April 2013
l3wis Why does the SF School District have so much in reserve funds?
As I was reading this article about teacher raises (which I fully support) something else in the article concerned me;
The school district can afford the pay hike because it has spent less than it planned to for years and has an oversized reserve fund. Their 2013-14 budget alone looks to spend $6.6 million of their $22 million in general fund reserves.
$22 Million in Reserve Funds! As our property taxes continue to increase why does the school district have so much in reserves, when . . .
1) They haven’t discussed substitute teacher pay increases.
2) The city continues to give out property tax breaks in the form of TIF’s to private developers.
3) There has never been a discussion about building a public indoor pool at one of the High Schools.
It seems the school district is swimming in money, so why do my taxes continue to go up?
SF City Council continues ‘discussion’ on public input
Council chair Erpenbach just doesn’t seem to get it. She continues to want to discuss changing public input at the working sessions. Another round on the topic is planned for 4 PM today.
2. Public Input Discussion
Here’s the deal, if you have a problem the 5 minute rule, go before the charter revision commission and ask them to change it, otherwise there is NOTHING to discuss. It is time to DROP it, and follow city ordinance.
‘Turn in your neighbors’ water bill insert
Just as the mayor is telling everyone to be ‘neighborly’ they decide to send out this insert telling you how to turn in your neighbors for having old cars and such. Don’t forget to post it on your refrigerator!
‘Operation Branch Snatch’
And why does his name have to be on this banner? Always wear a suit when helping your neighbors trim branches.
Gee, can’t tell our mayor comes from a marketing and advertising background. He even had to have a spiffy logo made up to tell us about cleaning up branches. Really? This isn’t Operation Desert Storm.
Love this screenshot of MMM giving Kermit a dirty look while pouting last night after they voted on the Overlook Cafe contract. (FF: to about 1:40 to see the full pout and hand wringing) MMM kept telling everyone to stop talking about the alcohol license, and Kermit couldn’t resist to get in one last plug about it, to which Mike was not one bit happy about. I want to give props to Cheryl Rath for needling the city about permitting alcohol in the park and getting them to realize they need to go through a separate process for the licensing.
In other city news, I see several groups are taking out petitions to fight city ordinances. Besides snowgates and Sperllerberg pool, advocates against ‘Shape Sioux Falls’ and now a rabbit breeder association is looking to overturning the urban ag ordinance. I wonder when the city council will wake up and figure out they are not listening to the public?
I also see the city clerk used a ‘questionable’ formula to eliminate over 1,700 signatures from the Spellerberg petitions (they were still validated though). We looked over these spreadsheets and formulas when they eliminated signatures from the snowgate petitions. It seems from first glance they are using multiple formulas to eliminate the same signature twice. I know a South DaCola foot soldier will be taking another look at the formulas.