South Dakota Commissioner of School and Public Lands

Description

The South Dakota Commissioner of School and Public Lands is an elected, constitutional officer in the executive branch of the South Dakota state government. The office is charged with supervising lands designated for educational use by the federal government, among other various duties. The commissioner is popularly elected every four years by a plurality and is limited to two consecutive terms. The South Dakota Commissioner of School and Public lands has several duties prescribed by Article VIII of the South Dakota Constitution.The office was mainly created to deal with lands designated for educational use by the federal government. Section 4 lays out the details for appraising such school lands that might be sold. It states that the commissioner sits on a board of appraisers that evaluate all school lands that are to be sold. This is board also includes the auditor and county superintendent of schools. Section 6 describes that such sales are to be conducted through the commissioner's office. All sales are subject to approval by the governor. Section 9 details the commissioner's role in leasing these lands.Other duties of the commissioner of school and public lands include: Managing Permanent Trust Fund; Issuing and maintaining grazing leases; Inspecting and repairing state owned CCC and WPA Dams; Issuing and monitoring all mineral leases for the State; Controling noxious weeds on school and public lands, state-owned dams and meandered lakes; Recording land transactions for easements on right-of-ways and state-owned lands; Purchasing and selling property as requested by the legislature or other state agencies; Issues Seismic Permits on state-owned mineral acres. The salary for this position is $85,629.

Application Guidelines

To file for this position follow these three steps: 1) Contact the South Dakota Secretary of State Election Services Division to confirm that your registered address qualifies you for the position you intend to run for, and that you meet other office specific qualifications. Obtain the correct candidacy filing paperwork. 2) Complete the required candidacy paperwork including the appropriate campaign finance forms and (if you plan to run as an independent) a nominating petition. Nominating petition instructions can be found here: https://sdsos.gov/elections-voting/assets/HowtoCirculateNomPetitionStateLegCountyCandidates.pdf. If you plan to run as a partisan candidate please contact your local party office for further instructions. 3) Submit the nominating petitions with the stipulated amount of signatures to the South Dakota Secretary of State Election Services Division by the filing deadline. The amount of required nominating petition signatures varies by office. The filing window for independents runs from the 1st of January until the last Tuesday of April at 5pm. The South Dakota Secretary of State Election Services Division is the point of contact for any questions or concerns you may have. The South Dakota Secretary of State Election Services Division can be reached at (605) 773-3537 and the Election Services Division website can be found here: https://sdsos.gov/elections-voting/nominating-petitions/qualifications-office-term-limits.aspx.

Submit application to:
South Dakota Secretary of State, 500 E Capitol Ave #204, Pierre, SD, 57501, US