Many people have asked me why the daily pressers are only live streamed online thru various news sites and Facebook but not on CityLink. They are played later, but it seems they are not covered live. You would think a city our size who has it’s own public TV station would live stream these important press conferences. Paul’s appearances on national news and a FB only prove there is a certain sector he is reaching out to, and as he has admitted before, he is in constant campaign mode. The people he should be reaching at 10:30 AM on CityLink, the elderly, who are most vulnerable, are missing these important pressers in real time because they may not have the internet or a FB page. Sorry, but using tornados and pandemics to prop you up for a re-election 2 years from now looks worse than a homemade face mask.

I shot off some questions this morning to city councilors about City Link contracts with some of their NON City employee on-air personalities. The Q & A Below with my thoughts, with answers from Jason Reisdorfer Director of Innovation & Technology with the City of Sioux Falls. I would like to thank Jason for getting back to me in a timely manner.

Q: I noticed the city will be paying Pinny Consulting (Michele Wellman) a FLAT fee of $10,000 a year for her assistance (I’m assuming) with the 25 minute, once a month, city link show ‘City Scene’.

I’m wondering if I can see a break down of her charges and how she came up with this ‘Flat Fee’ and what she all does for that, and how much time she spends per month on her services for the city.

A: This is incorrect, it’s not a FLAT $10,000 per year.   The contract MAXIMUM is $10,000.   Our agreement with Michelle is $50/hour, with a max of $500/month.   She rarely charges us more than $250/episode.  Year-to-date through 12/17, we’ve paid her $2750 for 11 episodes.

The Contract; pinnyPR

MY THOTS: While $50 per/hr is a pretty reasonable rate, I’m not quite sure she spends 5 hours a month on the episodes, when her last appearance on the show lasted a total of about 90 seconds.

Q: I’m also wondering if we have a similar contract with Madeline Shields who hosts the once a month, 25 minute show, Inside Townhall on city link, and what that contract looks like.

A: Madeline’s contract is a flat $200/episode.

MY THOTS: Madeline also does a pre-game with her guests usually over the phone, in an email and before the show. She also prepares questions for the show and moderates it.

Q: I’m also wondering what the contract looked like with Jolene Loetscher who was the last host of ‘City Scene’.

A: Jolene received a flat $500/month, which included pre-production meetings & other production services.

MY THOTS: I also believe Jolene did the full production of the show, because it seemed more polished to me than a normal City Link production.

Q: And since full time Staffers Colleen Moran and Reid Holsen also host shows on City Link, I’m wondering if they get an extra stipend for those duties?

A: Neither Reid, nor Colleen receive additional Stipends.  (Nor do any city employees that I’m aware of).  This would fit under the ‘other duties as assigned’ as part of their job descriptions.

MY THOTS: This final answer proves my point completely, with a very capable staff at City Link, why are we using OUTSIDE, Non-City employees to produce these shows (at an extra cost)? The on-air personality can be anyone, it could even be a voice over on the City Scene show and Council Operations Manager Jim David could easily host the Inside Town Hall show. This is publicly funded media, and needs be done in the most professional and fiscally responsible manner. Use city staff.

 

 

I guess now with Former Mayor Bucktooth and Bowlcut gone, media services doesn’t have to cover a press conference every time someone had a bowel movement, so now they have to fill in the time with other pressing projects. In fact, I think Mayor TenHaken has had ONLY one press conference since he took the helm. It has been refreshing, unfortunately, this video is NOT;

Friday afternoon I noticed that a new episode of Inside Town Hall appeared on the City of Sioux Falls You Tube page. It was the normal setup. City councilor Kiley had on the Director of 911, Matt Burns (SFPD) and the chief of the fire department to talk about their working relationships. The one thing I noticed when I started viewing the video was that it was 44 minutes long (most episodes are 30 minutes). While there was nothing revealing in the show itself, right at the 30 minute mark it went into a 14 minute (muted) video of the building collapse rescue efforts. There were several breaks in the video and it looked professionally shot, at one point it seemed also a drone was used (or shot from a fire truck ladder).

I gathered that this video was probably shot by City Link crew. While I commend them for doing this, it also got me thinking about a lot of other angles.

• What did it cost to have a city film crew on site for that long?

• While we won’t film parks board meetings, somehow the city found it necessary to film this event?

• Why would the city not do an investigation when they had this kind of crucial footage, which included them marking the cracks in PAVE’s wall, a crane holding up the wall, and pulling away the damaged car?

• Was the footage turned over to the insurance companies and OSHA?

• Why shoot this video (which included the rescue of the apartment dweller being pulled from the wreckage) when we don’t send a film crew to every fire rescue event?

• Were they planning on using this video as some kind of propaganda?

• And lastly, why was this posted to YouTube and now has disappeared from the site?

After watching the video, I talked openly about watching it to a group of friends at Drinking Liberally Friday night at the Taphouse. Did someone in the group (or near the table) report this back to the city?

It’s funny how transparency works in this town.