The city council races are starting to come together, but there are still some unknowns and variables.

Currently the Central District has three running in the race. I won’t rule out that more could get in that race, but probably unlikely.

Retired Firefighter and Insurance Salesman, Curt Soehl. I don’t know a whole lot about Curt, but what I have read on his FB page is that he was very pro-Huether and approved of his accomplishments and leadership style, which is unfortunate.

Thor Bardon. I believe Thor works in banking. Thor’s platform is workforce development and other social issues in our community.

Local art promoter and business owner, Zach DeBoer. Zach is heavily involved with the downtown culture and development.

At-Large has 3 candidates, but that could change.

John Paulson, former Sanford Executive and Planning Commission member who lost to Theresa Stehly in the last election will probably run the same ‘everything is wonderful and great in Sioux Falls’ campaign.

Janet Brekke, who is a former city attorney and currently a private attorney is challenging Paulson. I don’t know a lot about Janet, but I think we will learn more in the coming weeks since she has formerly announced.

Clara Hart has said she will run in the At-Large, but she could just as easily challenge Rick Kiley to get out of a crowded At-Large race (which may get more crowded). Clara lives in his SE district and may have a better chance in a two person race, and avoid a run-off.

As I said, Kiley has announced he will run for a 2nd term and has no challengers currently, I hope that changes.

Erickson hasn’t announced whether she is running for a 2nd term or not, she has said she will probably NOT run for mayor. But currently if Erickson did announce, she doesn’t have a challenger. I’m wondering if someone is waiting in the wings until Erickson announces. One of the bigger questions I have been asked over the past couple of weeks has been, “Will Erickson run for a 2nd term to begin with or is she busy trying to recruit someone to run for the seat?”

As you can see, we have about 5-1/2 months until the city election and the council races are still shaping up. Anything could change at this point.

It seems John Paulson wants to run for the At-Large position being left empty by Rolfing instead of the Central District. I have also been told he may not have a choice since he doesn’t live in the Central District anyway. Either way, this will make the race for the Central District interesting with a race between many grassroots candidates.

UPDATE: Clara Hart also announced today she is running for At-Large against Paulson.

The candidate’s focus will be on “well-planned growth and finances, community investment and safety, strong neighborhoods and cohesive government.”

Now to find a challenger(s) to Paulson and all his BUZZ words that don’t mean anything, just like his tenure at Sanford. But he was a contender . . .

He was also a finalist for a seat on the Minnehaha County Commission. The seat was ultimately offered to Jean Bender.

. . . in a top-secret selection process. I had no idea he applied, that is because the Republican controlled Minnehaha County Commission kept that process top secret to the end.

I have a feeling that Paulson’s loss to Stehly is one of the reasons Rolfing is pushing for a change in the election threshold of candidates.

UPDATE: On Lalley’s show today Paulson said he does support the 51% threshold and thinks he could have beaten Stehly in a run-off. Maybe.

When Lalley asked him directly what one of his specific goals would be (special project, etc) while being on the council, he didn’t have a SPECIFIC project just that he wants the council to work more positively. This is probably one of the reasons Stehly beat Paulson and Nobles, Stehly had specifics what she wanted to accomplish on the council, they did not. AND she has stuck to those guns.

art-maze-mower-lrArtMaze, one of the better parts of Sioux Falls life in 2016

2016 has been a rough year for citizen activism. While it has been up and down here in Sioux Falls with many successes and failures to boot, it seems Washington DC has gone into full collapse as we allowed racist, sexist, hillbillies to elect our president.

READ ABOUT 2015 REVIEW HERE.

But locally there were three things that stood out;

• Governor Daugaard claiming that voters were ‘hoodwinked’ into voting for IM 22, then getting the Pierre (in)justice system to go along with it. Funny how for over 40 years voters have been voting his party into power, and no word about ‘hoodwinking’ but once that corrupt power will be challenged, all the voters are idiots. As one official told me that used to work for Dennis, it’s not the public that are idiots, it’s Dennis. And his idiocy has been shining through.

