UPDATE: I am being told the big reveal for Aquatics Bonds will be at the Wednesday Presser or at the State of the City address on Thursday. I assume they will release the details on Wednesday. Obviously councilors are NOT talking because the admin will put the data out there, BUT, at least two councilors told me they are concerned about how much we will be subsidizing the new facilities and that up until now the Parks Department and Mayor’s office has not released that data, as I am sure they won’t. As I mentioned before we already subsidize the Midco for over a Million a year. Add 2 or 3 more facilities and you are looking at a massive 30 year expense in maintenance, bond repayment and subsidies. So here is my request from the media. ASK THE QUESTION!!! HOW MUCH WILL WE BE SUBSIDIZING THESE FACILITIES?!

As I mentioned before, the current council’s last meeting is May 21. So between then and now they have to approve the aquatics bonds. The Parks Board has a monthly meeting around the 2nd or 3rd week of the month. As you can see, it has been suddenly cancelled. They were set to hear the bond details. I will be surprised if this council even gets to vote on the bonds, the way they continue to kick the can down the road tells me they are stalling. But why? I’m guessing the rumors I have been hearing about what is in there is probably becoming even more challenging to negotiate and you wonder if a deal may have fell thru.

Who knows?

I did have one small victory last week with the city and I will report about it in May once I review the materials.

I took last week off, but interestingly enough, there isn’t much going on in the city politics world. There are a few things brewing, but nothing worth talking about now. Let’s just say I think the bottom is going to fall out all at the same time.

As for the runoff, I haven’t spoken with either campaign, so I have no idea how they are reaching voters. I think turnout will be half of what the general was, so it will be who gets their peeps to the polls.

If I was watching from afar, I would say Jordan has more enthusiasm and has a better chance of getting his supporters to reappear. But he still has a big gap to fill.

As for Thomason, he fits the bill of council candidate, but some people question if he really stands for anything?

Even if Jordan is able to win, and his chances are just as good as Tricky Thomason’s chances, he will have a difficult time pushing an agenda the rest of the dais is not on board with. But maybe he can find a way to advocate without the chaos? Ask Big T how that worked out for her.

So excited to see Jordan pulling off a runoff. It is going to be an exciting couple of weeks!

As for Starr, a little surprising, I think the voting public has a negative view of the city council as a do nothing body as a whole. At least he beat Wade. Ick!

Candidates have been announcing since last Fall for today’s election. The mayor, the city council and the school board should have made an effort every week since then to promote the election. They have not.

They also have said nothing about early voting.

Poops apparently wasn’t looking into the mirror when he wrote this;

Polls been open 45 mins. I was voter #4 in my precinct. Absolutely terrible. No level of government impacts your day-to-day life more than local government. City council and school board seats are on the ballot today and are incredibly important in guiding our kids and our city. Please find time to get to the polls today.

Well I would agree it is terrible, but not a surprise. One of the reasons people are NOT engaged in city government is because they know very little about it, even the candidates.

Why is that? Because we have closed government. If the city was actively providing information to the citizens, they would be involved and would vote. Today’s low voter turnout (I’m predicting 14K) has been in the making for years.

Poops and his sidekick Lime Green Lambo are probably a little bit nervous, because a low voter turnout is good for the lesser known candidates because those voters tend to be informed. Two candidates told me after corresponding with constituents in various ways they were both told (separate races) by constituents they would get their vote because no other candidates in that race have reached out.

When you don’t inform the public, they stop showing up.

Speaking of elected leaders asleep at the wheel, our media has done very little to promote this election. A Dinkus over at the daily rag waited to the day before the election to write a story about candidate’s 1st Amendment rights when it comes to protesting, and he got it wrong. I want to see my candidates protesting in the streets, that means they are activists, and we need some of those peeps on the council. There was also the perjured forms by Bobbie Tibbetts that another media organization gave her a heads up on instead of running a story about it. Unbelievable! She is NOT qualified to serve. Besides the forms being doctored she is a plaintiff in the Title 9 lawsuit against the district. She will have so many conflicts it won’t even be funny. Where was the media on this candidate? Or what about councilor Selberg who hasn’t lived in their district for around two years? He is ILLEGALLY serving on the council right now.

I will say this, the Ethics Commission is going to be VERY busy after today. More to come.

Well, because in this state our legislature thinks unions are evil, so they created a state law so you don’t have to join the union to get the benefit of wage negotiation. In other words the Union and it’s paying members are helping you get better wages and benefits and you don’t have to join in South Dakota.

Besides it being unfair to the teachers who do pay in (I heard it is around 400 teachers that belong, but I may be wrong). I think the District has around 3,000 employees.

Curious why this didn’t come out during the candidate forums. Maybe the reason teachers are getting the shaft is because they have a weak union. Unions are great. My stepbrother became a union hardscaper/bricklayer right out of High School and made so much money he started his own business. Unions only work if everyone is signed up. We are so backwards in this state it is not even funny.