Noem team cooperating with legislative leaders vetting Freedom Works Here corruption allegations

Governor's Office of Economic Development offers to share all seven proposals that sought the $5M contract behind closed doors, cites confidentiality laws

Gov. Kristi Noem’s administration is willing to show South Dakota’s top lawmakers how it went about selecting an Ohio marketing firm that’s handling a national workforce recruitment campaign.

But the six proposals for the multi-million contract that didn’t make the cut — including one that reportedly pitched the concept for what became the Freedom Works Here that Go West Media is now using — won’t be made public and instead would be disclosed to a panel of only legislative leaders behind closed doors.

“(State law) provides that response submitted ‘by any person not issued a contract shall remain confidential.’” wrote Chris Schilken, commissioner of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, in an eight-page letter sent to House Speaker Hugh Bartels Wednesday. “However, in response to your official request, we are happy to discuss a process whereby hard copies of the unsuccessful proposals may be viewed only by legislators serving on the Executive Board or LRC staff directly involved with this official request.”

The letter, obtained by The Dakota Scout, comes after the Executive Board last week voted unanimously to issue a request to GOED, seeking details on the request for proposals process used to hire Go West Media, and in the handling of the Freedom Works Here campaign — including the companies that applied, how the submissions were prepared, the criteria used for the selection, who determined the criteria and those involved in the submission process.

This request came following a series of news reports from Sioux Falls Live that raised questions about whether laws were broken in the process of awarding the contract to Go West Media.

NEWS: Noem-as-worker concept proposed by firm that didn't win Freedom Works Here bid