November 2016

Mayor’s Biggest Accomplishment? Spreading Confidence?

I still am trying to figure out how this trickles down on to citizens?

Q: What are you most proud of as mayor of Sioux Falls?

A: It is all about confidence whether it be a sporting event, running a business or nonprofit or running a city. One of the things I’m incredibly proud of in Sioux Falls is our confidence level is as high as it’s ever been and we don’t believe there’s anything we can’t tackle as a city. We are kicking tail and getting things done in government in Sioux Falls.

Maybe he ought to hand some of that high level of confidence over to the SFPD so they can ‘tackle’ our out of control drug and violent crime problem. Or maybe he needs to hand some of that confidence over to employers so they can start paying living wages so that our food banks don’t keep growing.

How would I have answered that question? I would have said “Our Citizens, I’m most proud of our citizens.” But as Mike recently said in a meeting with other city officials, “We didn’t need them (citizens) to weigh in. We got it handled.”

Date set for Events Center Supreme Court Hearing

Will the city lose another Supreme Court case? Will the city be forced to show us the settlement?

“Confidentiality agreements are often put in place by businesses to protect proprietary information. The Argus Leader believes the deal made between the city and contractors does not meet the proprietary standard,” Argus Leader Media President Kathy Jack-Romero said. “Put simply: the city is not serving the best interests of taxpayers of Sioux Falls, who will be paying for the Denny Sanford Premier Center for 19 years. It is our responsibility to determine whether the city followed the law. The closed-door nature of this case has not engendered trust in local government.”

UPDATE: The Wind Haters will make their case Tuesday Night at the Lincoln County Commission

UPDATE: After sitting through 2 hours of testimony from the Wind Haters and Reality Lovers the Lincoln County Commission decides to compromise the setback of 1 mile to 3/4 mile (5280 to 3960 feet). Commission Chair Mike Poppens was the only commissioner to vote against both the original motion and the compromise. His argument was fantastic, paraphrasing, “No one has shown me evidence that wind towers would be any less harmful with a 1200 foot setback (current ordinance) then with a 5,280 setback . . . (besides) that is not the conversation, the 5280 foot setback basically eliminates wind towers in Lincoln county, if we want to have that conversation, let’s have it, because that is all this setback would accomplish.”

But before the compromise, it appeared it was going to fail due to a tie on the commission (Gillespie had to excuse himself because he or his family is investing in the project) 2-2. If it would have failed, it would have stayed at 1,200 feet. But Jim Schmidt threw a hissy-fit that they had to pass something last night, and got Dan King to go along with the compromise, and while they were voting, you could see Schmidt winking to some of the wind haters sitting in the crowd.

What a sh*tshow.

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Cameraman Bruce hopes to film the meeting that starts at 7 PM in Canton;

LINCOLN COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Lincoln County Commission Meeting Room 104 N. Main, Canton, SD 57013

Tuesday, November 22, 2016 7 PM

Public Hearing 1. An ordinance of Lincoln County, SD, amending the 2009 Revised Zoning Ordinance for Lincoln County by amending Article 6, C Commercial District, Section 6.03, Permitted Special Uses. Section 1. That Section 6.03(A) of the 2009 Zoning Ordinance for Lincoln County, SD, is hereby amended. 2. An ordinance of Lincoln County, SD, amending the 2009 Revised Zoning Ordinance for Lincoln County by amending Article 12, Additional Use Regulations, Section 12.02, Wind Energy Conversion Systems. Section 1. That 12.02(C) (not including 1- 10), of the 2009 Revised Zoning Ordinance for Lincoln County, SD, is hereby amended. 3. An ordinance of Lincoln County, SD, amending the 2009 Revised Zoning Ordinance for Lincoln County by amending Article 12, Additional Use Regulations, Section 12.02, Wind Energy Conversion Systems. Section 1. That Section 12.02(C)(2), of the 2009 Revised Zoning Ordinance for Lincoln County, SD, is hereby amended. 4. An ordinance of Lincoln County, SD, amending the 2009 Revised Zoning Ordinance for Lincoln County by amending Article 12, Additional Use Regulations, Section 12.02, Wind Energy Conversion Systems. Section 1. That Section 12.02(C)(4), of the 2009 Revised Zoning Ordinance for Lincoln County, SD, is hereby amended. 5. An ordinance of Lincoln County, SD, amending the 2009 Revised Zoning Ordinance for Lincoln County by amending article 12, Additional Use Regulations, Section 12.02, Wind Energy Conversion Systems. Section 1. That Section 12.02(C), of the 2009 Revised Zoning Ordinance of Lincoln County, SD, is hereby amended by adding a subsection to be numbered 11.