Let’s face it, we still have a lot of questions. Why would anyone leave a successful business they helped build in the private sector to work in city government? I don’t know the answer to that question.
We also don’t know how Jason’s salary was compiled when he lacks a college degree and is solely based on the last person’s pay.
We do know that Mayor TenHaken is extremely happy about his pick since he has been having difficulty getting people from the private sector to work for him. My guess is because of how the last mayor ran the place like a dictatorship. Nobody wants to work for a dictator.
Even if all 8 councilors voted against his appointment, I still believe Paul has the power to override the consent. I do believe Jason will be appointed on a (7-1) vote. Even councilors I talked to who may have their reservations about Jason understand that the Mayor has the executive power to appoint anyone to his team, and they certainly won’t stand in the way of his duties. It’s really his responsibility.
But a bigger question still remains that I think I will try to answer. How can a mayor appoint someone to this highly technical post without the professional experience?
Well this didn’t start with TenHaken or even Bucktooth & Bowlcut, or Dave or Gary, this kind of culture of political appointments has been around for a long time. Only in the last administration we saw it to be more obvious. Corporate marketing types like to surround themselves with other corporate marketing types in some strange attempt to ‘change’ government to run more like a business. While some aspects of that may have worked under the last dude, it certainly didn’t look good for the taxpayers debt load, increased taxes and fees, transparency in government and public trust.
I was hoping Paul would have seen that, but apparently not.
Corporate gurus in government often replace their best talent with people like them. We saw this with Debra Owen. Not only a talented City Clerk, legislative researcher, but one heck of a lawyer. She wore 3 hats well and did it for a lot less pay. It took 3 people to replace her (with a lot less experience and no law degrees) with a combined salary of around $230K.
As I have told several councilors over the past few days that Jason will get easily frustrated with the speed in which government moves. He will also find out that hiring and firing civil service employees isn’t an easy task. He may also get discouraged by having to make important decisions in the open with other directors, city councilors and the public instead of behind closed doors in a corporate board room and a Crown Royal in his hand.
If anything we can take from Councilor Stehly’s Facebook kerfuffle is that Jason is easily tempered. Can he calm these reactions once he starts working for the citizens? Not sure.
While I hope he does good things, and I think he probably has some good ideas, otherwise Paul wouldn’t be so Gung Ho in hiring him, I think he will become easily frustrated and probably not make it very long in city government. But I wish him well in the short time he will be working for us.
I figured it as a 6-2 vote. 5 rubber stampers, and 1 of the 3 who work for us to side with the mayor. You are probably right though. Qualifications should be a huge red flag, but, like a lot of things in city government, red flags mean nothing.
Found something interesting. Suspect it won’t be around long. Soon, it will be scrubbed clean and flushed down the memory hole. Why? So the new sheriff of Central Services/IT can in the future take full credit for 2017 accomplishments.
http://www.siouxfalls.org/central-services/top-10
From the Mayor’s related press release: “Jason’s entrepreneurial spirit and record of leading change is precisely what the new Department of Innovation and Technology needs at the helm. . . He will be an important addition to the leadership team and an advocate for preparing Sioux Falls for future growth.†Hmm. Weisser Distributing, the company j.r. is leaving, lists an employment opportunity on their web site for a ‘Private Label Manager’. “The Private Label Manager is responsible for the development and expansion of existing & new private labels and their resulting product lines. . . The Private Label Manager with Content Management will directly oversee the E-Commerce Content Writer, Commercial Photographer, Videographer & (at times) a number of interns. She/he is responsible for providing that group the resources and direction needed to drive sales, expand private label business, analyze data. . .”. So, responsible for team leadership/development/growth. Similar types of duties to the Mayor’s new Dir. of Innovation position. Weisser’s Education & Work Experience REQUIREMENTS for their advertised job: “College degree required as well as 2+ years relevant business experience.”
With Strong Mayor Charter, the council has no say regarding establishing or filling this position. This is but another reason to restore democracy in city government. Trump is famous for hire and fire resulting in triumph or blame. Perhaps TenHaken is the same type of leader.
One thing I know for sure is I could never be a Supreme Court Judge because I pinched a girl in kindergarten.
There was a letter to the editor today by a co-worker of Jason’s endorsing him. Towards the end of the letter the guys says that he is a resident of Sioux Falls and glad Jason will be working for the city. Than at the bottom of the letter it has the person’s name and after it it says ‘TEA’. LOL.
L3wis – that LTE is proof some guys can make a lot of money selling cars, parts, supplies and tools. Those pursuits, however, don’t typically attract Dale Carnegie/Toastmasters grads or Mensa candidates. Car guys don’t tend to be the more educated, groomed, tactful, cultured, caring and ethical members of the tribe – attributes this taxpayer would prefer to see in City chiefs who are paid more than the mayor. Just sayin’.
Poor, sad little lefties, finally coming to terms with defeat and in the same poor, sad way little lefties always deal with defeat. Essentially, you don’t want the City to have success because it didn’t happen the way you wanted it to happen so you just hope Jason fails. You start the ball rolling with your poor, sad little comments about the future and what Jason won’t be able to do…because you have magic future vision and it oddly makes you feel better wishing him well in the short time he works for us. Sad, little lefties. Maybe in a couple more months you can devise a way the Mayor you wanted to win could have won and try to change the the election rules. Until then, surely there are some offensive statues that could come down.
I want Jason to be successful. I don’t want to see $190K a year spent on someone with no talent. I have just seen this rocky road before, it usually doesn’t end well.
How will Jason know he is being conned by the flim flam salesmen if he doen’t know anything more about computer technology than how to post his drinking and gambling on Facebook?
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