If you have the time, I encourage you to attend
Agenda
10:00 a.m. Friday, February 20, 2015
Commission Meeting Room
County Administration Building
I. Call to Order
II. Approval of Agenda
III. Approval of Minutes from February 6, 2015 Meeting
IV. Opportunity for Public Comment
V. Auto-Mark Demonstration
VI. E-Poll Book Demonstration
VII. Total Vote/B-Pro/ERM Report Discussion
VIII. Old Business
IX. New Business
X. Adjournment
Chuck always keeps a copy of all of his correspondence,
When taxpayers mortgage ‘play things’
Today during the indoor aquatic center naming rights press conference our esteemed leader of Sioux Falls said that when the city uses private dollars on public facilities the taxpayers win.
Yeah, I laughed to.
He brought up all the grand things that T Denny has done for the EC. Actually, taxpayers win if we don’t spend the money on play things to begin with, and let Sanford build the entire indoor pool complex at the Sports Center, on their dime. And as for the Events Center, let’s look at who is ‘winning’. As I have mentioned recently, the taxpayers are having trouble getting tickets without being raped by ticket scalpers and we still are responsible for the mortgage and maintenance on the facility, even if it is profitable and runs in the black. As taxpayers we really are the losers when it comes to the EC.
Which brings us to Mr. Whitney’s story in the Argus today. Stu says it would be a very bad investment for Rapid City to build the current plan of the new civic center in Rapid City. But he goes a step further and says we did it right in Sioux Falls by only incurring a possible $173 million dollar debt. Trust me, it will be a lot more, once you figure in maintenance and unforeseen problems.
Let’s say for a moment I supported the Events Center, I think one of the things I would have been vocal about as a supporter before the vote is that we don’t build it on the cheap. Apparently we didn’t learn the lesson from the Washington Pavilion which was slated as a $20 million dollar remodel that has probably surpassed $50 million in just 14 years. If you think for a moment that there will be NO more additional costs to the Events Center over the next 20 years besides a mortgage, you are eating some good Colorado Brownies.
I will commend Rapid City on one element of their civic center plan, they are building it for the future, and they are not afraid to spend the money to get it right the first time. Or at least that is their argument.
I think five years from now we will all be scratching our heads as to why the EC wasn’t built bigger and why the place is in a constant state of repair. Heck the place just opened and the siding is inferior (which was brought to the city’s attention before it opened) and flooring on the second floor has so many cracks in it if you were a superstitious person your mother would have a broken back.
So while I will agree with Su Fu’s new superstar journalist that RC should nix the plan, I just wish Stu was this vocal about our ‘on the cheap’ EC plan instead of cheerleading like a 14 year old girl behind the mayor. But I guess we all don’t have wet dreams over HS basketball tournaments.
This face is ‘too nice’ to be a politician
As a long time Democrat active in the party told me yesterday, “Highly unlikely.â€
Their reasons were straight forward, he will make a lot of cashola with his new job and will probably never look back.
I tend to agree with them that he will probably not run either in 2016. After watching so many Democrats over the past 8 years fall on the sword for the party, I just don’t think Brendan has the stomach to lose against Ironic Johnny or Noemless.
And who would want to be a Democratic governor in a state ran by Republicans?
Also, I don’t think Brendan has the makings of a politician, he’s just too ‘nice’. If we are going to beat the Republicans in 2016 and beyond, we need a real Democratic Ass(hole) to finally expose and tell the truth about how GOP has been damaging our state for years. We need to start punching them in the face and kicking them in the ass.
I know I have brought this up several times over the years, in fact, I believe in Councilor Staggers 2nd term (he is in his 3rd now) there was some numbers presented to the city of what they were spending on consultants, and it was staggering (excuse the pun).
You have to realize that the departments that use consultants, outside counsel and professional advice are the engineering, the legal and finance department.
According to the January 2015 salary report (DOC: 2015-Wages-January) Read this a few times and your stomach will churn) there are these many people on the payroll in each department;
Engineering; 73
Finance; 29
City Attorney’s office; 13
You would think that with this many ‘professionals’ working for the city in each of these departments they wouldn’t need ‘consultants’ to tell them what to do?
So why is that?
Well the obvious, they need an outside consultant to give them the answers they want, and if they get their tits in a wringer, with a decision they make, they can always blame the consultant.
But get this. If a consultant sends a plan to the city, let’s say an architect’s plan, and a city engineer signs off on it, if something goes wrong due to the plans, the city engineer is liable due to their sign off. Which of course doesn’t mean a hill of beans for the consultant or the engineer, but costs the taxpayer in the end (EX: Events Center siding fiasco).
Let’s look at some examples. On Tuesday the city council watched a presentation on the parks. The consultant charged around $59K. In his presentation he pretty much said the city was doing everything right, which is fantastic. So councilor Staggers asked, “So if we are doing everything correctly, why should we pay you to tell us that?”
Another example is the water rate increases, which the city was WAAAAYYY off on. Why is it that our water department can’t get with the finance department and figure out how much money needs to be raised for the enterprise funds to maintain water and sewer? This is simple accounting, projecting and algebra, but we had to hire a consultant (who was wrong) to justify the increase.
Lastly, it’s story time on DaCola, and Ol’ Man Detroit is going to tell you a story about a hole in the wall. Recently a former city employee told me about how their department needed a hole in the wall at one of their department branches and it had to be done to a load bearing wall. When they approached the engineering department about plans, they referred them to an outside architect who came in and essentially chuckled and said, “This is a hole that needs to be made, you need to contact an engineer.”
So I ask again. Do we need all of these consultants? Or better yet, do we need all of these ‘do nothing’ city employees?
l3wis