After the State of South Dakota switched to a new computer system last week, thousands of South Dakotans have been waiting hours in long lines at county treasurer's offices across the state.

Things are no different in Minnehaha County. On Thursday, Governor Mike Rounds held a closed conference call with Minnehaha County officials. Rounds was unavailable for an interview after the private meeting, but his office sent this written statement to KSFY:

"How did the meeting go? The meeting went very well. I appreciate the strong interest in a cooperative effort expressed by County Commissioners Carol Twedt and Jeff Barth as well as their administrative assistant Ken McFarland. As our team continues to improve the performance of the new system, we will also continue to work with each county to assist them in learning and operating the system as effectively as possible and as soon as possible. We also pledged to keep an employee of the DMV on site at the Minnehaha County Administration building to assist for as long as it takes. Working together is the best way to get through this transition.

"Timeline? As soon as possible. I've directed the DMV and BIT to work day and night, seven days a week until the glitches are worked out and the system performs at acceptable levels for everyone involved. Goal one, is to get the  entire  system working properly and all of the functionality up and running.  We're getting closer to that point every day. In fact, most of the issues that were causing problems early on, have been fixed and the system will continue to improve. Once we're at that level  of proper operation, the main objective is working out other bugs to make sure the system runs as quickly as possible.

"What about going back to the old system while the new one is fixed? This is not an option. The new system has only been on-line for seven full business days. That's too short of a time span to consider dumping a process that hasn't had the proper time to get fixed. Many county treasurers across the state have told us they don't like that option either. They believe the long-term benefits of this modern system outweigh some  short-term inconvenience. The majority of treasurers are helping us take the necessary steps to make sure the program works, and to make sure our tax-payers get a level of service they deserve.

"We'd like to take this opportunity to apologize for the inconveniences that our citizens have experienced. We continue to ask for their patience, and ask for those who don't have to come in right away, to give the staff the proper time to learn the system and for our programmers time to work out any remaining bugs."

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