Finances of citizen group backing Ellsworth examined

A private organization that gets taxpayer money to support Ellsworth Air Force Base faced scrutiny this year about how it was spending those resources.

Ultimately, an election ended that inquiry.

Former Rapid City Mayor Sam Kooiker had insisted that the Ellsworth Task Force provide the city with invoices and detailed reports for how it was spending money. Rapid City taxpayers are the biggest financiers of the task force, which consists of business people in Rapid City who support the base.

Kooiker withheld funding after the task force failed to provide documentation for an audit. But Kooiker lost his re-election bid in June, and his successor, Steve Allender, restored money to the task force, which totaled about $75,000.

Ellsworth closure discussion 'probably inevitable'

According to emails sent earlier this year, the Kooiker administration had concerns about how taxpayer money was being used and questions about why the task force was sitting on a large amount of money in its bank account. Kooiker’s administration had requested documentation about large disbursements and travel expenses.

“The request wasn’t well received,” Kooiker said in an interview this month. “At the time I left office, we had not received the information we were supposed to review under city ordinance for how the money was being spent.”

“I don’t know that there was something bad going on, but there was some resistance to providing basic information,” Kooiker added.

Attorney General Marty Jackley confirmed that his office received a concern about the task force.

Allender said he restored the task force’s funding after meeting with its leadership. But, he added, he and some on the Rapid City Council intend to determine whether the city is paying the task force for duplicate services that other groups provide. He also told the group’s chairman, Jeff Carsrud, that the task force has problems that need to be resolved.

“When I restored the funding, I mentioned to Jeff, you’ve got this problem going on and you should be opening up your processes and making everybody feel you’re being transparent,” Allender said.

Carsrud, who took over the chairmanship this summer, said he is making changes to assure city officials and the membership that the task force is fulfilling its mission.

“I think that we needed to be a little more transparent,” he said. “I’ve put processes in place to be more transparent and we needed to communicate more effectively with our partners. Now we’ve got those in place.”

The episode, however, put scrutiny on the task force, which was formed in the 1990s to keep Ellsworth Air Force Base from being closed. The task force failed in 2005 from keeping Ellsworth off a list of bases slated for closure. The state’s congressional delegation worked valiantly to save Ellsworth from closure.

In 2009, the state Legislature created the Ellsworth Development Authority, which was a sign that the task force was not capable of saving the Air Force base from closure. Since its creation, the authority has been steadily improving conditions in and around Ellsworth in an attempt to assure the base survives another round of closures.

In 2012, the Association of Defense Communities named the authority the Defense Community of the Year for its work at preserving Ellsworth. Last year, the authority opened a new water treatment plant that services both the Air Force base and the city of Box Elder.

The task force, meanwhile, has engaged in social events and attempts to make relationships with Air Force officers who might one day have an influence on whether Ellsworth stays open. The task force employs a part-time executive director who monitors defense industry publications, and members of the task force meet with Air Force officials and defense industry lobbyists to stay abreast of the latest trends in the industry.

While the authority creates sewage treatment plants and clears houses from the Ellsworth crash area, the task force’s work is less tangible. It’s unclear whether relationships with Air Force officers would save Ellsworth, and it was the travel of task force members to defense industry events that was questioned by those scrutinizing its spending.

Bruce Rampelberg served as the chairman of the task force during the last round of base closures in 2005. He was also one of the people who created the authority. The two groups, he said, have distinct missions.

“The task force accomplishes a mission,” he said. “They provide a benefit that the development authority does not do right now.”

But, he added, the authority and task force could be unified at some point in the future as one entity.

“Right now, it’s working pretty well the way it is,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to upset the apple cart.”

Kooiker, however, said he was concerned the two entities weren’t on the same page.

Ken Davis, a former Pennington County commissioner and a task force supporter, said the two groups will do a better job of working together to preserve the Air Force base.

“We’ll continue to do a better job,” Davis said. “It’s like anything: There are changes that need to be made and we’ll make them.”