South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

August 2015

Democrats Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether Tea Party Voter Registration

So what’s the connection between Sioux Falls Democratic Mayor Huether and a voting rights lawsuit in Jackson County?

l3wis 6Comments

We will get to that in a moment, but a little background;

Jackson County is spending one and a half million of your tax dollars (not their local dollars, but yours, South Dakotans!) to keep Lakota people in Wanblee and other Indian communities from enjoying similar access to early voting as white folks near Kadoka enjoy. Dennis Olson, chairman of the South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance that is footing the bill for Jackson County’s racist resistance, calls the Lakota lawsuit for a satellite early voting center “frivolous” and “just one of those things you have to put up with.”

Don’t tell O.J. Semans that fighting for Indian voting rights is frivolous. Semans, the executive director of Indian voting rights advocacy group Four Directions, takes issue with Olson’s seeming disdain for Indian voting rights

See, they are taking this lawsuit money from the Assurance Alliance (Sioux Falls taxpayers are the biggest contributors to their funds) to fight giving voters in Jackson County around $20K in HAVA funds that already are sitting in an account at the SOS office. Sounds pretty idiotic? Right? Unless of course you are someone who doesn’t like Native Americans and don’t think they should vote, you know like a lot of those West River Teabagging Republicans. So you ask ‘where does a good Democrat like Mayor Huether fit in to this picture?’ You would think as an upstanding member of his party he would put his foot down and tell the SD Public Assurance Alliance to drop the suit because Democrats across the state believe in voter equality. But I’m sure you are asking, why would the SDPAA listen to him? Gee, I don’t know, because he appointed two of the Board Members to the Alliance; Mike Hall, Director of Risk Management for the City of Sioux Falls and Secretary of the Alliance and Tracy Turbak, Director of Finance for the City of Sioux Falls. The mayor has a little (a lot) pull in these matters.

Some may say, “Well maybe the mayor has tried to intervene, or at least try to get his appointments to intervene.” I don’t know. Maybe he has, but it doesn’t seem he has been to successful if that was the case. Then there was a certain ‘incident’.

See, when this all started, O.J. Semans asked to have a meeting with the mayor to discuss the case and to see if the mayor would speak with the Alliance about dropping this silliness. After not being able to get an appointment, O.J. did what every good determined person does when dealing with government officials, he showed up in person to the mayor’s office asking to have a few minutes with the mayor, assuming of course he knew why O.J. was there. Seems like a pretty big deal? Right? Why wouldn’t the mayor just hear him out for at least 5 minutes? After a back and forth with the Mayor’s secretary, O.J. was still refused the meeting. So back to square one.

So apparently our good (Democratic) mayor thinks it is more ‘prudent’ to blow $1.5 million of tax dollars on a frivolous lawsuit they will lose then to give already set aside Federal dollars to a couple of satellite voting sites in Indian Country.

The West River Teabaggers are either elated or really confused.

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l3wis 1Comments

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Event Center Sioux Falls

Mayor Huether can pick a new police chief in one week, but after almost 50 weeks, no resolution on the Events Center siding

l3wis 4Comments

Oh the irony of our mayor, if he isn’t spending Federal levee re-payment funds on indoor pools (another project he proposed only a week after the election) he is out ‘getting things done’ in our community. But as we edge close to the deadline for mediation over the Events Center siding (I believe it is the end of August) we have heard nothing.

Will it cost taxpayers to fix it?

Will it be fixed?

Who’s fault is it?

I have been hearing from people who get themselves wrapped up in messes like this, that most likely there will be some settlement agreement between all parties involved, and most likely nothing will be fixed, or the settlement money set aside for future maintenance and repairs.

There is also the possibility that all of these negotiations could be sealed from the public (you know, like the list of contractors that worked on the Events Center and what they got paid.)

Maybe the paperwork has already been signed and it is a done deal, filed in the dark of the night? But trust me, when that deadline rolls around, there will be a lot of people in this community asking questions and demanding answers on our $180 million dollar investment. And this time around, I don’t think the mayor will be able to sweep it under the rug.

 

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Tuesday would be a good night to be conveniently sick if you are a Sioux Falls city councilor

l3wis 7Comments

The council meeting is jampacked with several controversial items that may be debated, this could possibly be one of the longest city council meetings in years. Ironically it may be over quick to (Dr. Staggers will be absent 🙂 Of course you won’t be able to watch it unless you have an old PC with internet Explorer, all others be scorned.

A listing of the more interesting items;

#1, Approval of Contracts. Apparently the Falls Overlook Cafe needs some erosion control for a cost of over $100K. Would be nice to pull this out of the consent agenda so our consultant happy engineering department could explain what this was for.

Also we are handing over a nice check of $275K to the Development Foundation like we do every year, but who has time to explain what they will do with the money? Just hide it in the consent agenda.

#26, Someone owes the city over $31K in occupancy taxes, but who is it? You could read all the documents until you are blue in the face and you won’t figure it out. It’s actually the EconoLodge, but no where in the pending documents will you see it. I find it ironic when a business is filing for a re-zoning or owes the city money, they try their best to hide the person behind it. But if Grandma Jones owes the city $23 for tree trimming, you will be sure to see her name with the address. So much for transparency.

#27, The city council will just finish their budget hearings at 3 PM, and turnaround at 7 PM right away propose a resolution to approve the budget, and you can read the almost $500,000 million dollar budget on this handy two-page PDF in 4 point type (DOC: City-Budget-2015). I think this is just to set a hearing date.

#34, they finally get back to talking about tax increases when you are talking about tax increases. I wonder if a week was long enough for the city attorney’s office to pull their heads out and help the council write resolutions. It sure would be handy if the city clerk was also an attorney, oh wait, they had one of those and they fired her because ‘she knew to much’.

#35, The city council wants a $365K splash pad at Spellerberg to compliment the indoor aquatic center. You could build a small outdoor pool for that.

#43, 1st reading for the proposed changes to the billboard zoning limitations. The 500 feet away from sensitive use stayed in the ordinance even though Shawna Goldhammer tried to slip it out. Luckily some savvy citizens showed up to make sure it stayed in the proposed changes. The city council could fiddle with it at 2nd reading, but I would suggest they leave it as is.

#46, So now we are signing ‘Pre-Annexing agreements’. Funny when someone is making a load of cash from selling land these kind of ‘contracts’ with the city appear, but when a big box store screws over an entire neighborhood it is done in the dark.

#48-49, All Saints has to go to the City Council to beg for approval to build on THEIR OWN PROPERTY. It’s not like they are asking for a street vacation or to put a big box store in the middle of a historic neighborhood, get this, all they want to do is expand their facility, and while they are at it add more trees and landscaping to the corner of 18th and Phillips. But the All Saints neighborhood ain’t having it. How dare these people living in assisted living think they can have therapy facilities ON campus! They should have to continue to be bussed over to Sanford or Avera. These citizens fighting this need to get over themselves. It will actually improve the neighborhood and make the ‘Gorky Park’ creepy grove of trees that exist there now go away.

#50, I believe is in reference to #34 if the council approves it.

So grab your back rest, pillow, and a cold beverage, it is going to be a long Tuesday night.

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