Watch this bogus, dog and pony show, and the Mexican Hat dance, boloney sandwhich, that is presented by Jeff. The irony of this, is the people who will make the most money from this development dont shop at Walmart.
The Minnehaha County Commission is meeting today to discuss the presence of petition gatherers outside the doorway at the County Admin building & Courthouse. Today’s meeting is just for discussion at 1pm, but a formal policy to restrict or ban petitioning could be voted on at the Commission’s weekly meeting tomorrow morning, 9AM in the Commission chambers (courthouse), and that meeting will be open to public input.
The County admin building is frequented by thousands of citizens on a weekly basis, to renew drivers’ licenses, car registration, voter registration, pay fines, file civil claims, and many, many more functions of the government that citizens are entitled. The County Admin building and courthouse are by far the best place to gather petition signatures from registered voters.
The First Amendment guarantees the right to all American citizens to petition the government for redress of grievances. This right is under serious attack at the national and state level, and now today, at our local County level. If we cannot petition the government in a taxpayer-funded town square to refer policies/legislation or propose our own ideas that affect everyone in the community, then our rights to petition the government and peacefully assemble are seriously infringed upon. Our founding fathers decided these rights were so important they put them in the First Amendment of the Constitution along with freedom of speech and religion, and there’s no excuse why these rights should be “restricted” or banned in a public place.
When I collected petition signatures for the South Dakota Coalition for Compassion in 2010, I got about 1-200 signatures each day outside the courthouse. This grassroots effort was successful after 6 months of collecting 33,000 signatures from around the state, and the vast majority of those signatures came from outside the County Admin building in Sioux Falls. The County Admin building in Rapid City was the second most productive location! With out these locations for collecting signatures I seriously doubt there is any real ability to collect enough signatures for statewide initiatives – SD is a rural and spread-out state without a lot of high foot traffic areas, we’re a driving community. I explored every idea, went to so many events, door-to-door, and tried the DMV, the library, the post office and any imaginable public place – and no other place was/is as productive (or appropriate) as the County Admin building. Mind you, it’s also very convenient for citizens to register to vote at the County building to be eligible to sign petitions.
IF YOU CAN HELP SAVE THE VALUABLE RIGHT TO PETITION IN OUR COMMUNITY – PLEASE COME TO THE COUNTY ADMIN BUILDING (WEST DOORS FACING SZECHWANZ) FROM 9:30AM – 12:30PM AND SIGN MY IMPROMPTU PETITION! This petition is a simple statement:
******* I support the right of citizens to gather petition signatures on the County Admin and Courthouse property! *******
My goal is to collect 100 signatures before today’s meeting, and 200 signatures before tomorrows meeting. The impromptu petition has no formal effect but will send a clear message to the County Commissioners.
Here’s a flashback to my 19-year-old self getting started in activism, by collecting petition signatures to put medical marijuana on the ballot! Enjoy!
http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail.cfm/gathering-signatures-for-vote-on-marijuana/?id=86902
Sincerely,
An anonymous person contributed to this post.
Something stood out in Tuesday’s City Council Informational meeting.
It was during the Overlook Cafe presentation.
Mike Milstead’s wife, Rhonda, appeared at both meetings. She did a small event at the Overlook last year for Winter Wonderland, and now is the only vendor that submitted a proposal for the five-year contract. Somehow she has convinced them to allow alcohol in the park.
There are over 70 parks in the system and 12 of them prohibit alcohol, Falls Park being one of them. I am surprised that none of the councilors questioned this.
So, at the same time they are discussing safety at the Falls, the Mayor is going to approve a long-term contract to allow alcohol? This seems somewhat incongruent!
The management agreement is up on the website (agenda item #16).  (PDF of Document: agreement) The only place that I even see this mentioned is under liquor liability insurance, and then again in Exhibit A under Manager Responsibilities. #7. Manager agrees that the use of beer and wine is intended for private rentals/caterings and to complement park patrons dining experience. Alcohol may not be the focus of advertising or offered as a “special” such as “bucket night” or 2-for-1 promotion.
This seems like a major shift in policy regarding this city property.
I also question why the county sheriff’s wife is the only person to submit an RFP, which includes selling alcohol?
Just muttled through Pitty Pat’s site this morning. WOW. Does he post about anything other then the Johnsons? When does he sleep? Of course, this shouldn’t surprise me, small minded Republicans often obsess about their Johnsons . . . ah . . . I mean ‘The’ Johnsons.
Just reading the  Argus snowgates article and noticed SubPrime is blaming the snowgaters for his inability to order and use them right away.
“Huether said he would like to see them bought and used immediately, but the issue must wait until the April 2014 municipal election…”
Will he use the petition drive as a wedge issue? Sorry Mike, nice try, but here is the lowdown;
1) You allowed Council Chair Erpenbach to CENSOR us during the election meeting, even though YOU are the administrator of the meeting, and could have prevented it, then tried to wash your hands of it in an email to me a few days later.
2) You say you ENDORSE snowgates, but refused to sign our petition to allow people to vote on the issue.
3) The council denied our Spring 2013 election. If the election would have been allowed and snowgates passed, they would be in use by November 2013.
4) The council said that they didn’t BUDGET for a Spring 2013 election or for snowgates, so they could not go into affect Nov 2013. Yet you and the council appropriate and transfer funds at almost every council meeting through resolutions.
Keep pointing the finger Mike, in the mirror that is.
l3wis