I enjoyed the two speeches of these outgoing councilors last night. Especially Pat’s. Pat could have talked about his policy tenure, and he touched on it bit, but his emotional outreach to his family’s sacrifice was awesome, I encourage you to listen, it was off the cuff, and amazing (FF: 30:00). Also, Pat was the ONLY councilor of all the outgoing folks that didn’t vote for stupid projects (Bunker Ramp and Admin building) and voted against almost EVERY tax increase, including EVERY property tax increase. It is unfortunate that Pat wasn’t utilized more by his colleagues, he has an amazing talent to be compassionate on issues, and I am NOT, so I appreciate that about Pat.

As for Neitzert, he took a different approach, he penned his outgoing speech (FF:17:00) and he sent me a copy (Below). Greg really nailed a lot of things that happened over the past 8 years. I will applaud him on one thing, apologizing to constituents for making bad decisions. It takes a bigger person to do that;

This has been an amazing chapter of my life and I’m so thankful I was given this opportunity. Thank you to the voters of the Northwest district for giving me the honor to serve them for the last 8 years. This experience has made me a better person. I understand better my strengths, and my weaknesses. I’m less judgmental than I used to be, and I know what I don’t know. My goal, my ideal, was and is always to disagree without being disagreeable. I was able to live up to that most of the time. But there were times I fell short, and for that, I’m sorry, particularly to those who I interacted with in those cases. I’m human, and sometimes I let emotion get the best of me. Public service challenges you, makes you better, but it can also highlight your weaknesses, and you must continue to learn from your mistakes. I made some mistakes, but I tried to learn from those experiences. Some of the hardest times I had in the last 8 years were experiences that made me better too. I tried not to take criticism personally. In public service, you have to keep reminding yourself that’s part of the job and continue to fight the urge to close yourself off and put-up walls when you get criticism. We learn the most from those we disagree with. There’s almost always a nugget of wisdom or perspective we can take from everyone. We need to listen, put ourselves in other’s shoes, practice empathy, and challenge our own ideas. I tried to do that as best I could.

One thing you learn very quickly is that one Councilor can do very little on their own. “I” can do almost nothing. “We” can do almost anything. The City Council is best when it is made up of citizens from all walks of life, various income levels, careers, and perspectives. We need diverse life experience, and it is vital that we represent everyone. We must remember there are a lot of people simply struggling to get by, living paycheck to paycheck, living on fixed incomes, in this city. As elected representatives, we need to go out and get input and perspectives from everyone, not just those who run in our own circles. We must get out of our echo chambers, wherever those may be for each of us. We need empathy, and no one can do it better than someone whose been there and walked in the shoes of someone else.

It’s been an amazing 8 years to be on the City Council. We’ve accomplished a lot, and I like to think I was a small part of it. When I started, I hoped to at least leave the city a little better than how I found it, and I think we did that. When I think about our accomplishments, there are a lot of things I could talk about. So often

we focus on what I call the big shiny objects. The events centers, the pools, the big buildings. Those are good, but it’s the less glamorous but vital bread and butter issues that we’ve impacted that I’m most proud of. I’m proud to have been part of the selection committee that chose Via as our new transit provider. For the first time in decades, I really believe we could see a revolution in our transit system. By the end of this year, we are likely going to be serving the entire city with transit and running our fixed routes faster and more frequently. That’s going to change lives. I’m proud that when other cities were defunding and denigrating their police, we defended them, and we invested in them. It was the right thing to do, and its paying great dividends. We respect, support, and admire our first responders, they know it, and we’re proud of it. We tackled tough issues like video lottery, marijuana, and homelessness. There’s still a lot more to do.

Whether you agreed or disagreed with me on an issue, I want you to know I tried my best to make an informed decision, and I always tried to explain how I got there.

For the incoming City Councilors. Thank you for stepping forward. It’s going to be a fun ride. You’re going to meet great people. Know that a lot of people are rooting for you. Do your best, be humble, and be open and transparent. It’s a sacrifice for you and your family. Good people are always stepping forward, and to a person, we are in good hands with the incoming Councilors.

