Councilor Jamison was only $2.1 million off the mark when it comes to the new city admin building

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proposed-new-sioux-falls-city-administration-building

 

Remember when Greg threw out a ‘hypothetical’ number;

Imagine my surprise (as well as the mayor’s) when councilor Jamison threw the $24 Million number out there last night at the city council meeting (FF to the construction manager at risk discussion towards the end). It was pretty obvious from the Mayor’s reaction (he literally flipped out on councilor Jamison for putting it out there) that Greg may not be to far off the mark, or someone within the city or private development gave him the numbers.

Well the hammer dropped on the actual cost of the building today at the informational, without a lot of explanation as to why we need it (and underground parking).

While I have still been seething about the ignorant Republicans and cowardice Democrats for voting for a sales tax increase (then turning around and voting for another possible one on municipalities) in the state legislature, I am still baffled why this building is needed. Well let the SF Twitter feed explain;

fleet

Apparently the City’s Fleet Vehicles drive themselves?

Posted in: Developers, Development, Mayor Hubris, Mayor Subprime Mike Huether, Mike Huether, SF City Council, Sioux Falls

Will the new City of Sioux Falls administration building cost us $24 million?

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[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx_VSztDDFI[/youtube]

Imagine my surprise (as well as the mayor’s) when councilor Jamison threw the $24 Million number out there last night at the city council meeting (FF to the construction manager at risk discussion towards the end). It was pretty obvious from the Mayor’s reaction (he literally flipped out on councilor Jamison for putting it out there) that Greg may not be to far off the mark, or someone within the city or private development gave him the numbers.

Last night they were discussing hiring the construction manager at risk, and many people have been concerned that we are putting the cart in front of the horse on the project, because still don’t have a ballpark figure, or do we?

So was the mayor mad that Jamison knew the magic number and put it out there ahead of time, or was the mayor mad because Jamison was completely wrong in his estimates?

Folks, there is a reason this ‘number’ has been hidden from us, and it’s not because they are going to build this office building on the cheap.

Posted in: Development, Mayor Hubris, Mayor Subprime Mike Huether, Mike Huether, SF City Council, Sioux Falls

Councilor Jamison to run for SF Mayor

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Greg will announce next week.

he said the driving force behind his move to run comes from a change he wants to see “in the culture at city hall.”

A culture of dictatorship like secrecy that started with Munson and only has gotten worse under Huether.

I’ve known about Greg’s run for awhile. Ironically the same day Greg told me he was running an insider with close ties to SF Republicans told me within an hour of my conversation with Greg. Funny how those things work. Greg has also been ‘exploring’ the idea for well over a year. He shares the same frustration some others have on the council with the way Huether’s administration treats the council and essentially leaving them out of major decisions. The secrecy ending in city hall will be the first step to cleaning up our form of government in Sioux Falls. Not everything about the Home Rule charter is bad, but when you use city ordinances to harass citizens, keep them in the dark while providing benefits to the special interests, you are undermining everything a democracy is about. We have enough of that crap going on in Pierre and DC, we don’t need it in SF.

I wish Jamison much luck and hope to see some other big hitters get in the game, like Steve Hildebrand. I know that it was essential for Greg to get a support mechanism around him before announcing, and I think he has a good one in place. It’s going to be a contentious race and hard to beat a popular incumbent like Huether. It will also be fun to watch if Huether campaigns while he is supposed to be mayoring. Remember, when MMM ran the first time around, he was campaigning full time. He won’t have that luxury this time around, but he will probably campaign like he did with the EC, making it appear as if he is ‘informing’ the voters.

I also heard about a potential challenger to Michelle Erpenbach in the council race, and let’s just say she will have her hands full if this person decides to run against her.

 

Posted in: Gregg Jamison

Minnehaha County Commission and Sioux Falls City Council Joint meeting over a Barn on a dirt road

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You gotta love it when Councilor Kiley’s strategy of telling half the story gets shot down. He often tells only partially what is going on to support his argument. Last night he tried to compare a wedding barn facility in rural Minnehaha County on a dirt township road to wedding barns annexed into the city limits. The problem is he left out the part they were annexed in the city limits. He also did this a few weeks ago when he tried to accuse councilor Starr of saying firefighters stand around too much. Starr did say that, but he wasn’t referring to fighting fires he was talking about mutual aid with calls of service for ambulance. In the past they had to wait for our rinky dink ambulance service to show up before administering care, now they are allowed to assist before they arrive eliminating them ‘standing around’ on ambulance calls. Kiley has been pulling his ‘half the truth’ arguments so long, he just can’t resist, unfortunately for him he failed last night and the rezone was approved. He probably told friends and colleagues after the meeting that he still prevailed because some of the votes were the same as his 🙂

Also the FAA told the private airport folks no dice. I knew they would, it’s just too close to other residential areas and as Greg Jamison pointed out the FAA says it would cause flight pattern issues with the main Sioux Falls airport. I guess those poor rich folks will still have to drive the whole 3 miles in their Range Rovers to Tea Town. I feel so bad for them . . . maybe we should start a Go Fund me for a valet service?

I also made some comments on agenda item #5 and some other ones about panhandling and TIFs during public input. I have been throwing around the idea of taking panhandlers to the neighborhoods our elected officials live in and let them ask for money there. That would be fun to watch.

Posted in: County Commission, Minnehaha County, SF City Council, Sioux Falls

Has anything changed in 5 years?

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I find this post from April of 2014 on Holsen’s blog interesting. She is basically endorsing Greg Jamison when he was running against the former mayor for a second term.

But what is interesting about her post, is that after 5 years, it seems little has changed.

Here’s what I remember about the incumbent’s first term as mayor:

  • Taking credit for road construction that has been the heartbeat and soul of the five year Capital Improvement Plan for decades. 
  • Being dubbed the downtown revivalist when Downtown SF is probably in the worse shape it’s been since former Mayors Hanson and Munson took on Downtown revitalization years ago.
  • Money in the piggy bank comments when money in the reserve fund has been the norm, not the exceptional happening in the last four years.
  • The bullish economic boom enjoyed in Sioux Falls that has been bullish the last twenty years, not just in the last four years.
  • Taking credit for cheap airfares and the introduction of Frontier Airlines that had been in the works before the first term of this mayor even began.
  • The destroying and firing of city directors employed or retained as career professionals and turned into a political patronage system with the loss of some outstanding city directors and not being transparent about why they were no longer employed in his administration. They resigned, good people, I didn’t really fire them.
  • The campaign talk about the wonderful city employees on his team these last few months when they were not even on his horizon or speech the first 3 years of his term. Oh, he did talk about those rich benefits city employees enjoyed when he addressed the Downtown Rotary Club his first year in office.
  • Casting a dim light on ethics and an appearance of impropriety by investing in real estate that gets TIF funding from a department directly supervised by the mayor and approved by the city council.
  • Petition drives galore – snow gates, indoor/outdoor pools, railroad switching lines clogging neighborhoods and traffic patterns, a Walmart on four corners of the city, development plans, spending issues, sweeping zoning ordinance changes. A restless and unhappy citizenry.
  • A city charter revision commission that decided it didn’t need to work transparently and publicly in front of the citizens because they were being criticized for their work.
  • Choosing to not reappoint some city board members under a cloud of heavy handedness and retribution for not doing his bidding.

You could argue that Mayor TenHaken’s appointments are even worse then that last guy, MUSH WORSE.

Posted in: Sioux Falls