South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

2014

Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Is Community Swim 365 using a professional strategist?

l3wis 58Comments

cs365

I find it interesting that the group has propped up Margaret Sumption as one of their citizen spokes people. Who is Margaret? She is the partner in Sumption & Wyland, a strategic planning firm;

Margaret J. Sumption, MSED, LPC, SPHR, has over thirty years of experience as a teacher and counselor, nonprofit administrator, development officer, and volunteer board member serving a wide variety of organizations. She is a popular, dynamic, and effective speaker and trainer for nonprofit professionals, customers, and policy makers.

Not sure if Sumption is volunteering her time to the organization or being paid for her advocacy? But the group has a spiffy little website that was hardly thrown together by some swim team teenagers. They also are using a PO Box instead of a physical address for the organization which tells me this isn’t some Mom & Pop social club.
No surprise, the Events Center advocates put together the organization Build it Now to promote their cause, so it only makes sense that Community Swim would do the same. But the real issue here is posing as a ‘grass roots’ operation, when you are clearly using professional assistance to get your message out there;

Members of Community Swim 365 say Spellerberg Park is the perfect place for an indoor swimming pool. Margaret Sumption, a longtime central Sioux Falls resident, says a year-round aquatic center would help draw more families into the area.

“I want very much for my neighborhood to remain vibrant. It is a beautiful community area. It is in the center of Sioux Falls and that center of Sioux Falls is changing,” Sumption said.

Small business owner Susie Patrick believes an indoor facility would preserve park green space and enhance access to the nearby sledding hill with more parking.

“We just like to swim. Taught our kids to swim at a really young age and think it’s really important for the community to have access to the same swimming lessons and have a pool for everyone to use,” Patrick said.

The stark irony of the group when compared to the Hockey or Indoor tennis folks is that CS365 doesn’t have any skin in the game (private/public partnership) but seemingly have found a way to raise money for professional marketing assistance, oh, and some t-shirts.

So let’s be honest here, are we dealing with a ‘grassroots’ organization, or a ‘professional special interests’ organization? Not sure. I would also like to point out the name of the organization is kind of odd. I doubt the pool will be open 365 days a year, but you never know? I can’t wait to get in my Christmas day swim.

Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether Sioux Falls

Credit where credit is due?

l3wis 10Comments

Besides the fact that he is using a city director in his campaign materials (Mark Cotter) on his FB Page. He seems to be taking credit for a lot of things.

So let’s clarify for the voters;

1) Cleaning up after a natural disaster. First off, I find it a bit strange that someone would be using a natural disaster as a campaign issue. Secondly, it was the work of Public Works, city employees and the countless volunteers that deserve the credit on this one.

2) The Events Center. The private campaign group, Build it Now, the voters, the multiple task forces and tax dollars are what got the Events Center rolling.

3) Building a luxury hotel downtown with the use of tax rebates (TIF’s) and a taxpayer funded River Greenway bulkhead. Once again, the assistance of government money and programs with the approval of the city council is what spurred DT growth.

4) Better air travel. Well, according to my commenters just a few weeks ago, the Mayor had nothing to do with this, or did he? Still a mystery.

I wish Mike luck, but I also wish he would campaign fairly, and give credit to the council and citizen taxpayers on these projects. Without the money, manpower and the city’s legislative body, many of these ‘accomplishments’ would not have happened.

And just for fun, read his accomplishments page. The ‘not tied to special interests’ and ‘low airfares’ made me chuckle.

mmmthin

Michelle Erpenbach

SF City Councilor Erpenbach’s hypocritical priorities

l3wis 13Comments

As you watch the Public Services Committee meeting yesterday, you would think that councilor Erpenbach would want to do everything in the city’s power to stick it to small cab companies (well they are all small in SF, even the biggest one is small) Her suggestion of 24/7 operation did get voted down, As Karsky said to her, “Our public transit doesn’t run 24/7 so how can we require private businesses to do it?” She did however push for more regulations, permanent markings, inspections and higher license fees, of course in the interest of public safety, that is. Remember, these are private businesses being subjected to more regulations then most, these are also tax generators (one cab company owner figures he collects around $2,300 a month in sales taxes for the city.) While I do agree with SOME of the Committee’s proposals, I find it a bit odd that she really wants to hammer it to cab companies.

Why?!

Let’s go back to the SF City council informational meeting a couple weeks back, during open discussion (towards end of meeting). Councilor Jamison suggested more transparency in the TIF application process and suggested it needed to be discussed during a work session or committee meeting. Erpenbach, didn’t feel like they needed to ‘dig’ into this matter anymore, and went into a gentle tirade about how her and her colleagues really didn’t need to revisit the topic. She got trumped of course, and Karsky scheduled it for a committee meeting.

What makes this interesting is Erpenbach’s hypocrisy on the issue. While she is okay with large private developers who are receiving public assistance keep their investors a secret, she feels we need to stick it to the small private business owner and regulate them to death, as they collect tax revenue for the city while we refund property taxes back to gigantic developers.

Of course, this hypocrisy stems from Michelle’s campaign donor list, that has about every big wheel developer in SF on it, but seems to have no names of cab company owners on it.

DONORS: erp-finance

So I guess it is safe to say, if you want Michelle to do your bidding, you best get your checkbook out, otherwise, you are screwed.

State Funding State Legislature

No Medicaid for You! Work Harder!

l3wis 30Comments

Good News, Right?

The poll, conducted by Virginia-based political and public affairs research firm Public Opinion Strategies, asked 400 South Dakota residents a series of questions related to the state’s Medicaid program and found 63 percent of them favored the expansion.

The poll was good news to supporters of Medicaid expansion. Megan Myers, the Cancer Action Network’s grassroots manager, said expanding Medicaid would help some of the 48,000 South Dakotans who don’t have health insurance receive preventive care.

And what is our governor’s response on his resistance;

Gov. Dennis Daugaard has been unwilling to expand Medicaid since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a provision in the Affordable Care Act that would have forced states to expand their programs, and despite the federal government’s promise to cover the vast majority of the costs, especially in the initial years.

Daugaard’s office declined to comment on the poll.

Denny has said in the past the able-bodied working folk should be able to afford their own healthcare. What Denny fails to tell us is that many ‘working folk’ in our state can’t afford food let alone healthcare, and the Republican lawmakers in DC are not helping matters by blocking single-payer initially in the ACA and recently cutting SNAP programs.

So what is Denny telling the working poor that can’t afford private insurance or even to feed their families? WORK HARDER or I’ll be forced again to blow a cool million at one staffing agency to recruit a handful of welders for a single trailer building company in Mitchell.

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