South DaCola – Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

1st Amendment Brandon Minnehaha County SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Data Center will get approved tonight

l3wis January 6, 2026 9Comments

UPDATE: HOLY SH!TTTTT!!!!! So the council votes for the rezone, BUT denies the development plan. Then at the end of the meeting they did a reconsideration then approved the plan. Cowards. I have never seen a council pull such a chickensh!t move ever. I have been watching these since Hanson.

I told the council tonight during public input that if they pass this, that they just don’t care. And they proved me right, 7-0 (Barranco was absent, SMART MAN!) They all got in line and voted on a rezone that they fast tracked this summer under the radar. And I loved that part, because I suckered the dipsh!ts into admitting what they did. During my input I told them that the vote was ILLEGAL because of the fast tracked annexation and that the people who live in that part of the county are NOT represented by them. Well that ruffled their feathers so they started throwing legal questions at Fiddle (I was giggling at home) after public input trying to justify the legality (I knew it was legal, I just wanted to hear the excuses). So during their GOTCHA period they had to admit they fast tracked this. Morons. They can’t even cover their tracks. As for a petition drive, a few people approached me tonight that they plan on doing one. So that is good. I also brought up during my testimony that our TV media in Sioux Falls is WORTHLESS because they waited until the day of the 2nd reading to do a story about this. The crowd was laughing. But I was serious. They suck and they are in the bag with city government, it is disgusting. But after the vote, the real fireworks happened, and I figured it would. As folks were walking out they called the council about every name in the book, and not the good book. Damn, I thot I was watching Chapelle. LOL. I also found it funny that when the council was justifying their votes they only talked about the tax revenue and not one single one of them brought up our rates going up. They also justified it because there are other data centers in Sioux Falls. REALLY?!? Yeah, those are clerical, NOT AI, big diffo. But hey, they almost saved the day by denying the preliminary plan, 4-3, then bringing it back and voting for it. You were almost ready to govern, maybe in a few months;

One last rant about the night, man I could do play by play with Lalley and have a blast about this meeting, this one is going down in the history books and please Cameraman Bruce, throw this one on YouTube. Anyhoo, before public input on the Data Center, Paul told people they had to say the name of the town they are from. No they do not, it is a violation of your 1st Amendment rights. He is clueless. Paul actually got his ass handed to him tonight from the public for once. Thank You. I think I’m going to do a best of clip, especially the part where he gavels clappers. Good stuff. Or when the very nice mom told Paul to check his quote with Kelo. LOL.

It was nice to see so many people show up last night and make relevant points. They got to see our ineffective city council and mayor at work(?). And what is up with Paul’s obsession with knowing who is dissenting him? It’s weird, it’s like he is stalking us. Can an entire city put a restraining order on him? LOL. Remember last year he admitted in a podcast that he looks at people’s FB profile if they make a negative comment on his page. Yeah, he’s that guy. Metro-Yeti Karen. Before last night I told folks I have lost all hope with this current council and mayor, they are living in la la land. I knew the lack of transparency in the city would eventually collapse in on itself and that happened last night, and notice, I didn’t see a single TV camera there, shocker. But at least they covered the other weasels giving themselves a ridiculous raise during this horrific economy. I hope our tone deaf Charter Revision Commission puts a similar raise proposal on the ballot for council and mayor so I can watch it fail by 80% of the vote, but these clowns still won’t get it, they’ll try again next year.

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This is just the re-zone. The company will have to have final plans approved by the planning commission and city council. As I have told advocacy groups and individuals, this is getting approved and the only way to stop this is with a petition drive, but I still question the legal authority of the Sioux Falls city council to pass this. This is NOT within city limits. In other words, the folks that live in this district (likely a township and NOT residents of Brandon or Sioux Falls) will have officials NOT elected by them making decisions about land use. It would be like the township board voting on a gas station re-zone within the northern most city limits of Sioux Falls. Not their jurisdiction, just like this is NOT. It is called the joint-jurisdiction area that still needs to be annexed in Sioux Falls. Until that annexation happens, the county and the township should have the final authority on this re-zone. I think there could be legal challenges to this as well as a petition drive. I know it would be complicated, but I think the petition drive could reflect a special election within the township this rezone resides. Probably only need 100 valid sigs.

WE WILL SEE ON WEDNESDAY MORNING

I’ll be waiting for all of these ‘supposed’ advocacy groups to present their petition Wednesday morning, but I am not holding my breath. I think they continue to beat their heads against the wall for job security reasons.

I think the thing that bothers me the most besides all the shady legal authority surrounding this rezone is our water and energy costs going up and our elected officials don’t seem to care. It is pretty sad.

1st Amendment Elections Greg Jamison Sioux Falls

Big Announcement

l3wis January 5, 2026 2Comments

Greg will be announcing his candidacy for Mayor on Wednesday Evening

1st Amendment Media Sioux Falls

So that took awhile

l3wis January 5, 2026 2Comments

I let the cat out of the bag in December that Gage had sold, but I knew about the sale months in advance and was waiting to see if the local media would report on it. SF Bizzo was the first to report on the sale (which I am assuming she was PAID to print the article). My suspicions were correct;

The acquisition of Gage’s assets came amid significant financial challenges for the company. Gage became employee-owned when its ESOP was formed in 2007, and the value of that ESOP had dropped to 1.5 cents per share, which went to zero after necessary administrative and professional expenses were paid, according to a letter sent to shareholders.

