South DaCola – Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

1st Amendment Code Enforcement SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

UPDATE: Sioux Falls City Council Operations Committee recommends changes without a public meeting

l3wis August 12, 2025 4Comments

UPDATE: Item #14, I guess we figured out why the city hasn’t continued demolishing the MX Liquor property, looks like he owes some money;

This is silly, put a lien on the property if he doesn’t pay for demolition and when the property sells the city will get it’s money. That property is in an Opportunity ZONE and they could easily get over $1 million for it. It is prime property for apartments and with it being a OZ a developer could get gobs of Federal Tax breaks for building it. I would encourage the current owner to look for a buyer or find a developer and lease the property. The city can still demo the remaining properties even if he won’t pay right away, we will get the money on the back end, and they know it. Ironically, they gave $500K to demolish a couple of blocks for a religious non-profit that lied thru their teeth to get it done. I would suggest going after that money before we worry about a slumlord who simply refuses to pay (he has the money).

Item #23, While the Operations Committee meets on occasion (they meet tomorrow to talk about a separate issue) they are making changes to the operations manual without addressing it in a public meeting. One of the many changes is letting the Mayor appoint certain board members and employees without the consent of the council. Not sure why they are ceding more power to the mayor’s office, but it explains why they didn’t announce it to the public in a meeting before the council meeting.

Item #10, They are moving forward with 2nd reading of the ball field in Harrisburg sponsorship without a dollar amount attached to the sponsorship. I have asked several councilors and other involved ‘How much is the sponsorship?’ No answer. While I get that they may not have all the bids in to determine how much the upgrades will be, they CAN put a cap or a minimum on the sponsorship without having the actual costs. This is NOT being done. This is the first time I have seen a park sponsorship with NO DOLLAR amount of that sponsorship included. Tells me the sponsor is only paying for a sign and that’s about it, if NOT, prove me wrong, and give us a dollar amount at the 2nd reading. Not sure why this is so top secret?

Item #11, The city council is moving forward with the campground ordinance, not sure if it will pass, but I am sure they have at least 4 votes and the mayor’s tie to pass this. Once again the council is giving in to the SFPD instead of creating ordinances that require them to do their job. Just because someone is the Police Chief, appointed by the mayor, doesn’t mean they have all the solutions in solving homelessness and the council should take lightly any advice he may give in solving this problem. The council needs to implement policy (their only job) that forces the SFPD to fix this issue. If they don’t want to follow the new ordinances, show them the door.

Item #12, Oh, the irony of this funding;

This ordinance is to supplement for $8 million to procure motor graders (currently leasing) and $1.8 million in network technology equipment to build out the data center to ensure a reliable and redundant network.

So in order to save a couple million on snow removal we have to spend almost $10 million to take over the service. I sometimes wonder if the peeps making these decisions are mentally challenged. You will see snow removal becoming less effective and a lot slower, if at all. In order for drivers that work for the city’s public works department to plow streets they will have to work a lot of double shifts and overtime, and if we get a big storm, it will be virtually impossible for them to keep up or complete the job in a timely manner. It’s going to be a bad winter for snow removal because of this change, but not sure how it could get worse. Remember the current snow plow chief had over a 100 car accidents in one day because he had his de-icing crew on pothole duty while it was raining ice. Should have been fired due to the millions in insurance claims and damage that was incurred on this day last winter.

MX Liquor Property; This isn’t on the agenda because the city is being very secretive about it. I have asked people in public works, the city attorney’s office and the entire city council, ‘When will the remainder be demolished?’ The deadlines have passed and the properties look even worse then when this process started. So did the city drop the ball on this? Why are the properties still standing? When the next mayor is installed, and if those houses are still standing, I will approach them on day two of their job and get them to finish the job. I can’t believe it took 20 years and 3 different mayor’s to get this done, and the mayor doesn’t want to lay off any city employees because they are so valuable. LMFAO!

