South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Park

Scope: Concession Strategy Definition, Concession Policy Development

Issue: In support of their concession program, South Dakota Department of Game Fish and Parks (SDDGFP) required development of a new concession statute, policy, and standard contract language to support their concession program.

Process/Outcome: SDDGFP’s existing statutes and policy had not been updated in over ten years and did not reflect current industry best practices. The CHMGS team undertook a three-phase analysis to support this effort. First, CHMGS benchmarked SDGFP’s existing concession statute against federal concession examples (e.g. NPS and USFS) and other state park statutes. Our analysis identified gaps in areas that required refinement based upon the profile of SDDGFP assets. Based on the outcome of this benchmarking and gap analysis, CHMGS developed new statutory language for SDDGFP consideration SDDGFP program and legal division staff reviewed the draft language to assess both operational and legal sufficiency. CHMGS professionals supported the SDDGFP team in presenting the revised draft language to concession stakeholders and the public during a series of public meetings. CHMGS assisted SDDGFP in updating and refining the statue language for approval by the SDDGFP legislature. Finally, based upon the statue work, CHMGS supported the SDDGFP in updating its policies and standard contract language.