On the eve of Mayor Huether blabbering about his TOP TEN WINS of 2015, I decided to post the anti-wins that occurred in 2015.
- The $1 million dollar events center siding settlement done in total secrecy.
- City councilors approving of a new administration building and construction manager at risk before they get a price estimate.
- The lies of the Parks Department become reality when the cost overruns on the new Aquatic Center are revealed to a surprised city council.
- The Tuthill shooting incident and the apparent secrecy of the SFPD, that now consider the case ‘inactive’.
- Falsehoods about the Events Center profitability.
- Violent crime was on the rise in 2015, and continues to spiral upward.
- Embarrassing fight between the city council and mayor over free pool and bus passes for kids.
- The RR relocation project proves to be the biggest waste of Federal tax dollars in Sioux Falls history, and still doesn’t solve the problem of rail traffic in the heart of our city.
- Mayor Huether proposes the largest budget in city history, then goes out and starts looking for ways to pay for it.
- SIRE is still broke, heck even more broke.
Honorable Mentions;
- Two TIF’s are granted to projects that are NOT in blighted areas.
- Paramedics Plus is granted the ambulance service contract for the city, even though they are the most expensive and had several conflicts of interest with the consultant helping to choose them.
- Stormland TV’s cozy relationship with the mayor is ignored by the station’s GM and the company’s corporate owners.
A foot soldier wanted me to point out a couple more losses in SF over the past year (and I am sure there is more);
• You mentioned the pool. but forgot to mention that in 2015 city council raised pool fees for kids to swim next summer.
• I thought council voting in 2015 to raise bus fares was a terrible blow to the people of Sioux Falls all the while moving ahead on a new 10 million dollar parking ramp downtown (where most all the buses go).
Not to change the subject but have you seen Senate Bill 95? Want to buy your way to a place on the ballot? If this becomes law and is signed off by the Governor, then he should pardon Annette Bosworth. You know the candidates do the same as she did and now they don’t want their petitions scrutinized. So let’s introduce a bill to buy our way onto ballots.
I think a couple of other honorable mentions are:
– The mayor using City funds to travel across the state under the guise of promoting Sioux Falls when he’s clearly promoting himself for a future run for some other political office.
– His recent juvenile behavior fighting with the CVB. Fighting with them trying to steal funding and then holding a press conference without them. Very unprofessional.
Appointing a parking director yet not enough parking at the airport or EC. Overpriced digital parking meters downtown with higher rates that can’t pay for it. Demolishing a parking ramp then proposing a new one for where there’s no proposed construction.
Civil rights court case losses. A federal case in which the city illegally seized construction equipment. Numerous false arrests. No complaint process for police or city employees. Ethics hearing process for Councilors in which the mayor chooses the board and he picks the board for a hearing against himself.
Major modifications to city ordinances that take away free speech and due process for citizens.
Naming the city attorney as his exclusive attorney. Paid by citizens yet he doesn’t represent them.
Rigged elections via confusing language, hidden polling places, & mystery voter blocks.
Half a billion dollar debt without city finance reporting. Bond rating downgrade.
Disrespect and dissolution of government of, by, and for the people.
And Number One:
Crying and throwing a spoiled rich kids tantrum when he doesn’t get his way.
Then there’s also terminating city officials and replacing them with a half dozen new biased insiders.
One bank for all city business when there used to be four. Guess what, it’s First Premier.
I’ll not be surprised when the Feds show up to investigate.
The CVB fight is a disaster for Huether. For the most part, those people previously were some of his biggest supporters. Now he’s not only angered them but a good portion of other tourist-oriented organizations. This past weekend I ran into a DTSF employee whose opinion of Huether completely changed thanks to this idiocy.
Funny how the mayor considers some of my LOSSES as some of the city’s WINS. What a chuckle-head
http://www.siouxfalls.org/en/mayor/top-10
Don’t forget a hog barn st 85th and minn. you can put lip stick on a pig. But in the end it’s still a pig. Thanks mmm for such a wonderful view of sh$& from voters who voted for you once upon a time. Never again a clown
I would like to know the answer only an economist could give us. That is an answer to the question as to approximately how much money has the City raised in the past year directly from sales tax receipts which are directly or indirectly related to any EC events in the past year? I feel that would be a more true assessment of the profit which the City has incurred as a result of the building of the Events Center.
When you realize that answer, the Events Center obviously becomes a more profitable venture for our city. But I would be surprised if those additional dollars would help to completely offset the mortgage interest costs for the EC for the past year, however. But that reality does not bother me, because I believe a city the size of Sioux Falls should have a facility like the EC in our midsts, profitable or not, because a city our size should have a respectable and modern facility for sporting events, graduations, and potential conventions. The EC is a totally different reality than say, the Pavilion, which though a great place, is more of a extravagance than an EC – and I would expect something like a Pavilion to constantly post a yearly profit to justify itself, which sadly it hasn’t.
Thus, the profitability of the EC should not be an issue. The issue should be what about those who directly profit at the expense of the City and its taxpayers through the mere presence of the EC itself. Are the taxpayers really getting their monies worth with the current contractual relationships they have with private entities in terms of naming rights, management contracts, and a proper take of the proceeds from ticket sales? The proof is in the pudding. The current aggregate numbers in terms of profitability speak only to the reality, but it does not speak to what could be the reality in terms of the Cities potential take in the overall amounts of actual profits from sales proceeds from all private entities involved in EC activities, however – and that is what we need to take a closer look at, in order, to be fairer and more honest to our taxpayers, the actual owners of the EC.
How about issuing building permits for a project that is the subject of multiple lawsuits and appeals and allowing it to go ahead? Then arranging for a colonoscopy (emergency?) to avoid subpoena and sending inept (or untruthful) lawyers who won’t produce discovers evidence and have never heard of ‘metadata’. How about denying due process to citizens? I could go on.
Economic impact? Yeah. Right. My son and his wife are going to aldean tomorrow night. Dont know what they paid for the tickets. That money left Sioux Falls with zero economic impact. So they go, have a couple beers apiece and a slice of pizza. A hundred dollars later, they’ve just become a part of the great economic impact mmm is bragging about. Problem is that hundred bucks they spent for a couple beers and pizza would have been somewhere else….right here in SF. The same can be said for 4 out of 5 concert goers. The so-called economic impact is nothing but a shell game.
What do expect from a credit card loan shark.
Teatime #10, the city dodges the courts. They’re ordered to change then change back. Huether’s litigation cost would pave lots of roads and replace condemned bridges. The city attorney office has quadrupled in size. They’ll tell you they represent the mayor (only). These are ambulance chaser types who can’t find work in the private sector. Lawyers are like deer. When there’s to many, have an extra hunting season.
Poly, rather than spend $100 at the EC perhaps an hour with a financial advisor.