South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

August 2014

Ethics Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether obama Sioux Falls

Will the SF Ethics Commission share an opinion on Mayor Huether being an Obama Delegate?

l3wis 9Comments

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Where’s Waldo Huether? (he’s hiding in the back row-click to enlarge)

I find it interesting that the Ethics Commission would find it Unethical for councilors Erickson and Staggers to be committee members for the Minnehaha County Republican Party, but say nothing about Huether being a delegate for Obama.

Like I have said, I find NO conflicts with either. Huether serving as a delegate for the Democratic party for Obama has NOTHING to do with him acting as our mayor, just like the committee positions for the Republican party have nothing to do with the city council.

If Huether wants to assist his party, as do Erickson and Staggers, that is fine, and I find no conflicts. But there is a conflict. Why are councilors being treated differently when reviewing ethical behavior? I think someone needs to ask an opinion about Huether being a delegate, just as the councilors were. All is fair in Love and War.

As for Karsky, he really needs to resign from either the Chamber Board or the City Council. The Chamber works too closely with the council, it is way to close for comfort and an obvious conflict of interest.

Michelle Erpenbach SF City Council Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Is it time for Parks Board meetings to be Video taped at Carnegie?

l3wis 3Comments

Besides the fact that the council ramrodded every agenda item through without much discussion at last night’s city council meeting (Kermit was absent and attending a conference – which was also ironic that they scheduled an executive session in his absence).

They also approved the transit board recommendations. Two things were missing from that discussion; NO transfers and NO free ridership under a certain age. They also didn’t address the poorly managed dispatch of Paratransit which is probably very costly to the system, but oh well, when councilor Staggers is out of town, questions don’t get asked and we rumberstamp much faster.

Speaking of the rubber stamp, councilors Karsky and Erpenbach seemed to have lost theirs for a moment last night when the council proposed an amendment to overstep the Parks Board. It’s really a simple argument, the city council is an elected board and should always supersede any appointed board, like the Parks Board.

But councilor Erpenbach (a former Parks Board member) felt that the council should not be allowed to overstep their recommendations. Once again, Michelle couldn’t be more wrong. Remember, they are appointed by the Mayor, and they aren’t your average Joe Six-Pack sitting at Van Eps Park drinking a cold one on a Wednesday morning. One of the members for example is the wife of mega-super-TIF-sucking developer Craig Lloyd.

So I ask Michelle, if this board is so precious and powerful, why aren’t the decisions they are making being recorded on video at Carnegie? I suggest the next resolution the city council proposes is that ALL appointed board meetings be recorded at Carnegie, including Ethics board and city council working sessions. If they are so important, they can show their importance by being transparent.

Also, you can’t miss public input from last night, the mayor was ‘forgiven’ for being a jerk by a citizen.

Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Mayor and Parks Director continue to peddle the indoor pool falsehood

l3wis 5Comments

I found this statement by the Parks Director and recently in the Mayor’s budget address to be dubious at best;

In the fall of 2016, this first-of-its-kind facility will open to the public, debt free.

“I’m not sure many cities across the country would be able to say that they can do that on a $20 million project. So we’re really proud of that, to be able to pay cash for it. And we’re also working on the operating side too; to try to minimize the amount of taxpayer dollars that have to go towards maintaining the facility either,” Kearney said.

Call it what you will, but his statement is NOT TRUE. Maybe partially, but let’s look at the facts. There will still be the Levee Bond debt when we open this facility. The city TOOK the repayment on that debt and used it to pay for the pool. That debt is and will still be owed when the doors open. We WILL NOT be ‘debt free’ and I am amazed they would blatantly lie about this. It seems this administration is getting bolder with what they are telling the public. As for the operating side, I am happy to see they are trying to find sponsors. I am assuming that since an Avera representative was at the groundbreaking (demolition) they will probably be a major sponsor. Either way, whether we have a sponsor or not, it will still cost around $700,000 a year to operate.

I did not attend the press conference, but I heard the mayor attributed a ‘secret committee’ to get this done. Wonder if that ‘secret committee’ knows anything about the quit claim deed? And who calls a ‘demolition’ a ‘ground breaking’ ceremony? Still laughing about that.

Code Enforcement Sioux Falls

UPDATED: Sioux Falls ‘Flower Police’ strike hard and fast

l3wis 13Comments

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UPDATED: This is the photo of where the flowers had to be torn out, you can see they were cut out. I think it actually looks worse, because now it is just a bunch of rocks. I guess how this came about was code enforcement tried to fine a lady with rocks in her boulevard, and she got mad and took around 40 photos of other properties violating the same thing she was, so code enforcement chased them down also. Ridiculous. I sometimes wonder if city employees or managers THINK before they act on stupid stuff like this.

Recently a resident of Sioux Falls was asked to remove her flowers from the boulevard (Day Lillies) by city code enforcement. This is in the wake of the city council recently stating they want to review the administration’s recommendation to limit flower planting and other landscaping in the boulevard.

According to current city ordinance, your entire boulevard should be grass only. But after the city council heard about the proposed changes they asked for the city code enforcement to not enforce the current ordinance until they come up with proposed changes, and they agreed they would not pursue issuing fines (because there are thousands of violators city wide). Apparently the code enforcement officers don’t give a rat’s behind what the city council thinks. The resident was asked to tear out the flowers within a week or face a $100 fine.

Code enforcement is supposedly based on neighbor complaints, but I guess all the neighbors of this resident were so upset the city did this, they sent the lady sympathy cards.

This has renewed an interest in a petition drive that may start very soon regarding what residents can plant in their boulevards and having the city public works trim THEIR trees in the boulevard instead of fining and charging residents to trim them.

Once again, if citizens want PUBLIC SERVICE and CONSTITUTIONAL Property RIGHTS they have to pursue it on their own at the ballot box, because our elected officials are asleep at the wheel. Just look at how long it is taking them to ban alcohol at Van Eps Park?

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