You’re Covered! By: Karla Engle, DOT Legal office

DOT accomplishes a lot of important work because of the hard work of its employees. What

happens if someone sues a DOT employee for work they’ve done as part of their job?

The short answer is you can’t be sued for some types of claims and you have liability coverage for other types of claims.

Liability Coverage for Ministerial Work

State employees have liability coverage for work that is considered “ministerial.” This means work

that must be done according to a clear standard, in contrast to work that requires the exercise of

judgment and discretion. For example, suppose I am driving for work and I accidentally fail to stop at

a stop sign, causing a crash with another vehicle properly going through the intersection. I’ve

violated a clear standard – the requirement to stop at a stop sign and resume driving only when it is

safe. I can be sued if others are injured by my actions, but there is liability coverage for this type of

accident. Under this coverage, the State can pay for lawyer fees and other court costs. A settlement

or final money judgment can also be covered by the State, up to the coverage limit of $1,000,000

per occurrence. As a state employee, I will be protected from paying anything above this coverage

limit.

There are rare circumstances when an employee can be disqualified from receiving this liability coverage. This can happen when an employee is doing something clearly outside of the employee’s job duties. For example, suppose I didn’t accidentally fail to stop at the intersection, but I crashed into another vehicle on purpose with the intent to hurt the other driver. I didn’t just make a mistake while trying to do my job -- I was doing something with an evil intent that wasn’t in any way furthering DOT’s interests. In an extreme case like this, I can’t expect liability coverage from the State, because I’m no longer doing my job.

Protection from Lawsuits for Discretionary Work

In South Dakota, state employees are protected from being sued

when they are performing work that is considered “discretionary.”

Discretionary work requires the exercise of judgment, with no clear

standard saying how the work should be done. Courts have

repeatedly thrown out lawsuits where state employees have been

sued for discretionary work. The cases didn’t get to trial, because

the courts decided the employees couldn’t be sued at all.

Suppose I work in the Road Design Office and I am designing a curve in a state highway. Although

there are engineering principles and guidance to help with my design, there is no exact standard

that I can simply apply to arrive at my final design. Now suppose someone is injured driving along

the highway curve I designed, and that person sues me over the design. The State will defend me

against this lawsuit on the grounds I can’t be sued for work that required the exercise of judgment

and discretion. If the court agrees, the case will be thrown out and there will never be any trial.

Now suppose instead of designing the highway curve, I was responsible for preparing the signing

plans. And suppose DOT has a policy that requires certain warning signs along this type of

highway, but I neglect to include those signs in the construction plans. Now suppose someone is

injured on that highway and sues me, claiming the lack of required warning signs caused the

person’s injuries. Because there was a clear standard that applied to my work, my work was

ministerial and not discretionary, and I probably can be sued. However, there would be liability

coverage from the State for this ministerial work. That means the State will pay an attorney to

defend me and the State would cover any settlement or money judgments up to the limits of

coverage. As a state employee, if a money judgment is more than the coverage limit, I would not be

required to pay any part of that excess judgment.

So, when you’re working hard for DOT, keep in mind that you have legal protections.

Tips from Finance:

By: Brandy Hansen

Batch Load – Do you know how to update an employees address? If the person who handles travel vouchers notices an employee’s address on their travel detail does not match with the voucher they need to update the batch load system with the employees new address. You can do that by going into your travel template for the employee, right click, edit employee, then click Get Vendor Information. This will bring in the most current address in Employee Space. If the employee hasn’t updated Employee Space then you will not be able to update it in batch load. This step should help avoid a returned voucher.

For any questions, please contact Brandy @ 773-5615

In the Field and Classroom South Dakota: Where you can have high blue skies one day, and the next be hit with a blizzard. That’s

exactly what happened this spring. Not one or twice– but multiple times. Thanks to the perfect mix of

heavy snowfall and 50 mph winds, Dean VanDeWiele, Pierre area engineer, finds himself standing on

top of a snow drift 25 miles SE of Fort Pierre on March 16—yes that is the top of a road sign. Fast

forward to May 15, there is no snow & now Dean can stand next to the same sign like normal. There

were four of these 12-17 foot

drifts that took a contractor in

a loader 7-plus hours to clear!

Dean standing

next to the

same road

sign on May 15

Dean stands on

top of road sign 25

miles SE of Ft.

Pierre on March 16

Koch Elementary school in Milbank

participated in the Associated General

Contractor’s art contest to promote ‘Work

Zone Awareness’. Students created

posters to demonstrate the dangers in a

construction work zone.

One of this years winner is Mason Allen, a

fourth grader. Jared Gusso awarded him

with a prize of $25 and the class received

a $100 prize. He came up with this clever

poster by illustrating the dangers of

distracted driving in a construction zone.

His winning poster will also be featured on

a billboard near the Highway 12 project in

Milbank. Sponsor Journey/SFC Civil

Left to Right: Elliott Furman (HMW SD DOT, Milbank), Jared Gusso (Vice President of SFC Civil Constructors), Mason Allen, and James Loup (LHMW SD DOT, Milbank)

Richard Reichling Clear Lake 39 yrs.

Randy Lekness Sisseton 15 yrs.

Daris Ormesher Pierre 31 yrs.

Timothy Huffman Kadoka 29 yrs.

