Sam got praise from me August 1, for lowering garbage rates. Sam is the recipient of my first ever Patriot of the week for putting his fist down on property tax increases;

Rapid City Mayor Sam Kooiker has vetoed the city council’s decision to raise city property taxes next year.

The city council voted 6-4 earlier in the week to increase property taxes by the rate of inflation, an adjustment done to offset rising costs.

Kooiker says the property tax is not needed. The mayor says city sales tax collections are rising more than had been expected and eight tax increment financing districts are expiring.

The inflationary increase in the property tax would bring in an extra $402,000 in revenue to the city.

Sam has it right. If a tax increase is not needed why do it? Every year I see the SF city council and recently the Minnehaha County Commission make this same stupid decision while the mayor sits and brags about the great economic shape we are in. Municipal government’s job is to provide services to citizens from the taxes they pay. Not entertainment or more prosecutions (spending money on crime prevention makes more sense, and saves tax payers $$$).

BRAVO SAM!

 

Remember Sam? He’s the bad ass who dared to question wasteful spending in city government in Rapid City, then the monkey trials began. I don’t know Sam personally, or have ever had correspondence with him, but I fully support his run for Rapid City mayor and I hope he wins. Any candidate who pledges;

Three important goals for my administration are:

Open, People-friendly Government

  • Regardless of status, all citizens and businesses will be treated fairly and consistently.
  • Post income statements for all income generating departments (enterprise funds) on the internet monthly/quarterly.
  • Institute a system of functioning checks and balances for all 11 city departmentsand the mayor’s office to prevent a repeat of the type of situation that occurred at the landfill.
  • Restore accountability in management.

GO SAM!

Seems some people are trying to cover their asses;

What does all this mean? Well, it means that after receiving the May 6 email, Alderman Kooiker and Alderman Weifenbach went to the mayor and insisted on a real investigation, which we now know has resulted in Fish Garbage Service facing a civil lawsuit, significant security changes at the landfill, an employee who has been dismissed, and an on-going criminial investigation of the entire matter with the investigation going back seven years (statute of limitations), indicating that the situation at the landfill had been going on for many years and costing the citizens of Rapid City many dollars.

When Alderman Weifenbach asked about the problem years prior, he did not have an email evidence trail. And, so when he was told there was nothing going on at the landfill, he had no evidence other than his word that he brought it up. Enter Alderman Sam Kooiker who hears from a different source and makes the email inquiry.

This, of course, makes the public works director and the mayor look very bad, since this has been going on under their noses for years. And, they chose to do a half fast investigation by asking the (now fired) employee if he was a crook, and took his word for it when he said “nope.”

I like Mayor Sam Kooiker, maybe that is why I really didn’t say much until now about his suggested appointment for police chief that failed RC city council;

The council last week rejected Lt. Elias Diaz for the chief’s job, citing a lack of experience, a flawed selection process and a lack of overall transparency on behalf of Mayor Sam Kooiker in choosing who he felt was the right candidate.

While I think some on the RC City Council are from LuLu Libertarian Tea bag land, they made the right decision to reject Sam’s appointment, for all of the reasons above. That is what the legislative body of municipal government is supposed to do. They are the checks and balances for the taxpayers. When the mayor is making a bad decision, or appointing people based on political reasons, the council needs to step up and do their job.

The SF city council could learn a lot from this incident in RC, like how they are supposed to question the administration and city directors when they make ignorant decisions. But first they would have to throw away their rubber stamps and stop taking campaign contributions from the same people/companies our mayor does.

Objective is not the word I would use to describe our city council, more like selective.

Rapid City’s mayor, Sam Kooiker, posted this on his FB page this morning;

The 8% garbage rate decrease passed unanimously in Public Works Committee yesterday. Members Ritchie Nordstrom, John Roberts, Chad Lewis, Ron Sasso and Bill Clayton all voted for it. It now heads to the full council on Monday for a vote. If approved, this will return $300,000 annually to the ratepayers. That’s not including the $100,000 we saved by having your new Public Works Director do the study in house instead of hiring an expensive out of town consultant to do it.
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/public-works-approves-decrease-in-garbage-fees/article_1de5f02e-0586-5df3-af55-8fcabbe0a120.html

Rapid City does not have private garbage haulers.  It is a city-run service.

On a separate, but similar note, Why isn’t the city of Sioux Falls more proactive in tightening watering restrictions?  I can’t believe we didn’t go to once-a-week a month ago.  Might it be because the more water we use on lawns, the more money the city makes on revenue?

Sure, a lot of people have figured this out and cut back on our useless watering.  I have not watered my lawn once this summer. Not only have I been saving money on water, I have been saving money on mowing my lawn. I think it has been almost 6-weeks since I have mowed. But I still see too many people watering every other morning because they can, and the water literally runs off their yards and down the street and they will keep doing this until Big Brother finally tells them to knock it off. Sheep.