Last night while councilor Hat-Hater Rex Rolfing was rambling about his bump back ordinance (that he didn’t even understand while having a Dick Kelly moment) some interesting statements came from Fire Chief Sideras’ mouth;

Both Sioux Falls Fire Rescue Chief Jim Sideras and Police Chief Matt Burns said it would have a “chilling effect” or worse on civil servants weighing the pros and cons of accepting a promotion.

“I would have to go through potentially two mayors, three mayors. Do I want to put my family at risk if things didn’t work out?” Sideras said, referring to the factors a candidate for his position would have to consider without a bump back clause. “There isn’t another fire department in town. There isn’t another police department in town.”

Maybe you should have thought of those concerns before you fired and prosecuted a mentally ill assistant fire chief. Instead of helping Patrick Warren with his mental illness and allowing him to continue his job with treatment and a possible demotion, you threw the book at him and fired him with no recourse. I don’t believe Jim is concerned one ioata about his fellow fire department directors, this is about kissing the mayor’s ass and how he looks and if he can secure some more investors for his lakefront resort in Charles Mix county.

8 Thoughts on “The Hypocrisy of Chief Sideras

  1. The D@ily spin on December 2, 2015 at 2:00 pm said:

    Wow! You’ve put this in proper perspective.

    It seems to me fire and police chiefs get the top spot then almost immediately retire at top scale. There’s no progress. Both departments get worse continuously. I’d say a mayor can’t fire public safety directors without full council approval and they must stay at least 5 years in the top slot before qualifying for a full scale golden retirement package.

    As always, strong mayor charter doesn’t work for city employees and the population. If city employees would move into town and vote, this will be remedied and the city will become restored to constitutional democracy circa 1776.

  2. The D@ily spin on December 2, 2015 at 2:07 pm said:

    So if I buy a lake lot in Charles Mix county, am I automatically a fire fighter in line for a guaranteed Chiefs spot one month stint into golden retirement. Where do I sign? Where’s the time clock I show up to punch twice a day? Can I have an exclusive lawyer like the city attorney is for the mayor? Can I ride to and from my lake lot on the Sanford Helicopter?

  3. “There isn’t another fire department in town. There isn’t another police department in town.”

    Is there another library department in town? Is there another Parks department in town?

    It’s arrogant to think that public safety is the only area that should be exempted from the bump back clause if it does go into effect.

    There are fire chiefs and police chiefs that move to where the work is all over the country – if they want the job. Just like finance directors and public works directors and every other director in city government.

    Sideras has been eligible to retire for awhile. I bet DaCola is right. He’s going to be retiring and is looking to protect the next chief who will be one of his land investment buddies.

  4. You are right, as I understand it, Sideras could retire at anytime. Makes you wonder if that will happen before Mike leaves office so Jim can push forward someone internally for a recommendation, it would also be interesting to see if this recommendation owns property on a certain lake in Charles Mix County. Hmmmm.

  5. The D@ily spin on December 3, 2015 at 10:43 am said:

    Directors are spoiled. They came from the regular population but forgot their roots. Reminds me of a rich kid who wraps his new Corvette around a tree and daddy buys him a new one.

  6. anominous on December 5, 2015 at 7:02 pm said:

    I always shovel out my hydrant, but that fuck-nut never sends me a t-shirt.

  7. So do any of these guys own land in charles Mix

  8. It’s not just about kissing the Mayor’s ass. It’s about who would kiss Jim’s ass in the department too. He’s hugely ego driven and will only promote yes-men into key positions. Jim’s legacy is that the department is going to suffer from incompetency for years.

    Department politics have very little to do with the property development, it’s mostly about competence. Jim doesn’t have it. If you know more about fire operations than Jim and show it, he will dead-end your career or try to get rid of you.

    That’s the real reason Pat is gone, he continually corrected Jim and made him look like the incompetent moron he is. Mental illness might have turned off his filter, but what he was saying was still the truth.

    There’s a Battalion Chief working here Jim tried to fire that knows way more than Jim and way more than any of the Division Chiefs. So of course Jim won’t promote him to Division Chief, he’s intimidated by him. So Jim promoted the less competent. City government at its finest.

    Payday is every other Friday, the pension is great, I’m staying out of managment, and the union is running the show. No one seems to care to even want to change it.

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