You cannot defend opinions;

Some have been upset with Sneve in the last few weeks, because some readers chose to believe one side that he presented, while totally ignoring the other side he also presented. That is the choice of the reader and a reporter cannot control what each reader will decide or read into a story.

11 Thoughts on “Councilor Neitzert defends the 4th Estate

  1. Warren Phear on December 10, 2016 at 4:21 pm said:

    I think what he is referring to here is the story Joe did on the snofox awuatics center. First mmm threw Joe under the bus, then mmm’s press secretary (belfrage) did the same. Ellis, Sneve, and Whitney have stepped it up in my opinion, and serve the fourth estate well.

  2. Theresa stehly on December 10, 2016 at 5:01 pm said:

    I commend Councilor Greg for his courage to step up and speak out in his letter to the editor . The Argus has been doing a great job of reporting the issues coming out of City Hall and the efforts being made by the Council to represent the best interests of the citizens.

    We depend on the media to keep our elected officials on their toes and to shine the light of transparency on all aspects of City and State government.

    We are all working together to make Sioux Falls a wonderful place for ALL citizens to live.

  3. Right Theresa wear was he toback you on the vote of the 6500

  4. The D@ily Spin on December 11, 2016 at 10:50 am said:

    Moses is right. I’ve lost respect for Nietzert. ‘Stop the Funding’ was his first chance at correcting corruption. He blew it. It’s an inside secret why 6 of 8 voted with Huether. Tell us why. Then there’s transparency.

  5. The Don on December 11, 2016 at 1:03 pm said:

    Greg has a very analytical approach which I respect. He does not seem prone to emotional “knee-jerk” reactions, but is very thoughtful and logical. He appears to be independent in his thinking and not in anyones’s “camp”. I have not agreed with him on every decision he has made but that’s how it goes. He has shown himself to be fair and to me that is the best characteristic of an elected official.

  6. Warren Phear on December 11, 2016 at 4:34 pm said:

    From the Argus, a couple months ago, nitezert’s take on Theresa. As if the argus were not enough to feed his political aspirations, he repeated these same assertions a couple days later to his wannabe future press secretary, belfrage.

    “She has a tendency to take any disagreement as a personal attack. She has a conspiratorial, us-versus-them mentality that is not healthy or constructive. It was a shameful performance on her part. It’s interesting that she talks about bullying and intimidation when she is the only one libeling people and calling them names. I have not been bullied by the administration and no one ever said that we can’t talk to the press. Being asked to follow certain codes of conduct does not mean you are being suppressed. I’ve disagreed with the mayor vociferously on certain policies, but it’s not personal. The idea that he is pulling strings behind the scenes is total garbage. Not once has he exerted any undue influence and not one time did he contact me about the administration building.”

    ~Lyin greg nitezert

    I do not know nitezert personally. The owner of this forum does, as does LJL. They both called him out as a liar for exactly what he stated above in regards to his never being intimidated by mmm.

    Theresa is the best thing that has happened to city hall in a long, long time. Nitezert threw her under the bus, for political points, nothing more, nothing less. When he runs for mayor, I will volunteer to go door to door for erpenbach, and you know what I think of erp. I will not let a day go by without convincing voters this guy is nothing more than a wolf in sheeps clothing, same as what we got now.

  7. Please not her.She pretends like Rex.

  8. Theresa stehly on December 12, 2016 at 12:21 am said:

    I appreciate your support Warren….that was a very dark,intense time for the Council. As newly elected City Council members, we had tried to overturn the efforts by the Mayor to Bond(borrow) $25 for the administration building. We had a successful vote to repeal the project. Then the Mayor vetoed the council’s action. That triggered the petition drive . I was a strong advocate for supporting a vote by the people. 6400 citizens wanted to have to have a voice in this expenditure. I admit that I lobbied my fellow Council members hard to work for an advisory vote.

    I believe that we were all trying to do our best and I know we have learned alot. I am grateful that there is a new level of integrity, respect and regard within the council. Councilor Neitzert has been doing a great job of reaching out to citizens and working with all of us to get the best results for the community.He is committed to transparency and citizen advocacy.

