Looks like they already have by letting his staff phone in his answer in a story last night about panhandling;
Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken’s office provided KELOLAND News the following statement from him on the topic:
I think this is unfair to his opponents for several reasons. This was clearly a story about what the ‘candidates’ think about the signs and Paul should have answered the question directly as a ‘candidate’ instead of tasking his paid by taxpayers staff and SFPD communications officer answering for him. This is ethically questionable since he is having paid city staff answer campaign questions. The only people who should have answered that question was Paul or someone from his campaign.
If the media doing this story had any integrity they would have NOT aired the story without a direct response from Paul and if they could not get one, run it with just his opponent’s response or NOT at all.
This was the little game he played when running last time, acting as though he didn’t have any competition and the media playing along and letting him sneak under the radar. In the future the media needs to start treating him like a candidate (since he does have 2 competitors now) especially when one of his opponents brings up a concern, and if he doesn’t want to respond as a candidate, then don’t run his canned response.
I also wonder if Stormland TV reached out to his other opponent for a response?
Paul is a declared candidate now and he has two declared opponents, he needs to be treated like a candidate and not a cruise control, phone in, part-time Mayor. If he has time to tell Dad jokes for 10 minutes on FB, he has time to answer an on camera question from the media.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I want to make it clear, this is NOT an attack on the journalist who did this story, just a critique of how this ONE article was handled. Overall I thought it was a good article, it was Paul’s lackluster response that tarnished it.
Nothing should surprise us anymore in the world of Trumplicanism. Just look reich here in Sioux Falls where we have city funded theocracy in our government, anywhere from snowplows to Sunday school classes (youth council).
But this past week we had a few eye openers when we found out members of our legislature were members of the Anti-Government group called the Oath Keepers, a right wing, militia, white nationalist, anti-government group. State legislators, Phil Jensen and Jim Stalzer have said very little about their involvement. But I will. Not only should they be removed from the legislature immediately, they should be sitting in Federal Prison for treason. It’s one thing to be upset that our tax dollars went to these obvious jackasses, it’s another thing to commit treason. Their membership was a violation of their oath they took while serving in the legislature. That is called treason, it doesn’t have any other definition.
Then there is the case of the AG Rumblestrips getting away with killing a man while playing with his phone, or the governor abusing her power when it comes to using state airplanes and helping her daughter pass a quiz (heard she flunked numerous times).
Oh, then we had this fantastic event at the SD State Fair where the opposing party, Fair security, the local police and the sheriff’s office refused to intervene on these terrorist like acts;
This year, pro-Trump idiots repeatedly invaded the South Dakota Democratic Party Building. They harassed and swore at volunteers, destroyed campaign material and tried to record and harass Democrats who were simply seeking to communicate with fellow South Dakotans.
I think we are beyond the ‘Basket of Deplorables’ at this point. Let’s call a spade a spade. This is an act of domestic terrorism being disguised as partisan politics and enabled by the kook bird krazies called the SD Republican Party.
Why aren’t party leaders denouncing this? Maybe because the party leader Iowa Dan is too busy trying to help his Iowan business buddies run a muck pipeline through our state.
How can we stop this madness? Stop electing these clowns would be the first step. But with the ones that still remain, we need to bring charges, arrest them and prosecute them. This is not just political bullying, these acts violate local, state and federal laws, punishable by fines, resignation and jail time.
While I tend to be a turn the other cheek when it comes to the violent nature of these ass clowns, we can fight them with FREE speech. Talk to your friends about how the SD GOP has become the party of domestic terrorism, and be genuine and very vocal about it. Let’s stop treating this like a partisan FB and Twitter fight and call it what it really is. Maybe voters who actually believe in peace and justice will step up and throw them to the curb. We can’t sustain 50 more years of this Authoritarian Fascist state in South Dakota. Something has got to give.
