During the Sioux Falls city council informational meeting yesterday, community development did a presentation to council for the new DT parking ramp. I responded at public input last night at the regular council meeting on how baffling it is that a majority of the council supports such a poor plan.
What troubles me is that the plan sounds worse and worse each day, yet the city council gets stronger with it’s support.
Only councilors Stehly and Starr oppose it. Starr doesn’t like the idea we are spending $18 million for only 190-240 parking spots. Stehly takes issue with the investors and Legacy development.
Some things I pointed out, piggy backing off of what Starr and Stehly said earlier at the informational meeting;
- Why do we need to use the CIP, 2nd penny fund as collateral for the bond? Why not use the other parking structures we own as collateral?
- Why even go into private partnership with Legacy when we would get more parking spaces for less if we built it stand alone. The city has already admitted we need more parking DT. Why spend almost $100,000 a space when we could spend $20,000 a space? Recently the SF Airport proposed spending that amount on parking spaces for a parking ramp they are proposing for $22 million and 1,100 spaces.
- If we NEED to go into private partnership with a private developer, why choose Legacy? Even though they are not part of the OSHA investigation and fines, they still could be included in a civil wrongful death suit due to their ties to Hultgren Construction. Why get in bed with that?
- And one of the most glaring parts of the informational meeting is what was said about investors. At first, community development director, Darin Ketchum says that NO city employees, elected officials or their families or spouses are investing in the project. So Stehly asked Ketchum, “Do you know WHO the investors are.” Ketchum reponds “No.” HUH!? How can you guarantee no city investment from employees when you don’t have a list to compare to? While I am willing to believe that NO city employees are investing, I do think Ketchum is lying about the investor list, I think him and his partner in crime, city attorney Fiddle-Faddle have seen the investor list.
So when will the insanity stop? Will more then two councilors get on board to stop this project before it is too late?