No, this isn’t satire, but I wish it was! Back in May of 2023,Travis Ismay, a farmer, rancher and business owner, had to correct our state’s attorney’s statement to the news outlet and what the news wrote themselves about what we did concerning gathering signatures. We don’t know if our State’s Attorney, LeEllen McCartney is just that inept or doing what she usually does and twisting this scenario into something it wasn’t in order to make us look bad and make herself look clean.
“They got a few things incorrect. 1. What we did was not a petition. You cannot petition to remove county commissioners in the state of South Dakota. The only thing you can do is file a complaint with the state’s attorney. The requirement is a list of complaints and 15 signatures with the complaint. We got 120 signatures just to make sure that we had enough and it only took two days. [The Butte County Commission] are not the most popular people in Butte County right now.
2. The state’s attorney was involved in everything that our complaints specified so her actually prosecuting the commissioners would involve her, also. We had no hope of her ever prosecuting for removal of the commissioners anyway. This is just one step that we have to take for their removal. The next step is an appeal to the Attorney General. After that, the governor, and after that we will sue them personally and if we win, we will use the money to give back to Butte County in one form or another. Just so everyone knows if you’re anywhere near a pot farm or a dispensary, your land value is going to drop to nothing. So if I were you, I would go to your assessors office and have your land reassessed and lower your property taxes. That would be the only good thing to come out of living next to a pot farm.”