J. Ellis wrote a hilarious satire piece about the Sioux Falls Parks Board (yes folks, it’s satire, why do we have to spell this out for you all the time!!?)

But Theresa Stehly, a city councilor, has brought forth a ludicrous proposal that future Park Board members come from other parts of the city besides the part where important people live. It would doom our parks.

Now, some of you might think the Park Board is simply a Chardonnay sipping social club whose membership lives in a roughly half-mile area of St. Charles Lane in swanky southeastern Sioux Falls. That’s what they want you to think. I’m telling you, it’s just a cover.

The Park Board is the shadow government of Sioux Falls. It is all powerful.

Who do you think ordered the grass in the parks and along the bike trail to go uncut this summer because the city doesn’t have enough money to buy gas for its lawn mower? The Park Board.

While Ellis’ piece is a parody, I have often wanted to tell the mayor that he shouldn’t be concerned about districting, rich people live in all the districts of our city, you just have to find them.

A South DaCola foot soldier sent this friendly message to the city in support of Stehly’s proposal;

Subject: Parks

Details: I support districts on the Parks Board. It is clear that concentrating members to one geographic area of the city will lead to unfair decisions and a lack of diverse opinions and priorities.

A parks director responded. His argument that that the status quo has been good for 102 years, so why change it now?

Dear Mr. – – – –

Thank you for reaching out to us and sharing your position regarding the representation of the Parks & Recreation Board by district.

We would like to first point out that the parks and recreation board members do not currently all reside in the same geographic area. The Parks & Recreation Board has been in service to our community for 102 years and during that time the board members have been selected from the community at large.

We also believe that the current process for selecting board members has produced very positive results with our parks and recreation system being one of the very best in the country as evidenced by our Parks and Recreation Agency Accreditation dating back to 2010. As a result, it is our belief that the proposal to appoint parks and recreation board members by district is a solution in search of a problem.

The City of Sioux Falls Parks & Recreation Board remains committed to serving the entire community regardless of where the parks and recreation board members happen to reside at the time they are appointed to the board.  We would also point out that the parks and recreation board is an advisory board. Capital Improvement Budgets, Operating Budgets and Management Contracts are ultimately approved by the city council and those council members are elected by council district, so there is already a considerable system of check and balances in place.

Thank you again for sharing you position.  Please feel free to contact me directly at 605.367.8150 if you have any other questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Kelby Mieras, CPSI, Park Operations Manager

If the Parks Board doesn’t really make important decisions, why even have them at all? Why not just send all of those parks decisions to the city council to begin with? Seems they have wasted 102 years of the citizens time. Who knew this ruse was going on for so long?

Oh, and why is a city employee lobbying against a city councilor’s legislative idea? Shouldn’t they be un-bias in these matters? Oh, forgot who his boss was.

Comments are closed.

Post Navigation