Ground Hogs Day?
l3wis 
April 2015
Is City Incompetence to blame for uncollected landfill fees?
Many people may or may not know that the city has an internal auditor. Mr. Rich Oskol is probably (as I tell many people) one of the most valuable city employees. I have often told city councilors and residents he does a fine job with such a small staff, especially with his enormous workload.
But does Mr. Oskol make mistakes? Not sure, but I would guess once in awhile he misses a decimal point. Accounting isn’t an easy task, especially reviewing other people’s work. It was the only HS course I dropped out of. Maybe that is why it has taken me almost 42 years to get my finances in order?
I think it would be safe to assume that Mr. Oskol and his team have audited the Sioux Falls landfill finances at least once since 2009 (When Dan’s garbage service fees started piling up). If this is the case, did Rich make them aware that they probably should be collecting fees from Dan’s Service because they are mounting? Not sure if he did, but I have read several of Rich’s audits of city departments, if anything, Rich is very thorough. He also has the power, granted to him in the city charter, to look at any department’s books without permission, at any time. He reports only to the city council. If the city council called Rich on Monday morning and asked him to start an audit immediately of the city landfill, all Rich would have to do is walk into their office with a two-wheel cart and haul away the filing cabinets, and that department couldn’t do a damn thing to stop him.
Hopefully that phone call will be made Monday morning.
But there is a bigger issue here. Let’s give Mr. Oskol the benefit of the doubt, and let’s say he did recommend that the uncollected fees troublesome and the Landfill should act immediately, that doesn’t mean they have to. Oskol reviews and advises, he may have the authority to wheel off filing cabinets but he can’t make any department head fix a problem. In fact, I do recall a few times where they didn’t, or they tried a different solution.
So it comes back to a question of competence. Who in the city landfill department, or even in the finance or attorney’s offices let this go for so long? And if they haven’t already been terminated, they probably should be.
Sure we can blame Dan, but that’s a whole other story. I think it would be safe to assume the city will not be able to collect all of those fees. The best approach at this point would be to wipe them off the books and put Dan out of business. A court battle will only drain more city resources and really isn’t worth the effort.
The irony of all this is how the city has handled other cases of uncollected ‘fees and fines’;
• An over 8 year court battle which ended up in Supreme Court (in which the city lost) over a couple hundred dollar fine and a cement pad. I can’t even begin to fathom what that costed taxpayers in city resources to fight. In fact two of the city attorneys who worked on the case have been terminated.
• Jailing a resident for 6 hours over a pile of shingles IN HIS FENCED OFF YARD. (of course the county paid that incarceration and court bill) That person also beat the city in court.
• Fining a city employee’s private business over a dumpster enclosure.
• Warning a retired veteran and his wife about a potential fine if they did not remove day lilies from the boulevard.
Yeah, I know what you are thinking, these are code enforcement issues, but isn’t over $250K in unpaid landfill fees a cause for some kind of authority in city hall to do something about it? How are flowers in the boulevard and piles of shingles more concerning then this enormous amount of unpaid fees?
They are not. It is about city employee’s priorities. They seem to put vindictiveness and vendettas against residents over collecting fees.
If I sat on our city’s fine legislative body, the city council, I would be in an uproar. If you think that department heads are tired of swatting away the flies when it comes to the EC siding, they would see a full on bee attack from me as a councilor.
The city council needs to demand an immediate review and presentation from the landfill department as to how this happened, and how the problem will be corrected and lastly who will be reprimanded or terminated over the incident. It’s called ACCOUNTABILITY, something city hall thinks they are immune to.
It also makes you wonder if Dan is the only one that has delinquent fines? That’s a whole other can of worms.
As far as I am concerned this may have nothing to do with Mr. Oskol missing a decimal point, this may have to do with blatant and rampant incompetence. Instead of city directors knocking off at 3:50 PM on a Friday afternoon to enjoy a delicious micro brew at that local watering hole*, maybe they need to take an accounting of there day, week, month, heck decade in the final hours of their work week?
*About a month ago I saw four different city directors/managers drinking beers at a downtown bar at this time, and a manager of a city owned entertainment facility. Even more troubling was they weren’t even drinking together (well maybe that isn’t such a bad thing).
Changes to city board appointments?
Yeah, a lot of mumbo-jumbo squishy attorney language, but am I the only one that thinks these changes (Item #40) are kind of far-reaching?
“Ah, Yeah, thanks for your volunteerism, and in 3 to 4 more months, we’ll cut the chains off.”
Why is the city spending my ‘tax dollars’ on a ‘help wanted’ website and marketing campaign?
Ego Much? Images: Argus Leader Media
When I first heard about this site and campaign yesterday, I thought it was some kind of April Fool’s joke.
The city council recently allocated $500K for workforce development, which I support, but I was under the impression this was to help businesses recruit workers, not hold people’s hands on how to find a job.
There are numerous private help wanted job sites in Sioux Falls. If you are looking for a job, you have multiple options. With the low unemployment, it is becoming harder for businesses to find qualified people. I have often felt that the solution is that employers in Sioux Falls need to start paying blue collar workers a living wage.
As for the city getting involved in ‘want ads’ maybe they could also include rummage and car sales on the site also, to diversify it 🙂
This is just a PR move by the mayor, who is considering running for governor.
What Happened to the Touch of Europe Restaurant and Jazz Club?
If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me that question, I could re-build the place by now.
First, a brief history about the place. The ‘TOE’ as us regulars called it was open for almost 20 years. The original owner Martin, only owned the place for about a year before selling it to Razmik ‘RAZ’ Mktarian. Raz and his wife ran the place until his death about 8 years ago. She operated the business until its closure.
What I do know;
In February of 2014, a City of Sioux Falls fire Hydrant on the corner of 12th and Phillips in front of the restaurant exploded. It took the fire department over an hour (according to witnesses) to shut it off. The result was almost 2 feet of water in the basement restaurant and other properties, including Bechtold’s jewelry.
The result of the flooding destroyed all of the belongings in the restaurant. It also destroyed some plumbing and electrical and also damaged the foundation.
What I ‘kind of’ know;
Insurance helped pay for cleanup and gutting the restaurant.
What I am not sure of;
I think the property owner and restaurant owner were in negotiations with the city’s risk management department for compensation for damages, but I am not sure if anything was resolved. I think a request to fix the foundation and to make the place ADA compatible came from the city before it could reopen.
Even if the place will not reopen (the owner has moved on, and has no intention of reopening the TOE at that location or any other.) I still feel the city owes the building owner and restaurant owner for loss of business and damages. The damage was clearly caused by the city’s faulty pipes, and this is what the city has risk insurance for. Like I said, not sure if that compensation has occurred, but it is highly unlikely. Ever try to squeeze blood out of a turnip?
It’s unfortunate that the state’s first Jazz Club had to go out this way, it’s even more sad that our city can’t even own up to causing the damage.