Detroit Lewis DOC review; Burden
l3wis I think If I would ever aspire to be a great artist, I would want to be Chris Burden. I think his transformation from crazy performance art to amazing sculptor is fascinating.
May 2017
Stehly talks parking ramps & the AL ED board agrees
Theresa is featured on Jon Michael’s Forum this week.
The Argus Leader editorial board also gets on board with Stehly and her feelings on the parking ramp;
“Taxpayers have a right to know who the city is getting into bed with,†Stehly said.
She’s got a point. While other members of the council are often at odds with Stehly, this is one instance where they should reconsider their stance and lend support.
Even our local paper is seeing through the charade.
2017 City Salaries; Facilities Management
When you start looking at the salaries in this department, you would think they haven’t been adjusted for inflation since 1988. While the city spends millions each year (of our money) on economic development, job growth and affordable housing projects, for some reason they don’t even notice the wage disparity issue in this department.
Out of the 24 custodians that work for the city, 14 of them don’t even make a living wage. The recent Thrive report estimated that a living wage is around $17-20 per hour in Sioux Falls.
The department also has two managers, they make $59,966 & $68,577 per year.
The total salary expenditure for the department (26 employees) is $949,910
If you just count the 24 custodian’s wages it is $821,367 which comes to an average of $16.45 per hour, under a living wage in Sioux Falls.
Should any of this surprise us? I guess people who clean toilets or mop floors are always looked down on as low skill jobs, but over half of these people are actually maintenance employees that require mechanical skills also. Doesn’t someone who works hard 40 hours a week deserve at least a living wage?
I know that the mayor has bragged in the past that they have saved the city even more money in custodial services by contracting a lot of it out. I can tell you that independent cleaning contractors probably pay even less at around $10-12 an hour.
This is where Huether’s corporate culture kicks in. He pays most of his directors well over 6 figures a year, and while their jobs may be more important than cleaning toilets, they still seem to find time to leave before 5 PM to drink beers, or patrol neighborhoods for unsecured wireless so they can download kiddie porn.
Would it really break us if we paid every full-time custodian/maintenance worker with the city AT LEAST $17 an hour? I don’t think so. It seems kind of hypocritical of the current city administration to be throwing millions at local foundations for job growth when we can’t even pay someone a living wage to scrub a toilet.
These are the kind of things that happen when you run a city with a ‘business acumen’. Management lives high on the hog while the minions starve.
Here is the full doc: 2017-Wages
South DaCola has ONE editor and publisher . . . ME.
I’m in charge, just ask me.
While I have allowed guest posts over the years, I want to make something very clear to my readers and especially elected officials and public employees. While I take suggestions and tips from city employees and city councilors, it is ultimately MY decision to post something. Like I said, if an elected official, public employee or candidate for office wants to have a guest post on my site, I allow it if they use their name.
NO ONE, let me repeat, NO ONE, especially elected officials tell me what to write or edit my material.
I even turn down cameraman Bruce quite often on post ideas. Besides my web administrator, the two of us are the only ones who have access to my blog.
Signs, Signs, everywhere there are signs
Most of Cynthia’s signs are in business lots or rental property. She even had a couple signs on private university property (that kind of made me chuckle) Still waiting to see her signs along O’Gorman’s property.
To be fair, Mrs. Mickelson’s signs do appear in many home yards also.
The sign wars always are interesting, as if someone is going to vote for someone based on a cute sign. What surprises me is that Cynthia’s signs are appearing on so many commercial properties (even a liquor store). This is something you usually see in legislative or council races, but rarely in school board elections.
Of course people would say it shouldn’t surprise us, Cynthia’s husband runs the chokehold called the Republican party in Pierre, of course his comrades would help out. People have argued that Cynthia is her own person and parents have asked her to run, which I believe, but when you have commercial businesses getting involved with a school board election, it worries me. It’s a new precedent that is troubling. Is anything sacred anymore?
Just look at the school board itself, in an effort to leave voters out of the school start date, they sent out a survey to parents and teachers, not property tax payers, and certainly not commercial businesses.
If Cynthia wants to be on the school board to help children, which I believe she does, she would show some integrity and pull her signs from all commercial properties.
I encourage Cynthia to run on her qualifications instead of her husband’s connections.
There are four fantastic candidates running for school board (including Cynthia) let them battle it out the old fashion way, at the ballot box.