Entries Tagged 'Sioux Falls' ↓

The numbers just came out this afternoon, so I have yet to fully review them. But after a quick look I was surprised to see that a lot of the mid-management got around $7,000 raises. I guess what surprises me is that sales taxes only went up about 3.5% from the year before (still waiting on final numbers).

Funny how the building permit numbers and raises come out almost instantly after January 1st, but we are still waiting on sales tax returns.

One surprise that stuck out was the City Clerk’s raise of $7,446. When Tom Greco was hired after retiring from the military, he was put at the top of the pay scale immediately, even though he doesn’t have a city clerk certification. In fact, after promising to get that certification, he still doesn’t have it. I guess I don’t understand that large of a pay raise when he still has to receive certification after 3 years. Also, his two assistant city clerks actually have more tenure, experience and certifications than their boss, go figure.

Here are the past three years of salary records;

2019-Wages

2018-Wages

2017-Wages

And they wonder why we wanted these meetings recorded?

During last Wednesday’s Parks board meeting there was a discussion about a temporary golf cart shed for 2019. One of the parks board members suggested OR asked if it would just make more sense to build a new clubhouse when rebuilding the shed (I’m not sure who said this, because they have yet to video record the meetings so we could tell who is talking). In Director Kearney’s defense he basically said that it needs to be looked at in the CIP budgeting process this year. Makes you wonder if something was promised to the new golf management contractor and a few people on the board seem to know what that is.

So if my unattached garage burned down by accident, do you think my homeowners insurance would give me enough money to rebuild my house? Hell no. If the insurance company pays for rebuilding a simple shed, then we rebuild the shed. We don’t go into full building mode. There is nothing wrong with the Elmwood clubhouse, this isn’t MCC, and we really are not competing with them. I have felt for a long time we should either sell the golf courses or just charge a flat lease. The city doesn’t need to be in the golf business anymore, especially with so many regional courses. I felt the same way about the indoor pool.

Speaking of the indoor pool, I find it interesting that while this is a government holiday, the Midco is open, but the libraries are NOT. With school in session today, where are a lot of the kids supposed to go for after school programming while waiting for parents to get off work? Maybe they can come and swim for free at the Midco?

Let’s just say Heather has a lot of experience in that department . . . LOL!

5G Antenna by Eastside Sioux Falls Target

In correspondence with the city’s legal department, an advocate opposed to 5G, John Miller, received this letter from the city; (DOC: 5G-Letter)

I found this part interesting;

The taxpayers of Sioux Falls OWN the utilities and all of the equipment associated with the utilities.  The city has said that the poles are not strong enough to hold the 5G equipment and that Verizon is going to have to put cement under the poles.  That is a change that SHOULD to be approved by the taxpayers, thus it should to go to a referendum.  Legally, the changes proposed by the city council must be approved of first by the taxpayers in an election. But since no one asked, city hall didn’t let the taxpayers know their rights. A little trick City Hall has played for many years – don’t tell citizens what is going on, have only back room meetings with the major players, then tell the public once it is too late to do anything, or at least have time to organize. Could this be illegal? Not sure. Every city has a constitution (charter), a document of formation.  You will find that Sioux Falls probably needs public approval before doing something as fundamental as allowing a private corporation to change the way the utilities operate.

Can we stop 5G in Sioux Falls? Or is it too late because we ‘missed the boat’?

UPDATE: Remember me telling you that the City of Houston, TX rolled out 5G the same way Sioux Falls did, which triggered the industry to give Mayor Turner a CITA award.

Let’s talk about Mayor Turner and just how corrupt he is, TenHaken could be so jealous;

“More than 70 percent of the money that has been donated to this mayor comes from people doing business with the city,” Buzbee said. “It spiked in the last six months. Do you know why it spiked? Because they finally figured out how they’re gonna distribute the $1.18 billion that’s coming from Washington and so now people are in — these engineers, architects, consultants —out of state entities.”

Just go back and look at TenHaken’s donor list.

