South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

July 2015

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Fun times at the Sioux Falls city council meeting 7/7/2015

l3wis 3Comments

Lots of odds and ends going on at the city council meeting this next Tuesday.

• In item #1, approval of contracts, we are paying about $71K for a land purchase agreement. That’s a whole lot of cashola to draw up a purchase agreement.

• Items #15-17, Badlands Pawn is asking for a malt beverage license, a liquor license and, you guessed it, video lottery terminals. BIG SURPRISE!

• Item #33, zoning signs have to be bigger. It’s about time.

• Item #40, exemptions to inspection fees. While I agree totally with the list of entities, I’m curious about one of them;

Section 41.007. EXEMPTION FROM PERMIT AND INSPECTION FEES.

Habitat For Humanity of Greater Sioux Falls, Incorporated; Make-A-Wish Foundation; Repair Affair Projects of the Home Builders Association of Sioux Falls; and the Home Modification Wheelchair Ramp Program of Independent Living Choices; South Eastern Development Foundation; and Community Development Department Neighborhood Revitalization Program projects are exempt from payment of fees for plat and/or plan reviews, permits and inspections from the following major organization units:

(a) Planning and building services; (b) Public works; (c) Fire prevention division; and (d) Police.

Am I missing something? Why would the Make-A-wish foundation need this exemption? Just curious.

• Item #41. Approving ‘complete streets’ in a resolution. While I support this proposal, I am curious why this did not go through an ordinance process instead of just a ramrod resolution process? Let’s pray about it.

• Item #43-44, oddball annexations.

• Item #44, Notice the overbid on the re-roofing of the Pavilion took over $400K from other projects planned at the Pavilion (this does not come out of the Pavilion operating subsidy, this comes out of our CIP).

• Item #45, the beat down of Councilor Dr. Kermit Staggers. Each year when Kermit wants to go to a conservative municipal government conference, he gets scrutiny. Yet none of the other councilor trips get this kind of scrutiny. As I told Kermit today, while I don’t agree with every aspect of this conference, it is always good to get different perspectives on municipal governing. I have often said, maybe he will learn ‘what not to do’ at this conference?

The Mayor’s ‘Shut Up & Listen’ session, June 29, 2015

(FF: 26:50) A resident of Prince of Peace asks a question about better education funding in rural Minnehaha county. The mayor says it is out of his control, which is NOT true. The more TIF’s the city approves, the more it affects education funding. Also, the recent vote with school boundaries at West Central was very much a city issue. Some very close Huether supporters were VERY involved with the campaign to uphold the school board’s decision to allow SF to suckup West Central school boundaries. Mike might want to say he isn’t involved, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The interesting part of the West Central campaign is that they didn’t need to financially report their donors. I would be curious to see how much Hizzoner donated to the campaign?

(FF: 43:40) A resident says she is dismayed about eliminating the free pool passes. The mayor blames no fee increases, and then blames the poor (52% swim for free). He also is troubled about the program ‘growing to large’. Then he starts to talk about the indoor aquatic center, and how ‘we’ need to pay for it. Then he brings up being the beer can collecting poor kid from Yankton. He calls the 52% free passes as an ‘imbalance’. DAMN RIGHT IT IS! People are broke in this town, we don’t have a jobs issue, we have a WAGE issue.

He ends the discussion by saying ‘Nothing is for FREE’. Hypocrite. You mean like the $500K of public dollars that went to a tennis club that bares your name for 102 members? You did not pass up that ‘freebie’. He talks about ‘working for it’. What amount of ‘work’ did you do to swindle the taxpayers of Sioux Falls out of $500K for your ultra-wealthy membership of the Huether Matche Pointe? It’s good to be King.

UPDATE: One resident gets up and chews his ass about the importance of FREE swimming for the poor children and learning how to swim.

Minimum Wage Sioux Falls

Wide support in Sioux Falls for increasing the Minimum wage

l3wis 12Comments

As you can see by these numbers, there is wide support to increase the minimum wage in Sioux Falls. Councilor Anderson said in the Argus today that he doesn’t think the council should get involved in the matter, but as you can see in his own district it had 64% support. This tells me that if the council proposed a $10 citywide increase in the minimum wage, the only real blowback the council would get is from the Chamber and the business community. You never know though, businesses that already pay over that amount may come out promoting the measure.

Voting Results for Initiated Measure 18 November 4, 2014 within the City of Sioux Falls

Minnehaha County alone

Yes – 61%

No – 39%

Lincoln County alone

Yes – 54%

No – 47%

City of Sioux Falls (Minnehaha & Lincoln County combined)

Yes – 60%

No – 40%

Northeast District, City of Sioux Falls (Councilor Kenny Anderson’s District)

Yes – 64%

No – 36%

 

Event Center Sioux Falls Taxes

SMG basking in the ‘black’

l3wis 1Comments

The Events Center will be in the black.

Wait for it . . . . BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Oh, but let’s just take their word for it;

As for the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center, Torkildson expects the facility to be in the black by the end of its first year.

Oh sure, you betcha! SMG will make money. Ovations will make money. The utility companies will make money. The promoters will make money. The operations will be covered.

The taxpayers, we get to make a mortgage payment.

While applaud all of these entities making money and the city getting the operations covered, the taxpayer of Sioux Falls is still stuck with the mortgage payment (and building maintenance) each year which is an almost $10 million dollar deficit to our CIP each year. Money that could be spent on roads, parks or a million other useful things in the community. So while we get to make the payments on the EC, all the contractors associated with the facility get to bask in the ‘Black’ while we get to swim in the ‘RED’.

Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Van Eps Park Part II

l3wis 12Comments

Seems Heritage Park has become the new party park (just east of the Former Zip Feed Mill on Weber Ave.);

Neighbors living around Heritage Park say it’s as if Van Eps moved to the east.

“They didn’t want people to see the crowds, the police and all that’s going on. Heritage Park will be that,” neighbor Wilma Barrett said.

Heritage Park is on the list of city parks where alcohol is banned, but these neighbors see people breaking that rule on a daily basis.

No surprise, I figured the problem would move around. In fact I still see drinking in Van Eps and I also see it at a picnic shelter by the old Drake Springs pool site. Police are there quite often.

I may get myself into a little trouble with this, but I think there should be a total ban on alcohol in ALL parks throughout the city. I would include the ball parks. I think if we are going to solve a problem like this we need to have an equal policy throughout the city.

PS – I noticed the female police officer in the video looks like the same one that tried to do a skateboard trick on a guard rail with her patrol car.

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