South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

June 2017

Redistricting Sioux Falls Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls Redistricting Public Comment Meetings Next Week

l3wis 0Comments

The Sioux Falls Districting Commission is seeking public comment on the recommended plan to adjust City Council districts. The plan consists of a map that depicts recommended changes to district boundaries pursuant to the districting criteria found in Section 6.02 of the City Charter.

The plan is currently available to the public for inspection and comment at the Office of the City Clerk, Carnegie Town Hall, 235 West Tenth Street. It can also be found online atwww.siouxfalls.org/districting-commission.

The comment period ends June 20, 2017, at 5 p.m. For additional information, please contact the City Clerk at 367-8080. People wishing to comment on the plan must do so in writing to the City Clerk, 235 West Tenth Street, P.O. Box 7402, Sioux Falls, SD 57117-7402, or via email toclerks@siouxfalls.org. Comments must include the name and address of the person submitting the comment.

The Districting Commission will also hold public hearings on Thursday, June 15, 2017, at 5:30 p.m. and on Saturday, June 17, 2017, at 10 a.m., both in Carnegie Town Hall, 235 West Tenth Street. Any interested person may appear and be heard. The first 30 minutes of each meeting will consist of an “open house,” which will be immediately followed by a staff presentation and opportunity for public comment. If an ADA accommodation is needed, please contact the Human Relations Office at 605-367-8745 or humanrelations@siouxfalls.org at least 72 hours before the event.

Elections Electoral College SF School District Sioux Falls

Why it is more important to vote for School Board then POTUS

l3wis 4Comments

If I told you that newly elected Cynthia Mickelson will make more important decisions about your life than president Trump will, you probably would just laugh, or at least scratch your head.

We will get to that in a minute.

On Tuesday, only 3.7% of the voting public showed up to elect a new school board candidate. Besides the fact that people are fed up with musical precincts and complete confusion when it comes to where we should vote, many people just don’t give a sh*t.

Oh, I have heard it from my friends, I have seen it in social media and people say it on call in talk radio, I didn’t vote in the school board election, because it really doesn’t matter.

Really? You are seriously misinformed.

I would make that argument for POTUS. Think about it. The electoral college picks our president. Just look at the last election, Clinton received the popular vote, but Trump was chosen (by law) by the EC. So why even vote for president? And better yet, how does the President’s decisions really effect my life, especially locally? Not much, unless he uses his veto stamp.

Now let’s look at the school board. Besides a large portion of my property taxes going towards the school district’s budget, I now have a ½ penny of sales taxes going towards them. The school board also juggles large federal grants and subsidies (my income taxes).

While our misguided state legislature implemented the sales tax increase, it is our school board that really decides how that goes towards teacher compensation. As for our property taxes, they will be making some major decisions on them over the next couple of years. Our super, Dr. Maher has already been beating the drum of new HS and possibly new middle school. They will have to make some critical decisions on how to pay for those new schools. They could pay the bonds out of the current budget, or they could choose to raise those taxes.

Even without children, like myself, the school board makes a lot of decisions that affect our local economy and federal aid. Take FREE and reduced lunches for instance. How does this affect other federal programs in our community?

This is why it concerned me that candidate Mickelson raised 9 times more than her opponents, and the financials were never put online for the public to view. She raised that money from the GOP establishment, prominent members of the Chamber of Commerce, Minnehaha County Commission, Sioux Falls city council (current and former members) banking industry, healthcare industry and development and homebuilder industries. They obviously seen how important this race was and how important it was to get their candidate elected, and they succeeded. Even with all the struggles I had with Mickelson as a candidate, I would give her a thumbs up on her get out the vote efforts.

Local elections matter. Please educate yourself and vote. The presidential election, not so much.

1st Amendment Censorship Mayor High Crimes Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether SF City Council Sioux Falls

Mayor’s Public Input Diatribe last night proves he has NO Clue what the 1st Amendment means

l3wis 18Comments

Shortly after the city council meeting last night I sent the city council and the mayor an email reminding them of the language of the 1st Amendment, I highlighted this part;

‘or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.’

