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Clay County sets fees, meeting schedule and approves inmate‑boarding contracts
Summary
The board set multiple administrative rates — including indigent funeral fees, per diem meeting attendance, treasurer fees, zoning and sheriff/jail fees — approved a new every-other-week meeting schedule (with election-week exceptions), and authorized reciprocal inmate-boarding contracts with a neighboring county.
Clay County commissioners approved several administrative fee schedules, revised the 2026 meeting cadence and authorized intercounty inmate‑boarding contracts at their Jan. 3 meeting.
The board set the county’s indigent funeral fee at $1,900 (agenda referenced SDCL citation for county funeral fees), a figure the welfare director said remains common among counties. The board also adopted state per diem travel rates and raised the meeting-attendance per diem from $25 to $35 to better reflect current costs. "If it's been 25 since 2011, I'm comfortable raising it to 35," one commissioner said during the discussion.
Treasurer fees were adjusted to add charges for priority mail and priority express mail consistent with Postal Service rates, and staff presented a consolidated slate of zoning administration and permit fees to better recover county costs for hearings and inspections; the new zoning and permit fee schedule was adopted after packet review.
The sheriff and jail fee schedule was also approved, listing contract boarding rates, electronic GPS monitoring fees ($20/day adult, $10/day juvenile), fingerprinting, UA test and report charges. The board approved liability coverage through the South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance and SDML workers' compensation insurance and agreed to cover sheriff reserve deputies, election poll workers and interns under workers' comp as an intent item.
On scheduling, commissioners moved to meet every other week (odd-week Tuesdays) with election‑week meetings moved to Thursday; board members discussed statutory constraints and voucher-processing implications before approving the change. Finally, the board approved reciprocal inmate boarding contracts (Clay County inmates in Union County at $80/day and similar authorization for Union County inmates in Clay County) and authorized the chair to sign the contracts.
The motions were approved by voice vote and will be reflected in the minutes and county administrative schedules.