1st Amendment Downtown Sioux Falls Phillips to the Falls Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec Uncategorized

How is the Low Head Dam replacement coming along?

l3wis August 12, 2025 2Comments

A few months back Cameraman Bruce (Danielson) and I were talking about all the missing information to the public about how the dam got approved and what process was happening to make this happen. In an ideal society that has a local government that is TRANSPARENT we would have had all that information, but not in Sioux Falls. So Bruce had the brilliant idea to do a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request from the Corp of Engineers for the project. While it took several months and 2.2 GB of information, the CORPS granted Mr. Danielson’s request. I have been sorting thru the materials for over a month and finally have them to where I can start posting about the process. There was many twists in turns in the process, including changing the direction of the design, water contamination, a refusal from the SD Historical Society (State Agency) and much more. While most of the materials are redacted of personal names, it is easy to determine who the contractors are, who the city employees are and who the CORPS are. The irony is any email or correspondence coming from the CORPS is extremely professional and detailed, city employees and especially the independent contractors NOT SO MUCH. It seemed they didn’t want to get the CORPS involved unless they ran into an issue. Which is odd since the CORPS won’t officially approve the project until it is finished, and that may not be until the end of next summer since after the dam construction is finished they have to create wetlands around the area to preserve the area AS IS.

What I have found fascinating is the city seems to be doing this by the seat of their pants and crossing their fingers it will work, which I believe has put the project over budget by at least $1 Million because of the poor planning and lack of concerted coordination with the CORPS. This city will never learn, when you do things in the OPEN you save the taxpayers money and it makes the process smoother. If they would have also made the process more open and brought the public along, there may have been members in our community who wanted to weigh in with ideas. I have often argued our city is full of smart folks who understand this stuff, if we would just ASK them. It reminds of the process when a group of citizens decided to tackle sustainability in Sux and all of the efforts and work turned into toilet paper Poops used to wipe his tight ass. We have experts in Sux, but instead we use leaders who are more concerned about selfies and jumping jacks then expert advice.

I hope to put up the materials by week’s end, it’s going to be a whopper of a post.

1st Amendment Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

More issues with the POORLY PLANNED bike trail upgrades

l3wis August 11, 2025 3Comments

As if the screaming contractors and idiotic detours, signage and blockades aren’t enough, we now have to deal with an inferior resurfacing, that is actually extremely dangerous and causing accidents.

As I pointed out recently they have been doing upgrades to the bike trail this summer. Some of it has been totally resurfaced (which is the best way to go) but in a effort to SAVE money they are not resurfacing it all (a resurface is actually pouring a few inches of NEW asphalt over the current trail).

On a stretch out to Family Park and various other spots on the trail they just filled the cracks (with a sealant instead of actually filling the cracks with asphalt) All the sealant does is make a crack twice as bumpy, because the original crack still exists because the sealant just settles into the crack, then it creates two new bumps with the dried sealant on either side of the crack, then they just put a black oil over the top (lipstick on a pig) essentially just painting over the cracks and sealing the bumps. It is dumb on many levels, including creating more bumps and sealing those bumps with oil, but what makes it worse is that it makes the bike trail extremely slick (oil is a petroleum based product, oil and water don’t mix). If it is wet after a rain, or if there is extreme humidity or spotty ice patches it turns the trail into an ice skating rink. I have almost wiped out a few times and have learned that you should take corners slow on this oil surfacing or you WILL wreck.

Last week after a brief afternoon rain I took the trail to commute to work. There is this hairy corner under the interstate by Rotary Park that I always take slow, even in dry conditions because of the poor visibility, the incline and the slippery trail. Not everyone gets it. As I was navigating the corner I noticed it was very slick so I was going pretty slow. Off the side of the trail I saw someone had wiped out on a regular road bike (non-electric). I actually knew the person. He slipped taking the corner and ended up in the trees with scratches on his face, hands, arms and knees and covered in mud. I asked if he was ok, and he was, but pretty scratched up. I told him that black oil is just like snot to ride on when wet or humid and you have to watch yourself. He is lucky he didn’t run into a tree and cause more injury to himself. He is a DTSF business owner, so I told him to complain to the parks department about the hazard, I think he will. Just another example of poor planning. You didn’t fix a damn thing and you actually made it worse.