If I may offer a few words of advice to the future City Council. Remember the City Council has immense power, but only if it chooses to use it. And note I said City Council, I didn’t say City Councilor. The Council has power only when it stands united, and uses the power granted to it by Charter. When voting, don’t be afraid to go it alone, or be in the minority when you feel you are right when taking a vote. Some of those are my proudest votes. Don’t vote against your conscience because your afraid someone will take offense or to avoid conflict. You’ll regret it when you do. Don’t be afraid to disagree, just do it respectfully.

Finally, I want to conclude with thank you’s. There are so many people to thank that I cannot possibly name you all, so my apologies in advance.

Thank you again to the people who voted and gave me a chance to serve them. It’s been an honor and I hope I represented you well. Thank you to all of the citizens who challenged me and encouraged me.

Thank you to those who give their time, talents, and treasure to this city. Whether it be the citizens and organizations who donate to make major city projects happen, those who serve on citizen boards for no compensation, or those who work for or serve on a nonprofit providing important services in our city, and everyone else who love our city.

For those who came to public input and testified in front of us. Thank you. It takes a lot of courage to stand in front of a Mayor and 8 City Councilors, particularly to tell us you think we are wrong. You held us accountable. You made us think. Whoever you are, whatever your viewpoint, it is valued. Don’t let elected officials demean you or dismiss you. We need to listen respectfully, whether we agree or not. It’s our job. Freedom of speech means nothing unless you protect the speech you disagree with.

Thank you to the incredibly dedicated city employees, in every department. You do so much important work day in and day out to serve our citizens. The citizens are lucky to have you, you made me look good so many times, where I got the credit, but it was your dedication and hard word that solved the problem. Whatever department you work in, your service is valued and important. I appreciate you.

To the City directors, it is absolutely amazing the talent and integrity we have leading our city departments. I have so much respect for you and your service.

Thank you to our Council staff that served us so well. The City Clerks, for all the work they do. Our budget analyst and legislative manager who help us create and make sense of policy and legislation. Our auditor who ensures our city is accountable. We couldn’t do our jobs without your incredible work.

To my fellow Councilors past and present. Thank you for serving, bringing your perspective, and sacrificing your time and talents. Thank you to your families for their sacrifice and allowing you to do this important job. I learned something unique from each of you. You all serve for the right reasons, and the city is better because you chose to serve.

Mayor Huether and Mayor Ten Haken. Thank you for leading our city. I enjoyed serving with both of you. It’s a job that comes with a lot of scrutiny and personal

sacrifice, and I know it can be hard on not just you but your families. Thank you for your leadership. You both have made your own marks on this city that will endure well beyond your time serving.

Finally, to my wife and daughter. My daughter Olivia was 7 years old, in the first grade, when I started this journey. She went door to door with me. She’s 15 now, about to finish her freshman year at Roosevelt High school. She’s literally grown up the daughter of a City Councilor. She’s been able to see the good, bad, the ugly of public service. I did my best to be there for all of her events and to keep the Council service from impacting the time I had to spend with her. She’s been able to experience some things she never would have been able to had I not been in this position. She knows more about city policy than most her age I bet. It created a lot of teachable moments and good conversations, not just about policy, but about life. You’ve grown into a beautiful, intelligent, and kind young lady. I’m proud of you and I love you.

To my beautiful wife Jen. Thank you for supporting me over the last 8 years. For all the times I said I’d be gone for an hour and I was gone for 4 hours. For all the nights I was at meetings and not at home. For all the help with my campaigns, your graphic design, stuffing and addressing envelopes, and doing whatever needed to be done. For the times you were angry and wanted to defend me when I was attacked. For the time’s I used vacation time for Council stuff instead of taking you on vacation. For helping me make this work. For holding me accountable. For supporting me and encouraging me when it was hard, when I felt defeated, and in some really dark days. For being a great mom. You can’t do this without the full support of your spouse, and you gave it to me every day. I love you, and I’m better because of you.