  9. Greg Neitzert on December 12, 2016 at 1:23 am said:

    Responding to Warren:

    I have no future political aspirations. My only goal is to be the best councilor I can be. That reminds me of the vote on the administration building repeal, when a citizen stated that we were all ‘thinking about the next election’. We’d barely started our first term and supposedly we were all thinking about the next election. None of us, myself included, were or are thinking about anything in that regard.

    Councilor Stehly and I disagreed on the advisory vote, and on the tone that came out of the informational meeting. We have all moved on from that, including Councilor Stehly and I. We are working together very well, and we’ve all learned from early mistakes, and we all had some – I’m included in that. We all said some things publicly that probably didn’t need to be aired publicly, and it was an episode none of us is really proud of I think, but we live and learn.

    I’ll say it again, Mayor Huether has not ‘intimidated’ me. Challenging me, disagreeing with my opinions, and giving me constructive criticism is not ‘intimidation’. Did I read too much into an email early on, yes, and I apologized for doing so. We totally disagree on certain things, and we both respect that. There are some things we totally agree on, and we can work together on. You learn pretty quickly that burning bridges and going scorched earth for no good reason is completely counter-productive for everyone, including the citizens you represent. I and others have had to learn that quickly, and the hard way. I like everyone else is growing, learning from early mistakes, figuring out when to think before you speak, and when to stand up on principle, and how to do it the right way.

    By the way, I’ll say it again, not once did the Mayor contact me regarding the administration building. I can only imagine he was pretty clear where I stood and felt there was no point in trying to change my mind.

    Something you learn with time, its a bit of an art, how to disagree without being disagreeable. Learning how to stand up on principle, not compromise your principles, but at the same time respect others viewpoints, not attack people personally, and not to take disagreement personally.

    Councilor Stehly is a huge asset to the citizens and provides a very important counter balance to other views on the council. No one cares about citizens more than her. She does more than citizens even realize, and she stands up for the average citizen, and that’s awesome.

    In regards to the Stu article, I said what I felt needed to be said at the time. Councilor Stehly and I have moved on from that. It was a highly emotional time for all of us for a lot of reasons.

    When its necessary I will state support for colleagues and the Mayor when they are right or being unfairly characterized. Sometimes criticism is warranted, and sometimes its grossly unfair. Speaking out when you feel its necessary is about trying to do what’s right, not trying to score political points.

    I’ll let my actions and my votes on the council speak for themselves. Some will support me, some won’t. You learn pretty quick to do the best you can, stick to principle, and people will judge you based on that. Some will totally disagree, even attack you, but that’s the gig we signed up for. You take your licks and move on.

    One last thing – I will never run for Mayor. That’s not in my skill set. I highly respect anyone who does or attains the position. It is a highly stressful job and while it must be incredibly rewarding, it is an incredibly tough job. You take heavy artillery day after day, sometimes personal and vicious attacks, and you have to keep going. Whether one agrees with him or not, you have to (at least I do) respect the fact that he has taken stinging attacks week after week at public input for 6+ years and he still continues on. I can say personally in the aftermath of the advisory vote I took some pretty personal attacks and it does affect you no matter how much you try not to let it do so. In that regard, I highly respect the Mayor for taking the shots and continuing on as he has. The aftermath of the advisory vote was a great learning experience for me. You learn from adversity. I had a lot of people attacking me for my vote and for my supposed motivations. It’s an eye opening experience when people assume or attribute motivations to you that are completely untrue and personal in nature. I’m not complaining, just the opposite. That experience was incredibly valuable for me. It gave me a first-hand experience in what its like when people don’t just disagree with you, but also attribute terrible motives to your vote or decision. That experience has taught me to be really careful not to assume the motivations of others, that includes the Mayor, and to be really careful with my words. None of us cares if people disagree with our vote, our decision, or our logic. What we do care about is when people assume or attribute motives that are completely untrue and attack our character. Those do cut to the bone, because we are human, not machines.

    In the end, if you learn from your mistakes, do the best you can, keep learning, keep leading, you’ll keep growing and getting better, and that’s what I’m trying to do.

  10. anonymous on December 12, 2016 at 6:03 am said:

    Erpenbach announced on Knobe last week, she will NOT be running for mayor in 2018.

    Thank You.

  11. Warren Phear on December 12, 2016 at 7:52 pm said:

    Greg. Never gave a rip one way or another about your character til you attacked Theresa’s. At this point if Theresa says you’re OK, I’ll go along with that.

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