While I won’t list the names and the parents of some of the kids in this program, it is pretty easy to link some of them to children of Paul’s friends;
In the dozens of applications for the Council, it is abundantly clear that the young people of Sioux Falls are passionate about their community.
So was this a matter of providing an experience to some kids that are ‘connected’ or is it that they just didn’t have enough applicants? I would be curious how they were chosen? If I were the mayor I would have avoided picking any youth that are children of my friends or connected business people in town. But we know that isn’t how he operates. He has to feel some kind of security in his fake leadership.
Just look how one local TV station won’t touch Poops with a 10 Foot Pole with controversial news coverage due to his friendship with their lead reporter.
And how does it affect the kids in the group that ARE not connected? What will they learn from the experience?
Why weren’t there any students from O’Gorman but there were ones from SF Christian? (Dutch Reform and the Minnow Munchers are not exactly BFFs)
So like most things Poops does, it’s all about image and very little about substance.
The next time he wants to have bible study with his friend’s kids, he can do it on his own time and call it what is really is, Sunday School.
The Sioux Falls City Council voted to discontinue parking at a downtown surface lot, as well as declare it surplus property — the first steps in a plan that could add a four-story building and 150 apartments to downtown Sioux Falls.
The pair of 8-0 votes were taken in relation to a 0.5 acre surface parking lot at 400 S. 1st Ave., one of two lots that have been up for sale since September 2020.
The project is not final, with Powers noting the resolutions passed by the council would enable the city to enter into negotiations on the sale of the lot, which was appraised last year at $502,000.
In an informational meeting earlier this year, Soehl had said he didn’t believe the lot could legally be declared surplus, and called the system of informing the council about submitted proposals “inadequate.”
Basically, as I predicted on Sunday (item #47), a backroom deal was concocted with the developer, which seems to be an odd coincidence considering Mayor TenHaken’s Chief of Shaft, Erica Beck, was a former executive with the company and the developer has continued to receive tax incentives, TIFs, land discounts and other goodies from this administration and council.
Just look at the appraisal price. It is laughable considering that an unblighted lot, on prime downtown property with plenty of access to sewer, water, gas and electrical would only be worth $500K. That lot should go for at least 4 times that amount. I would be curious who appraised this lot and how many appraisals were done? Good luck with that request.
While the City Council wrings their hands about how this deal is being done, they voted for it and refuse to remedy the issue. Oh that’s right, because most of their butts are owned by the banksters, bondsters and developers in town, and they know it. This also should NOT have been voted on as a resolution as ‘surplus’ after a deal was already done with a developer without a proper RFP process. The lot should have been voted on as surplus before ANY developer put in a bid. A little game of the cart before the horse. There should have also been a recommendation to only allow workforce housing be sold at the location. Instead, it appears these will be higher rents. The inept council has had ZERO control of this process from the beginning, but golly gee they sure let the city staff have it by voting 8-0 to approve 🙁
The WAR on transparency and open government continues and the rubberstamp council just plays along while ‘pretending’ they are concerned.
The last report to show up on the Pavilion’s site is 2018. If you do a search of city council informational meetings you are unable to find the last time the Pavilion has presented an annual report to the City Council. I guess I’m curious why the 2019 and 2020 annual reports are missing? The Great Plains Zoo will be presenting their annual report to the Parks Board on Wednesday (no supporting docs).
I would also like to see what the financials are for the Levitt from this past season (we may not see those until next spring).
I am often curious how organizations that receive millions in tax dollars to subsidize and provide maintenance to their facilities can just skirt providing financial reports to the citizens or don’t even post them online to at least view. This is what happens when you have a city ran by a cruise control mayor who hates open and transparent government, or maybe he just doesn’t understand it?
CHIEF CULTURAL OFFICER RESIGNS?
In more cruise control government ineptness, the rumor is that the Chief Cultural Officer that the Mayor so desperately needed has resigned and leaving the city this week. If true, I find the timing ironic considering several councilors have asked publicly at meetings when they will get a review about what she has contributed to the city since her position was created. I guess the best way to get out of giving a report is to quit. LOL.
