David Chicoine

South Dakota state Senate Bill No. 111 was generic in nature, designed "to prohibit certain outside employment and compensation by presidents of state institutions of higher education."

Its focus, however, came down on one man: South Dakota State University President David Chicoine, who accepted a post on the Monsanto board of directors.

But for now the whole business is moot.

By a 9-0 vote of the Senate State Affairs Committee on Wednesday afternoon, the bill was deferred to the nonexistent 41st legislative day, in effect sounding the bill's death knell.

Pat Trask, of Trask Family Seeds, Elm Springs, and an SDSU alumnus, was alloted 10 minutes and spoke in favor of the bill. He did opine that Chicoine has a conflict of interest in serving on the Monsanto board.

Big bucks were at stake in this bill. Chicoine's $323,000 SDSU salary will now continue to be bolstered by an annual Monsanto benefits package of $195,000 a year add to that a sort of superstar signing-bonus of $195,000 that he collected as a rookie board member in 2009.

Trask has a history of doing battle with the agricultural products giant, noting on a past occasion, "It's the desire of Monsanto to pursue global control and total control over the American alfalfa seed industry."

In his Wednesday testimony, he paraphrased Matthew 6:24: "You can't serve two masters."

Sen. Frank Kloucek, DScotland , who championed the bill, said he would not have brought it forward "if the money would have went to a professor for a research project; " t h e M o n s a n t o C o u g h l i n A l u m n i Stadium; " went for a n y t h i n g else but to the president of the university,

would not have seen Senator Kloucek up here today." 'Special contributions'

Jack Warner, executive director of the Board of Regents, opposed the bill. Noting that the regents already have a conflict-of-interest policy in place, he added, "These kinds of connections are not only permitted in other states but valued."

Continuing, he added, "Consider the statement that we would make as a state: that we do not value the expertise and important contributions our presidents can offer in national and international circles.

"This would be a serious barrier to our recruitment of future presidents and retaining our existing presidents."

Sen. Gene Abdallah, R-Sioux Falls, saw the issue as one for the regents to deal with "if there was a conflict of interest, and I don't know if there is or isn't ."

He added, "We have a Board of Regents; we have a president. Let them (the board) figure out their problems. And if they don't , then we'll do something about it."

A pair of Senate bills tied to SB 111 and also introduced by Kloucek got bounced to Day 41: SB 112, designed "to regulate compensation for certain outside activities by certain outside activities by certain state officers and employees" also was deferred by a 9-0 vote; SB 113, which would have required "the Board of Regents to formulate and promulgate a regental policy on outside employment by institutional officers and employees," drew a 6-3 vote to defer.

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com