So who will win the battle of the most borrowing, debt creating Mayor in the History of Sioux Falls?
In eight years Munson racked up $158 Million approximately. To his credit, most went to infrastructure projects like Lewis and Clark, that had a single price tag of $70 million.
Conservatively, Huether has racked up $150 million and some change, with the biggest expenditure being the Events Center ($114 million) which will end up costing us $180 million after interest is paid.
Many have argued that Mayor Huether has accomplished a lot since he has been mayor, but when you steal your parents credit card anything is possible.
Who wants to go to the indoor pool? It’s on the rents!
On June 4, 2007 the city council had a controversial item before them. (Video: FF: 9:00 – Public Input, Actual item #54 FF: 2:50 ) Whether or not to place a plaque on to the entry of Phillips to the Falls. It was controversial for a few reasons. First off, as the story goes, the plaque was purchased by several private developers and friends of Dave Munson, they wanted to honor him for getting Phillips to the Falls finished (it only took another 7 years to get something actually built on it, an ugly faceless apartment building with virtually no front footage). The plaque actually hung out in Dave’s office for awhile, then after pressure from his friends, he had it placed without any fanfare. That didn’t sit well with the media, myself, and some councilors and they asked for a review by the Visual Arts Commission. They were to determine whether it was considered ‘art’ because if it was, they would first have to approve the placement. Ultimately, the battle came down to quite a few different scenarios. First off, Dave didn’t get permission from anyone to put up the plaque, he just had it done by the parks department. Others were concerned that not others were honored. Councilor Brown pointed out that many city officials were involved in getting the project done. And who can forget Dave breaking city ordinance by not getting council approval for the 100% cost overrun.
To tell you the truth, I look back on it now, and am glad his face is the only one to the entrance, he concocted this stupid street that is finally seeing development, to the cost of taxpayers in TIF handouts. I started thinking about this incident because of the recent Ethics commission approval of Huether putting his name on the tennis facility, a facility that has received $500K in public funds. Instead of going through a process with a naming rights committee and the city council, the very board that was appointed by Huether said “It’s okay, go for it.”
Wow, a lot of things have changed in 7 years, and a lot remains the same.
This Munson dude who was our previous mayor surprises me every day lately.
Apparently when he was mayor he signed an executive order that any incumbent mayor (and maybe city councilors) cannot use Channel 16 (CityLink) to campaign in anyway 90 days before an election.
In other words, Huether (or Jamison) can no longer appear on city shows (besides official bizzo) until after the election.
This will be a fun one to watch. How will MMM resist press conferences, etc.?
I found this out by accident. During the last Listening and Learning session, an audience member said, “So this is your last L & L session until after the election?”(sic)
Before MMM could respond, and explain why, he asked the lady how she knew this? she said, “He (the cameraman) told me.”
Of course MMM went into accolades about how great his cameraman is, and how great Munson is, and how great the Minney Mouse pancakes are at Rollin’ Pin.
Campaign Rules? We’ll see.
This KELO piece is priceless (well actually, it cost us several million), starring the two actors who cooked up this plan behind closed doors. Love the color coordination in their shirts. Do you think they called each other before the interview? 🙂
