April 2012

Guest Post: The Election Process – Part I

(I will be posting a series written by a guest about the election process. This is Part I)

Let’s be honest, how many of us really understand what is going on in our city hall?  We think we know some parts but we question why other stupid things keep happening. This confusion is not accidental it actually is conspiratorial. Sit back and let me explain.

A long time ago (1964) a man and movement was defeated in their quest for the presidency of the United States.  You may ask, “what does this have to do with the Sioux Falls City Hall mess?”

More to come . . .

 

UPDATED: “I don’t care about conflicts of interest!” Apparently not.

UPDATED: This is why things need to come out, so we can clear up any confusion. Jim’s brother DOES NOT own the property, but does lease the West Sioux building that is on the property. From a commenter on BID Facebook page;

Just as a point of clarification, the owners of this property, that I am the listing broker for, are not Entenmans. They are a couple from Canistota who bought the property from J&L Storage, Inc., back in April of 2001. The current owners have made a number of improvements to the property since buying it in 2001. West Sioux Exhaust is a tenant in one of the buildings on this site, and not the owner of the building. There are also several other tenants who are leasing space in this building from my clients. My clients are certainly hoping that the events center may create additional interest in the property, but they have nothing to do with the events center or the vote on it (since they live in Canistota, they could not even vote on the issue), and the asking price was arrived at based on the capitalization rate for the rental income currently being generated from the property.

Hildebrand has proven (even if the ethics commission could not) that Entenman truly does have a conflict of interest with property adjacent to the new Events Center;

And who can forget this heartwarming story on Stormland-TV News;

Section 12.5-30 of Sioux Falls City Ordinance say that city officials shall not:

“Participate or vote in any other matters in which they may have a direct or indirect financial interest, or in which an immediate family member has a direct or indirect financial interest.”

This Choo-Choo train ain’t going anywhere

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syxPU7CmCW4[/youtube]

If only we had Thomas to help us out!

A big part of the downtown Sioux Falls rail yard relocation project has been derailed. City officials say the railroad company has killed plans that would have routed trains on a Y-Bridge over the Big Sioux River to a proposed new yard northeast of Sioux Falls.

“They are just willing to accept the fact that things are hunky-dory the way they are,” said city councilor Jim Entenman. “And they can stay the way they are and they don’t have to participate.”

You mean you just figured that out today? Wow! Where have you been the last couple of years? On a beach in Mexico? Oh, yeah, nevermind. The Railroads have been happy with the way things are for over 100 years in Sioux Falls, why change now?

 

Think we have problems in SF with municipal elections?

Anchorage just had a doozy . . .

Embattled Anchorage Election Clerk Seen Partying With ‘Winning’ Mayor from Her Disastrous Election

Oh, neato. Remember that recent disastrous Anchorage, Alaska election I told you about, during which voters were turned away all across the city because not enough ballots were distributed, and where the Deputy Municipal Clerk Jacqueline Duke, responsible for ballot and voting machine distribution, admitted to me that she had told poll workers not to worry if they found voting machine security seals broken on the morning of the election?

Aside from Prop 5, a ballot measure which would have extended anti-discrimination protection to the LGBT community — which a pre-election poll predicted would win by 9 points (before the Diebold computer tabulators reported that it lost by 16 points) — Anchorage’s Mayor Dan Sullivan was also on the ballot that day.

Unlike Prop 5, however, the anti-Prop 5 mayor reportedly won, according to the Diebold op-scan tabulators, by almost the same exact margin that the same pre-election poll had predicted he would.

And, whaddaya know? There’s Mayor Sullivan himself, in the photo above, seen celebrating on St. Patrick’s Day with none other than his old employee [PDF] turned Anchorage Deputy Municipal Clerk Jacqueline Duke! (She’s the one on the right.)

Neat, eh? I wonder why, according to a source of Alaska radio host, blogger and election integrity advocateShannyn Moore, Duke scrubbed that photo from her Facebook page recently. I tried to find out and get confirmation, but Duke didn’t respond to the email I sent to the address she gave me when we spoke. As a matter of fact, according to The Mudflats’ Linda Kellen Biegel, who tried to ask Duke a question at a recent Election Commission meeting called to investigate the continuing mess, the Deputy Municipal Clerk is no longer allowed to speak to anyone in the media.

Wonder why. Was it something she said?

Our recent election is not just a kinda, sorta, it happened accidentally thingy, as we are led to believe by city clerk’s office. This is an actual organized operation throughout the United States to take control of local election operations and then to limit who can and will vote. Debra Owen was not fired for any incompetence, but most likely for her competence. Salesmen like Huether, Karsky, Erpenbach or Diamond Jim do not want anyone around who would question their actions. By ridding themselves of competent advisors, they will always have deniability. The new Clerk will be thrown under the bus at first chance as a scapegoat.

Look at all the city management / department heads and try to find the level of competence / incompetence. No successfully run business would keep most of them in their positions. A successful business person trying to make a business successful wants innovation and daily competence. A ‘wannabe’ successful manager of a business wants individuals working with them who will give them “High Fives” or “yes” answers for schemes they can get by with.

When I propose work for a potential client, I interview them as much as they interview me. I want to see in their face before I sign on or if they are a schemer-follower manager or an innovation-leader manager. Guess which we have as a mayor / council majority?

(The Big ‘B’ contributed to this post)