City attorney calls it quits after 42 years of service
by George Thompson
Until he stepped down last month after 42 years as city attorney, Lonnie Vander Linden was and is the longest running city employee Webster has ever had.
In his four plus decades of public service, Vander Linden has seen a lot of changes and says his job wasn’t that difficult because of the good people he worked with.
Vander Linden took over the city attorney’s job from law partner Jim Delaney after being appointed in 1969 by then mayor Don Thompson.
“Jim asked me to take over for him so he could concentrate on the states attorney job,” explained Lonnie, who said at the time Delaney had had several years as city attorney practice under his belt.
“I later became a deputy states attorney and eventually was the states attorney for 17 or 18 years. One of the first things I had to do was familiarize myself with the town’s ordinances.”
Along the way Vander Linden also represented the towns of Conde, Ortley, Roslyn, Waubay, Bristol and Langford. He also served as Lake Region Electric’s counselor for nearly four decades.
“I’ve been here for 12 years and I can say Lonnie is well respected, has the experience as a professional legal advisor, is a close personal friend of mine and our board of directors. We hated to see him go,” commented Lake Region Electric Association manager Tim Reilley.
“One thing I’ve always insisted on is that town boards follow the law and give notice even when they didn’t have to,” he said. “The citizens should know what’s going on – there should be no secrets in city government.”
Vander Linden said he made sure executive sessions, whether they were held in Webster or any of the other towns “were limited to employee matters or legal issues.”
Vander Linden served under four different Webster mayors – Thompson, Berdell Cavanaugh, Lavern “Baldy” Batie and Mike Grosek.
“I think everyone of those mayors was interested in the welfare of all of the citizens, not just a special group of people,” he said. “I usually went to all of the Webster meetings because it was important for me to know what was going on and hear complaints and advise the council immediately if I could.”
“He has been city attorney for the last 42 years and I’ve been associated with him for 34 of those years,” said mayor Mike Grosek. “Lonnie has always had the city’s interest at heart. He uses a common sense approach and has a lot of integrity. He didn’t miss many meetings over that time, and if he did, it was usually because of family matters. Lonnie has always watched out for the citizens of Webster.”
Vander Linden, besides being the town’s “legal eagle” was one of its biggest boosters. “I always tried to promote Webster whenever I could. The town made considerable improvements over my time in office,” he said. “During the last 40 years Webster and the surrounding area have really benefitted with things like the airport, the industrial park, the golf course and our biggest asset, the hospital and Heritage Village.”
Vander Linden said his job was to advise each mayor on legal and financial matters surrounding each project and “any other issues that came up.”
He said sewer and water improvements were probably the most critical investments the town made in itself. “What can you do without sewer and water?” he asked. “My job was to make sure the city followed state and federal mandates and to see that every mayor knew what needed to be done.”
Annexation was another critical although time consuming issue. “We always had complaints with annexation,” he said. “People want the benefits associated with it, but not the taxes.”
Another on-going problem was animal control. “No matter what town it was, the biggest complaint was about dogs,” he said. “People want to own dogs but some of them don’t want to deal with the responsibilities that go with owning them. It’s always difficult to live with unsupervised dogs.”
“We always tried to do the best we could in developing and enforcing local and state ordinances,” he said. “It’s not a perfect system and it never will be.”
Vander Linden says the days of small town, general practice law are waning. “I was a lawyer who knew a little about a lot. These days everything is concentrating into specialized work. A lot of the litigation is now done by insurance company lawyers.”
It seems to me that the people who serve on boards are better educated in the law now and more sophisticated. A lot of that has to do with seminars and computer technology. When I started out a small town lawyer tried to do everything for everybody.”
Vander Linden said much of Webster’s and the area‘s success has to do with good leaders and employees.
“All of the mayors I worked for have looked out for the public. Mike Grosek has the best sense of humor. He’s sharp, does his homework and has got a real knack for calming down people with complaints. He is an outstanding mayor.”
A native of Webster, Vander Linden graduated from WHS in 1956. He is a 1960 graduate of USD and a 1967 graduate of the USD law school.
Lonnie served as an officer in the Marine Corps, Army Reserve and South Dakota National Guard. He’s been a member and an officer in many civic groups. He and his wife Donna have three children – daughter Jill (Hossley), and sons Todd and Chris as well as five grandchildren.