Thank you all for giving me this opportunity. That concludes my remarks Mr Mayor.

UPDATE: I also can’t help to think that Sanford may be pushing to have a contract with the city to provide our community health. But unlike Avera and the Link, Sanford would want to make some monies.

While at first blush, this may look bad (conflicts between the two government entities) what caught my attention was that they slipped him in ONE day after the current council’s term ended. They really should have been a part of this appointment, but the mayor was probably concerned he wouldn’t be able to get him thru.

Joe does have experience with healthcare at Sanford. I told someone he will LIKELY wait until his father Dan is elected to the County Commission and will likely resign after November, then the Commission, which will consist of his father, can appoint someone. Who says these folks don’t plan ahead? I keep telling peeps, they know how to win, they just can’t lead once they get there.

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General Public Input last night was a thrill (FF to the end) fun watching a chair who is illegally serving.

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Also, I was at Carnegie after lunch doing some research on executive orders and the new councilors were having ‘school’ in the chambers. So cute. Don’t worry if you screw up in your first couple of meetings, nobody is paying attention.

UPDATE: The city is following state law, 9-13-28, but as one councilor said to me, apparently we haven’t been following state law for years. I am also under the impression that the city doesn’t always have to follow state law, because of our charter. It Would be an interesting research project.

So if you are going to miss the 4 councilors that are moving on, tomorrow night is the last time to see them in action. For some bizarre reason, the city is claiming they need to inaugurate the new councilors on Friday before the first meeting on Tuesday. This is weird for a lot of reasons, normally the new councilors get sworn in on the Tuesday they have their first meeting. The excuse that is being thrown around is something to do with state law . . . pulled directly from a Fiddle-Faddle box.

In Tuesday’s council meeting there are a few items of interest.

Item #28, The motion will approve an agreement with Woods Fuller to accomplish the following: (a) identify the nature and scope of the problems causing the crises, (b) formulate options for potential regulatory and programmatic solutions, and (c) partner with local businesses and community members to implement the best options.

(This is no surprise because the two sponsoring this helped dismantle the internal audit department and job it out, now they are jobbing out policy creation to a private law firm and taking around $75K from taxpayers to do it. I find this ironic considering they NEEDED to hire another staffer to help them. You don’t job out policy, you come up with the ideas, you turn them over to staff to massage and after that you send to the attorney’s office to verify it’s legality. The whole point of being a councilor is to write and establish policy. This is why I asked the council to hire an internal city council attorney instead of a executive assistant. That, and if the state would take all the childcare benefits from the Feds, we would be doing a lot better. I don’t think it is the duty of the CITY to fix this problem, this is something the state and Feds need to work onto together.)

Item # 25, RESOLUTION ADVISING AND GIVING CONSENT TO THE APPOINTMENT OF MEMBERS TO VARIOUS CITIZEN BOARDS.

Justin G. Smith

• Shareholder at Woods, Fuller, Shultz and Smith.
• Juris Doctor
• My family has enjoyed making lifetime memories with facilities and services run by
  the Parks and Recreation Board.

Justin chaired the Charter Revision Commission and just left last year, now he is moving to the parks board. While you have all types on the board, and lawyers have served in the past, I think Justin’s appointment has more to do with pushing thru the future bonds that Poops kicked down the road. The irony of all this is that Justin just served on a distinguished city board, so to pick him this quickly to serve on another board is strange. Also, as I have said, there are over 200K people living here, so why are we always appointing the same people to these boards? I think it is time to start picking board members based on districts.

Who says we need a new convention center to bring in the good stuff!

Be sure to watch the ENTIRE video, they go into the Confidence Convention towards the end. I also find it funny for a couple of reasons, 1) All the middle age men in Sioux Falls taking ‘T’ treatments. I tell guys not to do it, unless you want to be angry and moody all the time. 2) I wondered how they came up with the joke, I assumed they were googling Noem and they came across some articles about Sioux Falls and the Riverline District and how we need better conventions.