Turn, Turn, Turn
April 6th, 2020 — Music
A Proclamation Statement Advisory Non-Legally Binding piece of paper
April 6th, 2020 — Corona Virus, Kristi Noem, Mayor TenHaken, Sioux Falls, South Dakotans
Both Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken and Governor Noem have issued stay at home orders that have zero teeth (but nice stamps on them). It reminds when they tell you to seek shelter in the basement when you hear a tornado siren (if it goes off), but you don’t really have to.
Like I have said, I’m still on the fence of what employers should stay open and what employers should not, but if you are going to have a stay at home order, you need to make it legally binding, otherwise it has just as much value as a virtual birthday card.
Most people already have gotten the message from the Feds and CDC, stay home, wear masks, keep distance. How is the messages from Paul and Kristi any different if they don’t have legal teeth?
They mean nothing.
I of course do not envy their jobs right now, but they did sign up for this. That means leaders make hard decisions after consulting experts. You already did the consulting, you already did the advising, now it is time to make a firm decision backed up by law. And if your legal team is not willing to make that happen, they need to be sent on a permanent stay at home order. It is not the time to play Libertarian Conservative Cowboy. You can’t have it both ways. You are either for public safety and health or the free enterprise system. With this virus, they cannot co-exist. Once we get over the peak, we can concentrate on bringing the economy back, but it can’t happen with a bunch of sick and dead people. Now is not the time to be eating cake.
Noem seems to be concerned SD is going to turn into a communist country
April 4th, 2020 — Kristi Noem, Mayor TenHaken, SF City Council, Sioux Falls
Love it when our Supreme Leader makes the news;
In explaining her rationale against issuing a stay-at-home order, Gov. Kristi Noem told reporters, “The people themselves are primarily responsible for their safety.” She also pointed to the state and national constitutions that “prevent us from taking draconian measures much like the Chinese government has done.”
I have been told over the past week by several lawyers, specializing in municipal law and having experience with the Home Rule Charter, that the mayor has broad power when it comes to these kind of orders. The state legislature and governor have zero powers over our Charter when it comes to public health and safety of our community. The mayor or the city council can easily put ordinances in place that direct our public health officer to put for measures in place and enforce them, and the governor can’t do a damn thing about it except whine a little.
Trust me, I’m still on the fence as to if and when we would do it, but I think it is perfectly legal and can be done within a 24 hour period, not 5 days like PTH continues to say.
Sioux Falls is not Milbank or Mobridge. We are at a greater risk, and what could be safe in those towns, just isn’t safe in Sioux Falls. How can we rely or depend on the Governor to make those decisions for us, or the drunken sailors we call our state legislature (what a f’ing embarrassment).
Think about it. How is it ‘legal’ to close restaurants and bars that are private sector employers but not credit card call centers (that could easily have workers work safely from home) without laying them off? I will be working from home next week and all my employer asked of me was to have a working PC, internet and if I didn’t have a PC I could borrow one. I will have remote access to my work computer thru the internet. It really is that simple.
I believe it was legal to shut down restaurants due to health department concerns, and I think they have the same legal right to close other non-essential employers.
I told a restaurant owner that it is discrimination to say one private sector business has to be closed while the other doesn’t. And their legal arguments are laughable about closing one but not the other.
I have been of the contention that it is all or nothing. Either you shut down all non-essential employers with 10 or more employees or none at all.
The tricky part is we don’t know what that magical time frame is. The modeling on this virus has been all over the map. One day we are told 100K will die the next we are told 2 million. I do believe though Sioux Falls has a very short window to make that decision. I think they should also be cautious how they approach it, while legal, it also has to be timed properly. I have suggested to city councilors (who may be drafting something) that if you do it (stay at home order) it should be short (2 weeks) with an option to review and renew every 2 weeks. This gives them time to evaluate if it is working or not without being totally detrimental to the economy. Let’s face it, some people have to work, we can’t get around it. But we must make these decisions with a scalpel and not a machete.
Have a drink on me!
April 3rd, 2020 — Cartoon, State Legislature
R.I.P. Bill Withers
April 3rd, 2020 — Music
Sioux Falls City Election, YES on A, NO on B
April 3rd, 2020 — Charter Revision Commission, Elections, Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls Charter Revision Commission, Triple Check the Charter
As people have been absentee voting, many have asked me how to vote on the amendments. Amendment ‘A’ is pretty easy to understand. Amendment ‘B’ is a little more complicated, but I will lay it out for you 1) VOTE NO 2) If this was as simple as following state law, the council would have passed this already, they did not, because it is more complicated than that 3) this would increase the number of signatures you would need to petition our city charter. It should be made easier to petition our local government not harder. This is simply an attempt to justify the questionable rules that were implemented on Triple Check the Charter. How can you apply rules to petitioning when citizens haven’t approved those rules yet? VOTE NO!
Stop making fun of my sneakers!
April 3rd, 2020 — Corona Virus, Mayor TenHaken, Sioux Falls
Upset because we’re tired of the leadership led Goat Roping, watch this thin skin report from Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken. Instead of dealing with the problems at hand, the mayor goes Trumpster.
Blaming everyone else instead of their incompetence is the city of Sioux Falls response. Blaming the inaction of the city on commenters and news reports of their inaction is uncalled for. You do not lead successfully by scraping the bottom of a barrel unless you are looking for gold flakes while mining.
Oh, and Paul, respect is earned not automatically granted to elected officials. You work for us, not the other way around. You ‘signed up this’ whether you knew it or not. If you can’t stand the heat in the kitchen, get out now.
BTW, why wasn’t this press conference shown live on Sioux Falls City Link / Channel 16?
Jack Billion and Frank Kloucek Encourage Use of Face Masks in Public
April 3rd, 2020 — Corona Virus
Retired Doctor of Orthopedic Medicine Dr Jack Billion of Sioux Falls, and retired 22 year legislator Frank Kloucek of Scotland, ask South Dakotan’s to stay home, but when you must go out wear face masks in all public spaces like grocery stores.
“The recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology study has proven that Corvid droplets from humans can travel up to 27 feet in laboratory conditions. The implementation of dust mask or face mask policies should have been mandated long ago,” said Kloucek.
Jack Billion said “We need to look at the world around us and see what is working in the fight against the Corvid 19 virus. Face masks are working to reduce the infection rate. Please use them when you go out into the public.”
“The Czech Republic has mandated face masks for office workers and in all public situations. If the Czech Republic can do this why can not we at least voluntarily do so. One can be a carrier of this disease and not know it. To protect yourself and others – please wear a face mask. It falls to us to protect our communities.” Kloucek concluded.
UPDATE: Sioux Falls Healthcare to have a big announcement tomorrow
April 1st, 2020 — Uncategorized
UPDATE: What was supposed to be announced today is the healthcare systems plans to combat the pandemic, and they did touch on it a little bit in the city’s press conference today. Hopefully we will hear more later. Also, the 2nd part is that at least one of the hospitals have sent all non-essential employees home if they can work from there. Not sure what will happen with the ones that cannot work from home.
Mayor TenHaken said today that there will be an announcement tomorrow. I’ve heard what it is, and it is going to be shocking. I just wanted to be on record to be prepared. I have had several employees reach out to me about what they think it is, but I will leave it for the official announcement. Let’s just say they are preparing for the pandemic to hit Sioux Falls, but not in the way you would expect. Let’s hope the predictions are wrong.
One Sioux Falls
April 1st, 2020 — Uncategorized
This was a presentation that was only given and shared with city employees until given to DaCola by one of those employees, enjoy. Transparency, it is what we strive for.