As for the resurfacing (the best way to go) they need to put in a rough aggregate into the asphalt so the trail isn’t so slick after a rain instead of straight oil. Who was the genius engineer with the city that came up with this? They need to be fired.

1st Amendment Mayor TenHaken Property Taxes Sioux Falls South Dakotans State Funding State Legislature Taxes

Sales taxes are regressive, and any effort to raise them will be met with massive opposition

l3wis August 11, 2025 1Comments

I see Jodi is now becoming the Mayor’s cheerleader in trying to raise our sales taxes;

At the same time, before offering any incentive like that, we need to consider raising sales tax across the board if we’re going to continue to emphasize reducing property tax.

In the city of Sioux Falls alone, one penny of sales tax can generate almost $100 million each year. An option to capture that revenue, while at the same time pairing a sales tax holiday to provide relief during the year, seems worth exploring.

Our average of 6.11 percent, coming in at No. 36, is quite low, especially when you consider there’s no personal or corporate income tax to help fund government services.

She thinly veiled her support for a sales tax increase with a story about sales tax holidays. How about we put South Dakotans on a permanent sales tax holiday and implement an income tax. I did the math, and if you set it with certain income levels, 60% or more of South Dakotans wouldn’t pay a penny in income taxes. I have argued if we implemented a income tax on households and private business who make over $100K a year (with exemptions for children) and increased the assessments on commercial and ag properties for property taxes, we would have oodles of money for programs while eliminating the sales tax almost entirely. I would keep sales taxes on luxury items and items over a certain dollar value. Sales taxes on anything we need like medical, energy, food, clothing, etc., would be eliminated. Making poor people pay more in taxes so property owners can get a tax cut makes no sense and is defeating the purpose. I support a property tax cut, but other changes have to be implemented for it to work, and we don’t need to increase taxes on things we need, the government needs to budget differently and we need to go after the tax dollars where they are; RICH PEOPLE. But since they control this town and legislature it will never happen.

1st Amendment Media Sioux Falls

The Libertarian Media Hypocrisy

l3wis August 8, 2025 1Comments

Well, you know how it goes, when you can’t tough it out in the real world, you suck on the government teet. The Skab has been successful in scooping up public notice revenue all over the region because of a moronic law in Pierre that requires local governments to PAY a local publisher YOUR TAX DOLLARS to print public notices.

I know, as someone who is all about transparency, I’m not sure I am benefitting from this unless I have a magnifying glass to read the 4 PT type. I have argued several times you would save the taxpayers millions in this state if we just required to have the documents online, available for print outs at local libraries, city halls, police stations, etc. instead wasting ink and newsprint. This isn’t a Skab issue, it is an issue across the state.

What ever happened to the media being supported by subscriptions and advertising, and GOOD truthful non-partisan news? People would pay for that. I also laugh about the supposed libertarian slant of the Skab while they have their hands in the cookie jar all the while complaining about Noem’s misuse of state funds. We get to see misuse every time we see your rag. And what about more ‘regional’ coverage? And the weekly ‘Where’s Jon Hansen’ column doesn’t count.

I have noticed that since they started printing the notices, the paper has become much thicker, but the NEWS(?) content has become much smaller. Must be spending a lot of time finding ways to spend our money.

But hey, I don’t blame the Skab for this cashflow, everyone has their ‘NUT’, I blame the unethical Sioux Falls City Council for setting the precedent after every single one of them voted for this after receiving campaign funds and advice from one of the Skab’s investors, King Paulson. One of the most corrupt, unethical, quid pro quo votes I have ever seen. Never once did they question the investor, they just marched forward and purposely hid it from the public. Then they wonder why the public screams at them at public input. Your inactions speak louder then words.

I know at least one legislator has tried to revise this law, Greg Jamison, but it is always met with massive opposition from the newspaper association. I have argued in the past, if your news content and advertising is good you should be able to support yourself, why do you think I only make $600 a year do the math.

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