Informational Meeting, 4 PM (Carnegie Town Hall – SF)

Storm Drainage overview presentation

Lincoln County Joint Meeting, 7 PM (Commission Chambers, Canton)

Rezone of Ag Land to Commercial Property, more SPRAWL in Lincoln County.

The 2019 City Employee salaries was supposed to be posted already. Last year it was posted by Jan 8th.

I’m wondering if the delay has to do with some ‘rumored’ staff changes?

Supposedly the ADA Coordinator resigned this week, and two managers were hired to work under Jason Reisdorfer as an IT Manager and an Innovations Manager.

If any of this is true, all I can say is this is what happens when you hire someone with only a HS Diploma to run a massive department, they need some qualified people to do the actual ‘Heavy Lifting’. Maybe this is why TenHaken hired Beck? Not sure what bet he lost that forced him to hire T.J. TypeOver?

Not sure what happened with the ADA Coordinator. I do know that the past mayor did appreciate her in the position, so it may have been a ‘philosophical’ disagreement with the current administration. It is probably a very stressful and demanding job, and maybe she just needed a break? I also know that TenHaken has been mysteriously silent about his feelings about the LGBTQ community.

While I’m still waiting for the 2019 salary report to come out, I have some ‘early’ returns.

COS Erica Beck’s salary is $161K + $28K in benefits.

In comparison, Mayor TenHaken’s salary is $128K + $42K in benefits (Salary is controlled by ordinance and not performance or education).

Also, City Councilor’s yearly salary is $19K plus $200 month stipend for gas and phone. They are ineligible for retirement or healthcare benefits even though other cities and counties across the state allow it.

Like I said, once I get the full salary report, I will have more names to add.

I have often felt that NONE of the Mayor’s ‘support staff’ should get paid more than him. For example, when looking at the 2018 salaries, the former mayor’s secretary (who is still with the city) was getting $63K + Benefits and his communications manager was getting $75K + Benefits. Also, the Operations manager for the city council will make around $100K this year, and he has to support 8 people instead of just one.

I also find it a bit ironic when you see these corporate like pay scales in public service (government is not like private business).

Just read this story when you want to have comparable wages in the private sector in SD;

The News Watch analysis of 2017 wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics within the U.S. Department of Labor showed that:

• Roughly 21 percent of employed South Dakota residents, about 87,000 people, make under $30,000 a year; 41 percent of employed South Dakota residents, about 169,400 people, make under $35,000 a year, and 71 percent of employed South Dakota residents, about 292,000 people, make under $40,000 a year.
• Out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, South Dakota is third lowest in average annual pay at $40,770, with the national average at $55,470. The state is also at or near the bottom nationally for average pay in several occupational sectors, including office and administrative support (51st), architecture/engineering (51st), education (50th), production workers (50th), life/physical/social sciences (50th), construction and extraction (50th), arts/design/sports/media (50th), computer and mathematical (49th), community and social services (48th), legal (47th), transportation and materials movement (45th), community and social services (47th) and business and financial operations (44th).
• While doctors, medical specialists, dentists and CEOs are among the highest paid, the support staffs that work for them are among the lowest paid.

Isn’t it sad that about 71% of employed people in SD make under $40K a year and the mayor’s COS makes 4X that in the public sector. What is even more troubling is that TenHaken calls himself a fiscal conservative because he is of Dutch decent, yet pays corporate like wages on the taxpayer’s dime. I guess he is only conservative when it comes to HIS money, not ours.

I also find it a bit ironic that this story has been long overdue, and where did it come from? The local MSM? The AP? Maybe PBS? Nope. From a Non-Profit online news organization.

So this was surprising;

The hunter has become the hunted. Newspaper publisher Gannett Co. may find it difficult to resist the advances of an activist investor and potential buyer.

MNG Enterprises Inc., the owner of the Boston Herald and Denver Post that’s backed by hedge fund Alden Global Capital, on Monday disclosed a 7.5 percent stake in Gannett and made an unsolicited offer to acquire it.

Someone wants to buy Gannett? Uh, okay. If it happens, I’m sure there will be changes to staff and content. I guess it all depends on if someone buys it.

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