As daughter sought state license, Noem summoned agency head
Source: ap
By STEPHEN GROVES today
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Just days after a South Dakota agency moved to deny her daughter’s application to become a certified real estate appraiser, Gov. Kristi Noem summoned to her office the state employee who ran the agency, the woman’s direct supervisor and the state labor secretary.
Noem’s daughter attended too.
Kassidy Peters, then 26, ultimately obtained the certification in November 2020, four months after the meeting at her mother’s office. A week after that, the labor secretary called the agency head, Sherry Bren, to demand her retirement, according to an age discrimination complaint Bren filed against the department. Bren, 70, ultimately left her job this past March after the state paid her $200,000 to withdraw the complaint.
Exactly what transpired at the July 27, 2020, meeting in the governor’s office isn’t clear. Noem declined an interview request and her office declined to answer detailed questions about the meeting. ............................
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-discrimination-kristi-noem-south-dakota-age-discrimination-7942a78d5545205dff41a696ef9fc251
I hope Gov Noem--Trumps pal is in a heap of trouble!!!!
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FILE — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the Family Leadership Summit in this July 16, 2021, file photo in Des Moines, Iowa. Ethics officials are questioning whether Noem had a conflict of interest by meeting with her daughter and top state officials last year in the governor's office while her daughter was pursuing a real estate certification. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, file)
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...................Noem’s communications director, Ian Fury, cast the story as politically motivated and accused the news outlet of attacking the governor’s daughter.
“The Associated Press is disparaging the Governor’s daughter in order to attack the Governor politically — no wonder Americans’ trust in the media is at an all-time low,” Fury said in a statement.
Fury also argued that having more certified appraisers is inherently good because it “will help keep our housing market moving and home prices down.”
“South Dakota is open for business,” he said. “We won’t allow bureaucratic red tape to get in the way of South Dakota’s sustained economic growth.”
Noem also took to Twitter to accuse the media of “trying to destroy” her children.
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@funder
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42m
Replying to
@KristiNoem
1st-This is about you and your corruption, Noem.
2nd-Your daughter is 27, stop depicting her as a helpless kid.
3rd-You have no one to blame but yourself. If you didn’t abuse your power, you wouldn’t have put your daughter in this position.
This is completely your fault. Own it.
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