It communicated that Gage “has navigated significant financial challenges” over the past several years, including “persistent cash-flow constraints, the general slowdown across the construction industry and the company’s broader financial trajectory,” which ultimately required pursuing an investor “to ensure the long-term stability of the business and protect the interests of its shareholders.”

The letter continued: “We know this is not the outcome anyone hoped for and sincerely regret the impact this has on you.”

The Gage real estate in northeast Sioux Falls was owned separately. Part of it was purchased in November for $14.4 million, according to Minnehaha County records, though it’s not clear what that includes. The property includes a highly automated 200,000-square-foot production facility that opened in 2019 at an estimated cost of $40 million and a two-story office building.

So why hasn’t the media touched this? Well, there is the obvious screw job to employees there is also the involvement of cemetery fraud). I found it funny that the company that BOUGHT* them was the one to pay a news service to break the story, this tells me the heat in the kitchen hasn’t been good.

*Talk about a misleading headline;

Gage Brothers becomes part of Minnesota-based concrete company

If I sell my house to another family, I don’t get to move back into the house I just sold them and become a PART of their family. The business SOLD to a competitor because they were facing bankruptcy, this isn’t a partnership.

UPDATE: Stormland is also reporting on it, after what appears to be a press release sent to the media. The the new owners are giving former Gage employees who stayed on with Molin a ESOP option with their company, but I am assuming those investments will start from scratch because if you were to bring in hundreds of employees in it would reduce the value of the ESOP stock for current Molin employees.

1st Amendment Developers Development Downtown Sioux Falls Elections Sioux Falls TIFs

One Great City!

l3wis January 3, 2026 9Comments

I LOVE this song;

I just replace ‘Winnipeg’ with ‘Sioux Falls’ and it makes soooo much sense. The last line in the song nails it;

And up above us all, leaning into sky
A golden business boy will watch the North End die
And sing I love this town
Then let his arcing wrecking ball proclaim

I hate Winnipeg (Sioux Falls)

So a foot soldier who actually reads regional news sent me this article about TIFs. Talking points are always the same and I encourage you to read the entire piece;

Politically, TIF is seductive. It allows elected officials to claim they are “doing something” about development without raising taxes today. The costs are deferred, opaque and spread across future taxpayers. But the long-term consequences are real: higher property taxes, underfunded schools, distorted development patterns and growing dependence on subsidies for projects that should stand on their own.

Pretty common sense stuff. Right? And the folks who wrote this article are not a couple of jokesters;

Julie Risser is an Edina City Council member. She previously served on Edina’s Planning Commission and Energy and Environment Commission. David Schultz is Hamline University Distinguished Professor of Political Science. Previously he served as a city director of planning, zoning and code enforcement and also as a housing and economic planner.

I have read hundreds of articles over the past decade about the destructive nature of TIF’s and have never understood why local governments get sucked in, besides the fact they are getting their personal palms greased, but I have never heard the word ‘SEDUCTIVE’ used. It makes SOOO much sense now. Not only are our national politics ruled by money and power (The taxpayers of this country just paid for a military operation to take the oil resources of an independent nation, wrap your F’ing head around that!!!) but now our local politics are now too. I think the upcoming city election is an opportunity for citizens to stand up this money machine and elect folks who won’t tolerate it any more. Don’t be ‘seduced’ by snake oil salespeople.

MY HOPES FOR THE NEXT ADMINISTRATION (Mayoral)

Somebody asked me last night what would be my ideal outcome of the next city election, and I gave a longer answer then I expected;

Greg Jamison as mayor, Christine Erickson as Public Information Officer, Joe Batcheller as his Planning Director and Jamie Smith as his Housing and Community Development director AND I would hire a trained monkey to be the city attorney. Notice I said ‘trained’.

1st Amendment Development Downtown Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce

What did I tell you about the ‘Rich Party’? (H/T-MZ)

l3wis January 2, 2026 0Comments

So check this out;

Isn’t it interesting the city is cutting funding to several struggling NGO’s in Sioux Falls but not the Development Foundation, even after receiving $15 million from the state just 2 years ago they magically still got around $500K from the taxpayers of Sioux Falls this year. Disgusting. Oh and the over $100 million in TIFs and other tax rebates.

I can guarantee you the reason funding was cut from the MCC was because DHS and the Feds threatened ALL Federal Funding to the city if they didn’t cut immigration services funding to orgs like LSS. This has nothing to do with making ‘tough choices’ this is just blatant racism from Sally and his cohorts and the city could have lost millions in Federal grants for infrastructure projects. Will the city ever tell us this? Highly unlikely.

I’m telling you, the RICH PARTY in Sioux Falls stays on TOP because they control the money and they take the money.

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