There has been some talk lately about the council taking charge and proposing some of their own legislation (pool rates and youth bus rides). I asked a friend this morning what he thought of the new and improved city council? His response, “It’s about time they grew a sack.†I was kind of thinking the same thing, though Erickson and Erpenbach may not appreciate the cliché.
The Argus Leader recently polled readers on their website asking what they thought of the council being contentious and if it was a good thing. There was close to 400 voters and over 80% approved, which was enlightening.
Government works best when the checks and balances (executive and legislative branches, Mayor/Council) check each other’s work and intentions. Debate and discussion only improve our system of municipal government. The mayor is NOT King and the council simply his subjects. When the mayor doesn’t get things done through resolution or just refuses to do anything, the council has the power to bring forth their own legislation, and they are quickly learning that it works when they all work together and discuss these thing in the open (public meetings) nothing good comes from closed door meetings with the mayor and sub-committees.
I would like the Council to go further and advise the Charter Revision Commission to change charter so that the Mayor is no longer running the meetings. He should sit in the audience and break a tie if necessary. Or even better, change the council to a 7 member council so there would not be any tie votes. After Mayor Huether’s performance in the last council meeting where he got up to chide another councilor and ultimately edited from the video (Public Record), it is apparent that he is being more disruptive to the meetings then productive. He consistently tried cutting off council members when they were trying to discuss deferral of the pool rate increase.
He doesn’t want debate or dissent, but it seems the public is all in favor. The continental congress debated for hours on end, some members would take the floor for hours. The mayor seems to think that there are time limits on council meetings and on democracy.
After five years, he still has a lot to learn about government.
Is there any talk or political will to consolidate Sioux Falls/Minnehaha services?
I congratulate the council as well. I appreciate their efforts to take back some control from the “out of control” egomaniac.
I agree with the idea of a 7 person council to avoid ties, but as I have stated before, I think the charter revision needs to go one step further; we need a professional city manager that reports to the council. That’s the only way to avoid the “one-man show behind the curtain” kind of thing that is going on now.
Additionally, as Huether proved beyond a doubt, you can’t take a guy out of the marketing department of a credit card company and all of a sudden he’s the expert on all matters relating to city government. He thinks he is. the problem is, some of his mistakes aren’t going to surface for years after he’s left office.
Previous Mayors have relied on the expertise of their department heads and the city has ran relatively well, if there were problems, generally someone would speak up because there was no “mad king” lopping off heads keeping everyone silent.
I know there are several members of the current council who aspire to be Mayor, I just hope that they are willing to run on the platform that they are going to be the last Mayor of Sioux Falls and implement a Council/City Manager format of government.
And soon
he will be a lame duck.
🙂
hubris heuther thanks for makiging the disabled communties life just a little bit harder. what a disingues person. when running the first time said he heard our issues and wood work to make it better transportantion wise—–now cuts cuts.
Time for the council to put stops on the mayor. He’s spent foolishly and lavishly on indoor recreation. There’s no attention to infrastructure except he wants to build another empty garage downtown. There’s half a billion in debt and problems making minimum payments. Cut him off. There’s hope for the next mayor to turn things around if the council takes away Huether’s credit card.
Careful, the mayor will preach and dress down every councilor. Ho hum; yawn; raise elevator music sound level; cut to commercial.
Has anyone noticed him on camera? He curves his arms wide like he’s holding a big barrel. Watch the latest L & L. Is his fetish BBW?
Why won’t this council take up the organized mob methods of the Walmart zoning at 85 and minn and resolve to have proper zoning instead of mmm helping his investor partner broin make more money off of us. Then we see the mayor get his road replaced again Good grief