BELLE FOURCHE - A storm of citizen complaints over last Thursday's hiring of a new Butte County director of equalization includes questions of potential South Dakota open meetings law violation.

Sue Whitman, a former employee in the office who was fired for insubordination in 1997, was hired to replace Shannon Rittberger, who recently resigned to become the new Pennington County director of equalization. The office sets the value of property for tax purposes.

After she was fired, Whitman filed a complaint against the county. An administrative law judge determined, "she was, in fact, insubordinate."

The case later ended up in circuit court and finally settled out of court.

When Whitman starts as tax assessor and how much she will be paid could not be learned.

Sue Whitman said Monday evening she gave two-week notice to her current employer but declined to comment on the commissioners' actions or the controversy surrounding her hiring.

"I just don't want things out of proportion," she said

She added that, as with most people, "I have no knowledge of open meetings laws … that's the commissioners. I don't think it has anything to do with me per se."

On Friday, county commission Chairman Stan Harms also declined to discuss the board's action.

"I can't comment on it. We hired her and … I guess if people don't like it, it's their right to express their opinion," he said.

The results of the commission's Thursday meeting spread rapidly through the community and brought numerous calls, e-mails and letters to the local newspapers questioning the action.

Some questioned the commission's "secret meeting," and others wondered whether a person who was fired for insubordination should be hired as a department head.

"Only in Butte County could you be fired for insubordination and get hired again," former county commissioner Keith Franke said Saturday.

Hiring Whitman, he said, "may not be illegal, but it's unethical."

The special Sept. 4 meeting had not been announced to the county's official newspapers, the Newell Valley Irrigator or the Belle Fourche Post & Bee.

A copy of the agenda provided Saturday by County Auditor Elaine Jensen did not indicate any action to hire. Jensen said she believed she followed the state law's requirements by posting the agenda in the courthouse at least 24 hours before the meeting.

Harms refuted complaints of a "secret meeting" saying, "I was assured that the meeting agenda was legally posted and notified."

The open meetings law requires 24-hour notice to "local news media."

"The notice must be delivered in person, by mail or over the telephone to all local news media who have asked to be notified," according to a brochure on open meetings written jointly by state, county, city, school and news media representatives statewide.

The Belle Fourche and Newell newspapers requested meeting notifications from the county. The Belle Fourche newspapers regularly carry, at no cost to taxpayers, agendas for public meetings affecting taxpayers in its coverage area.

A formal complaint of violation of the state's open meetings law was filed with Butte County State's Attorney Timothy Vander Heide on Monday afternoon.

The state's 2004 open meetings law gives a state's attorney three options, according to Attorney General Larry Long: to file formal misdemeanor criminal charges; to determine there is no merit to the allegation and forward a copy of the complaint and investigation to the attorney general; or, to forward a complaint and investigation file to the South Dakota Open Meetings Commission.

Long said the grievance commission provides the state with a way to censure public boards without filing criminal charges.

A Fall River County circuit court nullified Edgemont's hiring of a street and water commissioner because the city board did so at an illegal meeting.

Whitman made an unsuccessful run for county treasurer in June's Republican primary, winning less than 30 percent of the vote.