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I will be straightforward about this, we need to pack Carnegie Hall next Tuesday night at 7 PM for the vote on the snowgate election resolution. Whether you agree with snowgates or not is not the matter at hand, this is about doing the right thing and calling the election ASAP. That would be in the Spring of 2013. Let the public vote on the matter. I know that only 3 councilors have expressed that they support the Spring Election (Staggers, Jamison, Anderson) and 2 councilors yesterday basically said that they oppose the Spring 2013 election (Entenman, Aguliar).
This is what I am asking from you;
1) Show up next Tuesday, and if you are too shy to testify, that is okay, your presence alone will help the cause. But I do encourage you to talk.
2) Call these 4 councilors and encourage them to vote for the Spring 2013 election. Explain to them that this is about ‘doing the right thing’ and honoring the will of the petition signers. Above and beyond anything else, that is the REAL job of our elected officials, doing what is right for the public good.
Councilor Dean Karsky • 351-8571
Councilor Jim Entenman • 334-2721
Councilor Michelle Erpenbach • 321-0793
Councilor Sue Aguilar • 334-8245
I would also like to remind any of the councilors that may still be on the fence about when to have the election that over 7,000 signatures were verified. That is WELL OVERÂ some of them got in votes to be elected to council;
STAGGERS: 6,793 (At-Large)
JAMISON: 1,406
ANDERSON: 1,399
KARSKY: 1,552
ENTENMAN: 16,609 (At-Large)
AGULIAR: 4,058
ERPENBACH: 2,466
ROLFING: 11,269 (At-Large)
As you know, I have been after this for awhile, and to tell you the truth my patience boiled over on Monday afternoon, when just the week earlier I was told that SIRE works ‘just fine.’
As I logged into the city website on Monday at 4 PM, I noticed the audit committee meeting was not viewable. I first called the clerk’s office. Assistant city clerk Denise verified that indeed SIRE was not working (I already knew that) so once again, the finger pointing started all over again. She blamed Central Services and basically had the same attitude I have been fighting on this topic for months, no accountability. I had some time on my hands Monday afternoon, so a began a barage of calls. First to the head of Central Services, Sue. Left a message, no answer. Then I called the mayor’s office, where I also left a message. Within 5 minutes or so I get a call from Jon Klemme, head of IT for the city. I wish I would have recorded our nearly 45 minute conversation. We got into about censorship, contracts, conspiracies, finger pointing, accountability, tax dollars, archives, etc. etc. I finally couldn’t listen to the excuse machine any longer and told Jon to have a nice evening, and I hung up on him.
I contacted Huether in an email on Tuesday morning, first of all apologizing for my tirades, and secondly pleading with him to fix the problem already. Well by yesterday afternoon at the informational meeting a press release was read. They finally ‘realized’ there was a problem, and they are going to have it fixed, hopefully this week.
So no, I wasn’t imagining it, the system is broke.
Release Date: December 11, 2012
Contact: Â Jon Klemme, Information Technology Manager
Phone: 367-8841
City Council Web Streaming
Sioux Falls, South Dakota: We are experiencing a failure with an audio/visual component at the Carnegie Town Hall. As a result, web streaming may not be available for today’s meetings. You may watch the meetings live on CityLink cable TV.
We got recent news that the snowgate petitions have been verified, and they are good. City clerk Hogstad will be making a presentation on Tuesday about it. Now it will be up to city council to call a date of an election. We are not sure where they are going with it, but they bascially have two choices. Spring 2013 or 2014. We hope they choose this Spring.
What is not clarified is if the Public Works department will test them properly this year. But we have been organizing a crew of volunteers to watch, video tape and photograph city snowplows using them. It’s 1984 all over again, except it’s the other way around.
I also have word that Henke (they make the Hi-Gate, the best snowgate in the business, that we are testing this year) is willing to come to SF and help the operators maximize their usage with free consulting. They also contend that after a snowplow operator is properly trained on the equipment they can run the plows up to 20 MPH.
See all the stuff below the red line? We paid for it. Another beautification project for a PRIVATE wealthy developer paid for by you and me.
But seriously folks, let’s be ‘PRUDENT’ about snowgates.
l3wis