On my way back from court Wednesday around noon, I ran into my good friend (yes, he actually is) Mitch Krebs, Gov. Rounds’ press secretary, and Paul Kinsman, SD Secretary of Revenue, in front of the County Treasurer’s office in Sioux Falls.

When I had walked through the Minnehaha Administration building at 8:30 a.m. on my way to court, the line for the treasurer stretched from the treasurer’s office almost to the doors to the new courthouse building—about 80 yards.

At noon, the line was down to about ten people.

What had happened?

Apparently Treasurer Pam Nelson had been “convinced” by County Commissioners and Kinsman to open an express lane to help people who only had renewals. That’s a majority of the business.

The second thing was that Kinsman flew—yes, via airplane—a Revenue employee to help the treasurer’s office.

The change in the length of the lines in the intervening three hours was dramatic.

As I have been tough on Gov. Mike Rounds in this deal, I thought it only fair to point out that he did provide at least a partial solution to Minnehaha County’s woes and that things were better for citizens waiting in line.

And in talking to Paul and Mitch, it was clear that this was not a political issue to them but a governmental services issue that they were trying to fix.

There are still problems with the new computer system. But because people lowered their rhetoric, a problem improved and the citizens got better service.

That’s the way government is supposed to run—whether Democrats, Republicans, or independents are in charge.

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