[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcjm6qbpikI[/youtube]
Finally a video recording of these mysterious meetings.
My cameraman Bruce finally found a Sioux Falls Park Board meeting to attend on June 16, 2015. He searched the dark Great Bear lodge and found a place to setup so you might understand how it works in Sioux Falls, aka, Huetherville, SD. Don Kearney could not have found a more out of the way place to hide his planned rate increase vote and still be in Huetherville.
Notice how the camera and 4 citizens sitting in the audience had a difficult time seeing the panel discuss the topic of the day, the gouging of the swimming and not Huetherville public.
Remember this is only a swimming pool, its just indoors. Why do we have to worry about the difference between “Aquatic Center” versus “Swimming Pool” for a rate increase? When did the City Council adopt the classification difference. We will get into this more in our next installment, “Kearney goes to Council”.
As Kearney completes his PowerPoint the interesting events start to take place. In short order, the Park’s department agenda quickly tanked. The 7 members of the board torpedoed the administration’s planned rate increase. Mike Crane offered a temporary counter rate plan when Kearney insisted he had to have something to take to the City Council the same night.
Nothing like waiting until the last minute to try and sneak something past the voters, Park Board and City Council only to fail in a big way. Congratulations Mr. Kearney!
By the way, we have be advocating for all city boards, commissions, planning sessions and working sessions to be broadcasted. CityLink and the Internet access would allow all the people to see how their government works. It would go a long way to opening up the process for all. The many of the disastrous decisions perpetrated by our “most open administration in city history” could have been adverted.
In regards to the city meetings being recorded, I completely agree. Its important that you contact the council as the budget cycle is starting and ask them to appropriate money for it. It can be done, it just has to be paid for. For many it won’t even cost that much. For example the Board of Adjustment is held in Carnegie Town Hall in the main chambers. All you need is someone to be paid to sit downstairs and video it like they do the council meetings.
This shouldn’t cost that much, but it needs to be added to the budget, I think it would probably be central services.
Big thanks for posting the park board video, which I’m about to watch.
What a wonderful public service it was to post this.
Thanks to Scott for posting it and Bruce taking the time to video it.
The discussion by the board was really great. As were the comments from the public.
The public made some great points, one that I don’t even know if I had really connected, which is considering this proposal in context of a child who lives in the Spellerberg neighborhood. Their outdoor pool has now been demolished, leaving only an indoor pool to come. And under the cities proposal there would be no free pass and any free pass or reduced outdoor pass wouldn’t get you into the indoor pool. You’d have to pay more for that. And if you did, that wouldn’t be useable at the outdoor. Point being kids in that neighborhood who lost their neighborhood pool would either have to pay more for the indoor, which many I’m sure can’t afford, or they’d have to I guess get on the city bus and travel to some other pool, which some may be able to do, and some may not be. This idea of bulldozing a neighborhood outdoor pool to put in a “community pool” just gets better the more I think about it (sarcasm).
Shame! Sneaking around to raise rates so average income citizens can’t afford the new aquatics country club. I’m thinking this evidence can be teamed with other civil rights instances and become one big federal discrimination class action.
Poor kids, they want a way to cool off and must pay with a gold tooth. Cruel, very cruel. It’s all seasons swimming and Kearney is scrooge. For shame!