• The South Dakota Democratic Party’s bottom completely fell out, and the people in charge patted themselves on the back. Insanity I tell you! Insanity!

• But one of the greatest achievements of the year is the Sioux Falls City Council’s change of power. The four new councilors have been flexing their muscles with a little help from Councilor Erickson, and while they have had a few missteps to start out, they have been learning from the battle scars. While ‘leadership’ of the council (Rolfing and Kiley) seem to be on a two man mission to rubberstamp all things Huether, shut down public input, and concoct false ethics charges against a fellow councilor (until they got caught lying like the snakes they are) they are becoming more and more in check. The city council has many big plans for 2017, and I have a feeling their agenda will push through easily as our lame duck mayor melts.

Let’s take a look at some the finer high and low points of 2016;

• The Huether Tennis center continues to block parking from other event attendees at the Sanford Sports complex though they basically stole $500K from taxpayers for the facility. Throughout the year there was several reports on cones and signs blocking the lot with not cars in it. But hey Mike’s Bride won an award this year and seemed surprised she did, without commenting that her check to the organization that gave the award wasn’t returned.

• The Sioux Falls City Council leadership and mayor’s HR department pulled a military retiree out of their asses for city clerk, a person who will be in charge of our city elections and hasn’t been registered to vote for years. He also proved his knowledge of official stamps when he stamped a petition without even bothering to read it. While Mr. Greco has gotten better over the year, the city clerk position should not be a $80K+ a year job as an apprentice, sadly being trained by one of his assistant clerks who has ten times the qualifications and applied for the position but was turned down. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the council chair’s view of women in the work place.

• Speaking of letting the mayor’s HR department and Leadership’s Mutt and Jeff pick the next internal auditor, the council barked loud enough that they did not want another ‘Greco’ pick. Not sure if the barking worked, but the person who was set to take the job saw the writing on the wall and turned it down. Hopefully the person who ultimately gets the position won’t be turned down because they shave their legs.

• The city continues to blow money on the Winter Wonderland Display, but the way the mayor has been cutting budgets these days, I expect next year’s display to be a couple of homeless barrel fire pits, sponsored by the Dudley House of course.

• After posting about the ridiculous corporate like raises the mayor has been giving to his management team, he turns around and still screws the minions with dismal raises again this year. I think in a special note to the city employees on their Christmas paystub he wrote, “I don’t care.”

• The city continues the FREE condom distribution program at area bars, and for some reason Monk’s is always emptied the quickest. Coincidence that is also a favorite watering hole of city managers . . .

• The Tuthill shooting case becomes ‘inactive‘ and a tree branch shadow gets off scott free.

• The Erp wrongfully calls out local massage therapists as prejudice because they pointed out the ‘shower massages’ that were taking place around town. Apparently someone got a bad fortune cookie that day.

• The car rental tax and BID tax grabby-grabby fails in Sioux Falls, but the state legislature passes one of the most idiotic tax increases ever so our teachers are now just tied for last instead of dead last in pay. Out hoodwinking governor already has plans to rob the pot only one year after its passage.

• Hartford’s city government was in a state of collapse. Who really cares?

• The Levitt Pavilion is moving forward in Sioux Falls. It will be nice watching outdoor concerts sitting in the grass while battery acid is boiling beneath our asses.

• The Boulevard ordinance changes went into effect. Now stop worrying about rocks and plant a garden.

• The Washington Pavilion got a change of leadership after Darrin Smith takes over as President. So far he has only eliminated one director, but I hear the blood-letting has just begun. Now let’s throw another couple of million at the place to fix the poor construction to begin with. That will never happen with the Events Center . . .

• The Events Center cracks down on outside snacks and guns at events. We are all now safe from cheap fat people shooting us, but not in the parking lot.

