And the trends are looking remarkably MINUSCAR!
While I find this data pretty fricking cool and am worried about something;
Notice that public transportation ridership is down from 1999. I hope the new council and mayor do something about it. I know that Huether and the the council candidates talked about fixing public transportation in Sioux Falls, and I hope they follow thru.
I first want to give my thanks to Deb Klebanoff for serving local artists for as long as she did. While I did not agree with her on a multitude of issues, I will admit she worked hard to try to have a mission for SEAC and she was up against some major players;
Deb Klebanoff, executive director of the Sioux Empire Arts Council since 2002, has resigned. Klebanoff, 55, turned in her resignation Friday and no longer is at the council’s headquarters at the Horse Barn Art Center in Falls Park. She said her departure is something she’s been thinking about “for a long time,” and she’s ready to enjoy time off.
I truly believe that this was Deb’s doing. I think she was finally fed up with all the bullshit. Good for her.
“It’s a huge weight off my shoulders, waking up at night wondering how to get things funded and how to get things moving in a new direction,” she said. “The resignation comes from me. It’s my idea.”
And why do I THINK Deb left? First off the huge conflict of interest that exists on it’s board;
“A new director will have some big shoes to fill,” said David Merhib, president of the council’s board of directors. “Over the last eight years, she has made relentless efforts to strengthen the arts in our region.”
Yes, that’s right kiddies, the board president of SEAC is also the director of the visual arts center at the Pavilion. This of course is not a surprise. Merhib was made aware of the many conflict of interests that exist on his own VAC board and fundraisers like ‘Arts Night’ and chose to do nothing about them. While many times the local media has focused on the financial problems at the Pavilion they often never talk about the management issues in the big purple building. How does a place that can’t even manage itself out of a wet paper bag get off advising other arts groups in our community? It reminds me of the time the Pavilion tried to get the contract for the Orpheum theatre and the city went with SMG instead (who has done a fine job of making the place useful). The Pavilion management needs to worry about one thing; THE PAVILION! and keep their f’ing noses out of other non-profit arts orgs in town. Why? Because they do not view these other organizations as beneficial to our community, they view them as competition, and that is really sad.
I was a guest on Scott’s radio show and picked all the music for this episode.
Gotta hand it to Mike, he figured out something in 3 days that Munson couldn’t figure out in 8 years; Infrastructure upgrades should be the city’s top priority. Well, I never said he was a dummy (Mike that is) And Mike is keeping at least one campaign promise. Fix the damn streets already;
SIOUX FALLS, SD – Back in February, mayoral candidate Mike Huether stood in front of the Chamber of Commerce building and said the city needs to do a better job of filling potholes.
Today, Mayor Mike Huether outlined details of a plan to reallocate $2 million to fix the problem.
It is estimated that the city is over $100 million behind on street repairs. So while $2 million will be a shot in the arm, it certainly won’t fix the problem. But I will give him credit for getting a jump on it. The 2011 budget will have to have a SIGNIFICANT amount of money going to road repairs. So sorry Zebras and Giraffes you will just have to wait another year for your new crappers.
The original story was about recent shakeups at City Hall, including replacing the City Attorney (Maybe Todd Epp will apply, heard he needs a job 🙂 But the story ends with a little tit-for-tat between Mike and Vernon;
Councilor Vernon Brown, who ran against Huether for mayor, said time will tell.
“It’s too soon to tell on how the communication will go,” he said.
Brown is more concerned about the secrecy of Huether’s transition team.
On Monday, Huether said he would not name the group of people who are helping him choose directors because personnel matters are a confidential process.
“I really would encourage him to let the voters know who’s advising him. I think a transition team is very important and should be open and transparent,” Brown said.
Brown said he also has heard from residents who were concerned about Huether not revealing the names.
“I don’t expect there were a lot of citizens who were concerned. I suspect the person who was concerned was Mr. Brown,” Huether said.
This pains me, but I have a feeling I will be siding with Vernon quite a bit in the coming days. Trust me Mike, many citizens and people in the media are concerned about you not being transparent about your transition team, when you are promising transparency. You can’t have it both ways. Munson understood that, and simply just withheld information from the public. Keep talking out of both sides of your mouth and find out where it gets you.
Rumor has it that former city planner, Steve Metli is one of the members of the transition team, no wonder he wants to keep it a secret. If this is true, I find it ironic that a mayor that preaches change would bring in someone from the OLD GUARD.
l3wis