As you can see the City Council will meet on Monday instead of Tuesday this week. Have no idea why, because, as you know, this council and administration are not real big on transparency.
At the informational meeting they will discuss the September financials and a sewer study (which means spending more money 🙁 and a fun filled executive session. Is it just me, or does this administration have an unusual amount of these? Oh, right, the secrecy and corruption thing again.
At the regular city council meeting, it is pretty sleepy except for item #6, Approval of Contracts, Sub-item #9; Engagement Agreement to Provide Legal Services as Plaintiff’s Counsel, Woods Fuller Shultz & Smith P.C., $20K. Could we be more vague? It seems this administration is getting sued quite a bit. Who is the ‘Plaintiff’? Is it a city employee? An elected official? Shall we play Bingo to figure it out?
Item #31, 1st Reading, addresses the Historic Neighborhood vote the Planning Commission decided to throw into the consent agenda and have a zero discussion about.
Item #43, 1st Reading, raises the vacant building fee from $200 per year to $1,000 per year. I fully support this. I have a property owner in my neighborhood who has had 3 vacant houses and several other commercial buildings for several years (10 years? 15th and Cliff). They have now become a dumping ground for his junk vehicles, tractors, trailers and whatever other crap he can throw there. I have pressured the city numerous times to at least get him to clean up the property and rent out the houses with NO avail. But as I have said in the past, it isn’t happening on White Church Lane, so it doesn’t matter.
Items #45-46, resolutions, more (Covid) money to welfare queens, Lewis & Clark. Once these guys see a government tap of money, they come a running, and now strangely, the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, City Council is authorizing monies from the State of Iowa. Did GOP chair, Iowa Dan Lederman have something to do with this?
Item #47, As we all know, the city plans to sell the parking lot directly South of the downtown Ace Hardware to Lloyd properties to build an apartment building. I may be wrong about the developer, but this sh!t show has been in the works for so long, if they sold it to someone else I would be totally shocked. This, of course, is what happens when you have a former executive from the company working as the mayor’s chief of shaft. It will be curious what kind of ‘deal’ they receive for the property and other tax incentive goodies for building an apartment building in the heart of downtown.
Item #48 is curious since there is NO attached documents telling us what this surplus property is. Shady I tell yah, very Shady!
While I understand peeps frustration in Stapleton cancelling his show last night(he really could have done it earlier in the day) I really think this could be a lesson in local economic impact. As we know, the Denty hasn’t really helped the economy in Sioux Falls that much, in fact it is a drain of over $10 million a year to taxpayers, money that could be spent on needed infrastructure instead. As I have said before, besides the little bit of tax revenue we draw from the place each year, almost 100% of the money that is spent at the facility goes straight down the highway. The promoters, management companies (beverage and food included) and the artists get the lion’s share and take it straight out of town. Very little gets recirculated in the community.
But last night, I saw something amazing in DTSF. The streets were filled with flannel wearing, boot scootin’ concert goers that were stuck in town for the night without a show to go to. They were spending the money they intended to throw away at the Denty in our town at local businesses instead of to a corporate giant.
It would be interesting to see what the sales tax boost to the city was from last night.
One of the main reasons I opposed the Denty, wasn’t because of the price tag, it was because it would not benefit local business. When people are dropping $400 per person in one night (tickets, beverages, taxi, hotel, etc.) basically in one place, they have blown their entertainment budget for several months and not spending it locally.
I remember a time around 10-15 years ago when you had oodles of options to see live music and entertainment at a host of different venues. And not just local yocals but National and Regional acts. The money spent got recirculated in our community.
Just like clockwork, the Jesus plows appear in the Fall. It’s like our own little version of the Taliban. Like Afghanistan, let’s end this war with the US Constitution.
The first round of the Minnesota State High School Football section playoffs began Thursday night, and in section 3AAA, Luverne knocked off Worthington 23-7.