• The Pottie Room war starts in Pierre and is guaranteed to return in 2017.

• A state legislator calls transgender people ‘twisted’. Now I’m struggling with what word to use describing our state legislators?

• A city council candidate throws a hissy fit over a post I wrote about his wife’s involvement with the Jesus plows and after threats to my employer I pull the post. He ends up taking last place in the at-large race. How’s Jesus working out for you now?

• Due to health reasons, Kermit Staggers decides not to run for a 4th term on the city council. His endorsement of Stehly puts her over the top.

• One of the youngest candidates in city history runs for city council. I apologize to Briggs for all the shitty things I said about him during the campaign.

• The Argus Leader sues the city for the details in the secret events center siding settlement. The Argus loses the first round but it is headed to the SD Supreme Court.

• On a similar note, the SON neighborhood is also awaiting a judgement in their Walmart suit with the SD Supreme Court.

• While our Sioux Falls City Council approves the DAPL through Sioux Falls, it takes thousands of protesters in ND to actually stop it. Too bad our city council chair doesn’t understand how to vote.

• The Mayor and Q-Tip Smith screwup the DT parking ramp development by flapping their traps to soon, and the council later on in the year returns the favor and defunds the ramp all together for 2017. I still think the fiasco is what got Smith to seek refuge at the Pavilion.

• City officials throw a hissy-fit over Bruce’s camera at a city meeting we were invited to by then city councilor Kenny Anderson. Looking back on it now, I just chuckle.

• Former city councilor Dean Karsky and now commissioner elect has become the official endorser in Sioux Falls.

• Bruce and I do a presentation on voter turnout in Sioux Falls at Democratic Forum and one of the mayor’s buddy developers in Sioux Falls tries to shut us down. When he fails, he walks out. Another casualty to transparency.

hail

Now that most of the financial reports are up for the council candidates, I can do a review of them. Nothing really glaring in the reports except that recently appointed planning commission member John Paulson received one last whopper donation of $1,000 from T. Denny right before election day (the max an individual can give within a period of time). Should have just saved his money for another fancy hat for the Carneval Celebration. Well at least he did win a volunteer position on the rubber stamp committee.

Speaking of the Planning Commission, looks like the council may be throwing the Lacey Park project back at them for doing such a lousy job of review to begin with. Lloyd companies will be asking for a deferral tonight to September 13, but that may not cut it. Should be an interesting debate tonight at the council meeting.

There is more to come as to why the candidate financials were not filed last week. Let’s just the city has a whole lotta excuses that don’t add up. They may even be in violation of state open records laws.

Expect more on that story in the coming week.

For now, we need to focus on the election. The financials magically started showing up this morning on the city website. Not sure if the city was playing a game of protecting ‘certain’ candidates financial reports from the media and public, but one of those reports is scattered with donors from the who’s who of Sioux Falls. (click to enlarge)

paulson2

It is also worth noting that former city councilor, De Knudson gave money to any candidate that would oppose my four choices (the anti-Staggers clan).

Other notable oddities;

Tammy Fenner received a donation from Justin Johnson. Not sure if this is the same Mr. Johnson that owns several infamous bars and casinos throughout town and donates to legalizing marijuana attempts, but if it is, I found a self-proclaimed conservative Christian taking money from him a bit ‘odd’.

tammy-johnson

Selberg borrowed a couple of peeps from Paulson’s list to butter his bread.

marshall-fin

Srstka got a sizable chunk from former Attorney General, Mark Meierhenry. Many people have asked me if Erin is related to judge Srstka, and I am not sure. But she also got a verbal endorsement from retiring circuit judge Pat Riepel on Friday at Dem Forum during announcements.

erin-mark-m

We will also talk about strategies after Tuesday, and how they matched up. It is pretty clear from viewing the financial reports how the candidates spent their money. After we see the winner’s circle Tuesday night, we will know which strategies worked.