Steve Baxter Yankton 44 yrs.

Danny Hook Britton 9 yrs.

Del Marshall Mobridge 30 yrs.

A Farewell to the Folks who Helped Pave the Way

Bryan Parks Transportation Specialist 1 20 yrs.

Brad Horstman Project Technician 30 yrs.

Robert Ward Engineering Manager II 20 yrs.

Kimberly Herrman CAD Technician 20 yrs.

Drew Ruedebusch Survey Crew Chief/Chief Driller 35 yrs.

Paul Knofczynski Engineer IV 30 yrs.

John Villbrandt Exempt Engineer Manager III 30 yrs.

Ryan Johnson Engineer III 20 yrs.

Brian Huber Project Technician 20 yrs.

Steven Weisz Engineer IV 20 yrs.

Douglas Leland Lead HWY Maintenance Worker 20 yrs.

Tracy Fuerst Secretary 20 yrs.

Jay Larson Engineer IV 25 yrs.

2019 Retirees

Longevity

Rick Reichling (left), receives a

plaque honoring his 39+ years with

the department.

Celebrating a New Life

Like many things in life, there comes new beginnings. For some within the South

Dakota DOT, they celebrated a new beginning with the welcoming of a newborn

child, or in a couple of cases, twins! Congratulations to the parents of these future

SDDOT employees!!

Grayden Dean Geigle

Son of Terri Boyle (Finance) & Zach Geigle and grandson

of Susan Geigle (Finance)

DOB: 12/10/2018

8.6 lbs. 21.5 Inches

Aubrey Lynn Miller

Daughter of Nicki (Pierre Re-

gion) & Brandon Miller

DOB: 01/04/2019

7.1 lbs. 21 Inches

Lukas Jeffery Meier

Son of Kyle (Pierre Region

Bridge Crew) & Mallory

Meier

DOB: 04/29/2019

6.14 lbs. 19.75 inches

Pete Longman (Sioux Falls Road Design) is a proud grandpa! Daughter, Brenna, gave birth to

twin girls, Harper Lynn & Brynlee Kennedy

DOB: 05/13/2019

Austin Berry (HMW in Presho) & Rebecca Franks gave birth to twins in April.

Raelynn: 4 lbs. 5 oz. - 17 ¼ in.

Waylon: 4 lbs. 5 oz. - 17 ¾ in.

Edom Mandefrot

Daughter of Yija Madefrot (Sioux

Falls ROW)

DOB: 10/20/2018

7 lbs. 7 oz.

Graydon Border

Son of Michael Border (Engineer,

Sioux Falls)

DOB: 09/20/2018

7 lbs. 10 oz.

Leighton Lynn Pfaff

Daughter of Jared Pfaff

(Engineer, Sioux Falls)

DOB: 09/19/2019

7 lbs. 13 oz.

On September 15, 2018, Lana Lambert and her swimming partner, Steven Salverson, participated in the “Swim to Alligator Light”. In Islamorada, Florida in the Florida Keys This is her story:

“I was on a two-person coed team with my fellow swimming friend, Steven Salverson, from Pierre. The “Swim to Alligator Light” swim is 8 miles. We had to swim out to the Alligator Reef Lighthouse, go around it, and swim back. We took turns swimming; while one swam, the other kayaked nearby with a cooler on top of the kayak with fluids and food for fuel. We rotated every hour for the most part.

For our training for this swim, we swam in the pool during the winter and spring and swam in Lake Oahe this past summer. On Labor Day, Sept. 4, we swam across Lake Oahe and back twice, taking turns every hour with one swimming and one kayaking, for a total of nine miles in 5:58.

Most swimmers were stung by jellyfish, I swam with my goggles just under the surface. I estimate I saw about 3-4 dozen of them but I swam around them carefully so as not to get stung. Steve was stung a lot! A dozen swimmers had to be pulled out by rescue personnel due to getting seasick and dehydrated; but Steve and I managed to not get seasick and stayed well-hydrated with 12 20-ounce bottles of fluids.

We also visited Florida City and took in the Everglades. We saw the entire Keys chain from Key Largo to Key West. We snorkeled in two locations and also went parasailing in Islamorada!

Lana provided several pictures showcasing this amazing experience.

Swimming with Gators!

Lana at the Starting line

for the race.

Lana in Key West, FL

Lana and her partner, Steve, pose

for a picture at the end of the race.

Snorkeling fun

Lana completing one of her legs of the swim

During some down time, going on an air-

boat ride in the Florida Everglades.

Alligator Reef Lighthouse

Alligator seen during the airboat

ride

“In front of Homestead Bayfront Park. We went swimming in the lake pictured behind me. We chose to swim in this little lake so that Steve, my teammate, could practice swimming in salt water (& warm water) before the Alligator Light Swim, as he never done that before but I’d swam in ocean before. We started swimming and suddenly were being nibbled on by fish! At first it was one nibble here, one nibble there, but later on several fish were nibbling non-stop on me. I just started screaming and got out of there as fast as I could! The lifeguards on duty knew I could swim but knew the fish were getting me! They said there are puffer fish, yellowtail, and jack fish with a family of jellyfish in there! I did see a pufferfish in 3 inches of water and a baby turtle.”

“Lizards on top of castle at Coral

Castle in Homestead, FL

(lizards scared me down there when they run around)”