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State Rep. Kent Roe briefs commissioners on recent legislation affecting sheriffs and EMS
Summary
Kent Roe, Codington County's District 4 state representative, told commissioners on March 25 that several legislative changes affecting sheriffs, EMS and 9-1-1 funding passed during the recent session.
Kent Roe, Codington County's District 4 representative in the state House, addressed the board during the public-comment period on March 25 to summarize several bills from the recent legislative session that he said touch county operations.
Roe told the commissioners he spoke with the sheriff and said a bill that requires payment to sheriffs for attempted service of process when no one is located passed; he estimated Codington County would receive about $18,000 under the change. "They'll get paid now for serving papers even if no one is there," Roe said, describing the change as reimbursement to cover attempted service costs.
Roe also discussed an "ingestion" bill, saying it removed a charge for ingestion; he said the change was intended to reduce incarceration in some cases but described the bill as controversial and said corrections officials had opposed it. Roe described the change as removing one charge used in the plea process and said the effect was to remove one step that charging authorities could use; he did not provide the bill number or final statutory citation in the meeting excerpt.
Roe said language clarifying volunteer fire department and emergency medical responder qualifications also passed; he described the amendment as a language cleanup to allow appropriately trained personnel to render care as part of ambulance crews in rural areas.
Roe thanked the commissioners for support of Senate Bill 37, the 9-1-1 surcharge bill, which he said "passed overwhelmingly." He also told commissioners a proposed new prison plan did not pass the legislature during this session; he said that plan had been developed over three years but did not receive legislative approval.
Why it matters: The bills Roe described affect county enforcement budgets (payment for attempted service), EMS and volunteer responder liability/practice, 9-1-1 funding and criminal charging structures; some changes may have fiscal or operational impacts for county government.
Notes: Roe spoke in the public-comment portion of the meeting and offered to take questions; the transcript does not include full bill citations for each change he described.
