The Pavilion celebrates 20 years

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Not sure if many people knew this, but I was the lead usher of the Great Hall for the first 4 years the Pavilion was open. I still remember my interview in the Great Hall with then House Manager, Jeff Venekamp. It was exciting and over the years I have supported the place with my own brand of criticism. I met many amazing artists and performers, including George Carlin, Bill Cosby, Weird Al, and helped Carrot Top with some of his material. I even had drinks with Richard Weisman (epic art collector) at the Top Hat, oh, and the Violet Femmes. I even witnessed a famous jazz singer belt out a very large fart, in which she replied, “The pure mention of soda pop gets my gas gauge a goin”. I can’t even count the number of dancers I saw naked or near naked.

I also had my first solo art exhibit at the Pavilion and contributed to Arts Night where I won the people’s choice award one year. In recent years I met Rosanne Cash at a meet and greet.

I have always maintained that the city needs this place, but has always fell short on welcoming the whole community. In recent years charging to see local and regional art at the arts center was a huge mistake by the Pavilion and went against the promise of keeping the gallery free to the public.

While the Pavilion has brought in many great shows (My most memorable were Drums and Tuba, Wilco, Bulgaria, Late Night Cathecism, and the opera ‘Carmen’) it still has yet to embrace everyone. Oh, and the management and politics behind the place are atrocious which have tried to destroy many great peoples’ careers and lives and continues to this day.

After 20 years, I will confess we still need the Pavilion, but I think it is time we hit the reset button, it could be so much more if we would just allow it.

Minnehaha County Budget meetings and Opt-Out

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The MCC will likely approve a major opt-out to help pay for extra staff, mostly due to crime rates going through the roof. I have suggested (as well as commissioner Barth) that the city of Sioux Falls pay an arrest fee for every person they arrest that is booked into the jail to help curb the costs of the new jail.

I guess 28 positions have been requested by department heads. MedStar Ambulance and Jasper Ambulance have not requested (additional?) funding from the county. The deadline has passed for more than a week.

REMAINING BUDGET SCHEDULE

June 4, 1-5pm            Initial budget presentation to County Commission. Department hearings as requested by Commission.

June 6, 8-12 noon       Budget deliberation and hearings for departments will be scheduled before the County Commission.

June 19, 8-12 noon     Budget Deliberation and hearings as directed by Commission.

July 8, 8 to 12 noon    Budget deliberation if needed.

The following will all be held during regularly scheduled Commission Meetings:

July 9                        Action on additional opt-out by Commission. (Last date to approve additional opt-out is July 15th.)

July 23                      Final review of provisional budget in preparation for July 30th adoption.

July 30                      Adoption of Provisional FY20 County Budget.

August 27                  Museum, library, and 911 presentations to Joint City/County meeting.

September 3              Public hearing for Final FY20 County Budget.

September 10             Final briefing on FY20 Budget.

September 17             No Commission meeting, SDACC Convention.

September 24   Final date for Adoption of FY20 County Budget.

Did the City of Sioux Falls Audit Committee really explore all candidates?

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I know, I want to put this to rest as much as the rest of you. The RS5 made another horrible decision, and it will be fun to bring it up when a couple of them run for re-election. But I could care less about that now, because we must address BAD decisions in the here and now.

A couple of days ago I got a tip that some of the audit committee members (non-councilors) were not happy about the selection process, but were told to stifle it.

Today I was told from a city councilor a potential candidate told them they weren’t even considered or interviewed for the position. They applied late last year.

According to this candidate, they were never even considered by the audit committee. I first want to say that I have never met them, also, from reading the resume I saw, they are young and have a short work history, so I can’t tell you if they are qualified or not. But from reading the education and work experience (they are a certified auditor), I would have at least interviewed them. Am I missing something here? It would be one thing to interview them and then determine they are not qualified for the job, but to just look at this resume and go, “Nah, we already have someone picked out.”

And that seemed to be the case.

I wish this person good luck in their employment endeavors and that they should probably be thanking themselves they didn’t get the job. I’m just sayin’.

Next Generation Leadership PAC

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I guess one of the reasons the PAC cannot be found is because somehow the filings for the PAC have disappeared off the city’s website. I was able to get a screenshot of the last page of the PAC’s July 3rd filing thru a city contact. Curious that city employees have access to this document but citizens don’t. But I don’t have time to go into that rant and how our new innovation department is finding ways to hide information from citizens unless you have a traceable login.

You will see below in PTH’s July 3rd filing he received an almost $25K donation from the PAC. The same day, the PAC filed itself. It seems they are on a mission to recruit more candidates like Paul. God help us all!

(The rumor in political circles, and the reason Dusty Johnson had a freakout on a fellow Republican in RC recently is because they believe Rounds will not run again for senate, leaving Johnson to run for that seat and TenHaken to run for Dusty’s current seat, but like I said,  just gossip at this point.)

I also find it interesting that Joel Dykstra was not only the treasurer of PTH’s campaign but also the PAC’s. Well isn’t that convenient? You may know Joel who got his rear end kicked by Tim Johnson. But Joel is also a well known developer around town that likes any developer welfare and zoning breaks he can get from Sioux Falls taxpayers. I guess this is what they mean by ‘Next Generation’. Republican elected officials taking money from the working poor and turning into big profits for his ilk.

Joel also gave money to Alex Jensen. This must be their first ‘recruit’ in the PTH Next Gen movement. I expect more recruits from this PAC that has seemed to slide under the radar up until this point. I guess it helps when public officials conveniently hide your filings (if someone can provide a link, I will gladly retract that statement).

At least we have cleared the air on who they are so far, it will be interesting to watch them dump bundles of money into ineffective campaigns and lose. (PTH’s full report: 20180703-TenHaken-CFDRT (1)

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Hey Noem, some people actually pay for their own security

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Please protect me from my constituents, especially in a salon lobby.

Another Democrat showing just how cheap the president and Noem are;

EL PASO, Texas – Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke’s campaign, Beto For America, has fully reimbursed the City of El Paso for its March 30th campaign kick-off rally in Downtown.

But the $20K Noem still owes the citizens of Sioux Falls is a spit in the bucket compared to the $400K she is looking for from the state taxpayers for a fence around her residence. If Noem wants to continue to be paranoid about her security, fine, but she can do it on her own dime.