pins and needles every day and can’t sleep at night because I’m wondering what is next?”

Despite the uncertainty, Schroeder’s plan is to work a couple more years until he qualifies for Social Security and then hang up his transmission tools and close the shop. Meanwhile, he’s sure of only one thing: “I do not want to go back to jail.”

 

SOUTH DAKOTA LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE TACKLES “DIET MARIJUANA”

PIERRE, S.D. (Makenzie Huber, South Dakota Searchlight) – The state’s legislative oversight committee on medical marijuana was thrust into the world of synthetic THC on Monday as members heard complaints about how the loosely regulated, hemp-derived products are affecting South Dakota’s medical marijuana industry.

The Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee heard from business owners and the State Public Health Laboratory director during a meeting in Pierre. They’re concerned about the growth in synthetically altered, hemp-derived products, sold under terms including delta-8 THC and delta-10 THC, which are compounds that can produce a high similar to marijuana. The compound that gives marijuana its high is delta-9 THC.

As with marijuana, the synthetic products take the form of smokable flower, pre-rolled joints, vape oil and edibles. Unlike marijuana, the companies that produce them aren’t subject to the testing, security and labeling requirements attached to the state’s legal medical cannabis market.

The alternatives not only pose a health risk, the witnesses told the oversight committee, but can cut into demand for medical marijuana since the products can be purchased without a medical marijuana patient card and can be loaded with large enough quantities of THC variants to act as a stand-in for marijuana.

Congress authorized hemp growing with the 2018 farm bill, and South Dakota has become the largest producer of hemp in the country after legalizing it four years ago. In that time period, the availability and variety of hemp-derived marijuana alternatives has exploded.

The Legislature passed House Bill 1125 last winter to address the “diet weed” market. The law, which went into effect in July but is being challenged in court, bans the creation or sale of products created through chemical modification of hemp. Possession of the products is still legal.

The new law bans four THC variants, State Public Health Laboratory Director Tim Southern told the committee, but several others remain available. THC-A products, for example, remain widely available in smoke shops that had previously sold other products that are now illegal to sell.

Med card slowdown, legislative summer study proposed

South Dakota’s medical marijuana program has seen a drop in patient cardholders since the beginning of the year, which business owners blame in part on the state’s lack of regulatory enforcement of the synthetic products still found on store shelves.

One problem, said committee members who work in law enforcement, is testing capacity in the state.

Dakota Herb’s Alan Welsh and Dalton Grimmius told committee members that the dispensary has had to cut prices of their tested, state-approved product below non-regulated competitor prices to incentivize patients to purchase through legal channels and retain their medical marijuana cards.

Welsh added that he’s privately tested two synthetic products sold in Sioux Falls. Not only did they have more contaminants than the state allows for medical marijuana, Welsh said, but they also contained more than .03% THC by weight – the legal threshold for hemp.

“We wouldn’t have been allowed to sell that product in our store, and yet we’re forced to compete with that,” Welsh said. “It’s ridiculous.”

The committee did not take action on the synthetic THC concerns at the meeting. Instead, its members suggested that the committee should recommend a legislative summer study. That would have to wait until the summer of 2025, because this summer’s study committees are underway.

Lawmakers on the committee are concerned any policy recommendations outside of the medical marijuana industry would overstep their own committee’s jurisdiction. The committee may make an official decision and recommendation at its October meeting.

Law enforcement, lobbyists, health lab leader: Legislature playing ‘whack-a-mole’

Jeremiah Murphy, a lobbyist for the state’s cannabis industry, said legalizing “everything” would offer an opportunity for better regulation and licensing of the synthetic products.

Voters will have the opportunity to do that through a recreational marijuana ballot measure in November.

Sioux Falls Police Chief John Thum compared policing and regulation of the synthetic drugs to “whack-a-mole.” Southern agreed.

The health lab director was among several witnesses – and committee members – who suggested that a federal fix is necessary. Congress is currently working through a new farm bill, and committee members suggested reaching out to South Dakota’s congressional delegation to ask that the bill’s legal hemp provision clarify that the crop isn’t meant to be used for the production of intoxicants.

Until the federal government takes action, Southern said, South Dakota should be ready to harness the expertise of its agriculture, health and law enforcement agencies to craft laws around fake pot and its purveyors across the state.

“I think this is something we do legislatively, with very smart, well-written legislation that doesn’t allow modern garage chemists to wiggle out from under a law,” Southern said. “Otherwise, it will be nothing but a game of whack-a-mole now and forever more.”

 

STATE ATTORNEYS GENERAL JOIN SUIT AGAINST LIVE NATION TICKETMASTER

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota are among 10 states that joined a federal lawsuit against Ticketmaster on Monday.

The U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit accuses Live Nation Ticketmaster of “monopolizing markets across the live concert industry,” which they say harms fans, innovation, artists, and venues.

Ticketmaster is the largest concert ticketing company in the U.S. — multiple times the size of its closest competitor.

The other states joining the 30 others in the lawsuit filed in May are Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Utah and Vermont.

The complaint is pushing for restoring competition in the live concert industry and making monopolies illegal. The Department wants better choices to be available at lower prices for fans, as well as “open door” venues for working musicians.

“The live music industry in America is broken because Live Nation-Ticketmaster has an illegal monopoly,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Our antitrust lawsuit seeks to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s monopoly and restore competition for the benefit of fans and artists.”

Ticketmaster is also accused of using a business model called “the flywheel,” where they capture fees and revenue, lock up artists with promotion deals, and then sign venues into long-term ticketing deals, according to a DOJ release.

 

PROPOSED USDA RULE WILL ADDRESS FAIR PRACTICES IN MEAT INDUSTRY

SOUTH DAKOTA Undated (Kathleen Shannon / Greater Dakota News Service) – A proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Agriculture would clarify fair practices in the American meat industry.

The Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets rule would amend regulations under the 1921 Packers and Stockyards Act to define “unfair practices” as business conduct which harms the market and market participants.

Just four companies process about 85% of American beef–the result of a long process of corporate consolidation starting in the 1980s and was exposed during COVID-era market disruptions.

Nick Nemec, a longtime farmer and rancher, said the proposed rule could help.

“If we had — you know, I don’t know what the right number is — a dozen, 20 packing plants slaughtering beef, then there’d be real competition in the marketplace,” Nemec pointed out.

Vice President Kamala Harris, in a speech last week, said competition helps drive down prices. She also promised to support small businesses and implement a first-ever federal ban on price gouging, an approach her opponents called “price control.”

Current laws against price gouging exist at the state level and some states do not have laws on it at all.

In South Dakota, Nemec runs a cow-calf operation and said while he does not deal directly with the big four beef corporations, he and his peers still feel the effects of the monopoly.

“We’re the little bitty pipsqueaks at the bottom of the food chain,” Nemec observed. “There’s nothing we can do about it. I mean, we’re at the whim of the market.”

The comment period for the proposed rule ends Sept. 11.