Why did I send them this? Because after public input last night the mayor went on a diatribe about how he has been trying for six years to eliminate public input and has not succeeded (FF: 51:00). He said that it was not ‘productive’ and they shouldn’t have to listen to it.

What astonished me the most is that the mayor of South Dakota’s largest city has no regard for the US Constitution or the 1st Amendment. Pretty scary that a person who rules over a city of 178,000 people thinks freedom of speech at a public meeting should be squashed because ‘he doesn’t like it’.

Call a waaabulance! (but don’t call a regular one, it might not show up.)

In a little over 11 months this nightmare of closed government will hopefully be over for the citizens of Sioux Falls, and we can hopefully go back to ruling as a Democracy and bring a little sunshine back to city government.

Elections SF School District Sioux Falls

What’s a SD Democratic Party endorsement worth? About 108 votes.

l3wis 1Comments

To be honest with you, I feel bad for Dimitrios Gliarmis, if Dobberpuhl wasn’t in the race, I would have supported him. A very progressive candidate. Gliarmis decided NOT to raise or spend any money, which is fine, he also got the least number of votes. But in reality, he is the real winner because he paid $0 per vote.

But what I found ODD was the SDDP’s email endorsement of Gliarmis ONE day before the election;

First off, the Dems have supported INDEPENDENT Dobberpuhl in the past, and like I said, party shouldn’t matter anyway because this was a non-partisan race, until Mickelson brought in the dark money of the SD GOP.

Even with the Dem’s endorsement of Gliarmis, it still seems Dobberpuhl picked up their votes.

But this post isn’t about Gliarmis OR Dobberpuhl, it is about how pathetic the SDDP is in their endorsement of Gliarmis. They are constantly getting on their high horse about running candidates for the smaller races like school board, city council, etc., so now that they had a candidate in Gliarmis, they don’t do any fundraising for him, NO phone banks, no volunteers, no support whatsoever except for an email endorsement a day before the election. That’s some pretty badass strategy.

If the SDDP is serious about running candidates in ALL the races, they need to support these candidates. If I was Gliarmis, I would have kindly asked them NOT to send out the email, he probably would have garnered MORE votes.

Cynthia Mickelson Elections Randy Dobberpuhl SF School District

Mickelson spends almost $10 per vote to beat Dobberpuhl for Sioux Falls School Board

l3wis 16Comments

This, of course is according to her last financial report. It could be closer to $15 when the last financial report comes out, that is if Bev Chase decides to post it online. Big GOP money wins again, and I am sure they are not one bit to ashamed of it.

Mickelson would have been better off sending out $10 gift cards (probably shouldn’t give them any ideas).

Dobberpuhl spent about $2,400 or $1.32 per vote (2000 votes).

There was a 3.7% voter turnout.

As I have said before, I felt all candidates are qualified, but I do worry Mickelson and her donors want to turn our high schools into Vo-Techs to train carpenters and plumbers instead of preparing them for secondary education.

The CHOKEHOLD the Republican Party has on our state will now continue on the School Board. Now if more than 4% of the 90K registered voters in SF would have decided to show up.

FINAL RESULTS

There was also some ‘questionable’ things that went on during the campaign;

• One day before the election the Argus posted a ‘quiz’ online to determine the best candidate instead of just posting the bios/info of each candidate, many of the questions were geared towards Mickelson’s agenda. Then today, their website was plastered with Mickelson advertising.

• May 30 financial report was never posted online by the school district.

• There were NO voting centers in most of the northern part of the city, yet several in the more affluent Southside.

• KELO-TV had a cut video of Inside Keloland of the candidates that cut off Dobberpuhl’s interview.

Obviously, the planets would have had to align, but some of this stuff is a head-scratcher.

I would like to actually congratulate (Independent) Dobberpuhl for doing as well as he did against the DARK MONEY machine of the SD GOP, SD Chamber of Commerce, and SF Homebuilders Association. He held his own. I have a feeling if spending in the race would have been capped, he would have walked away with the honor tonight. Keep fighting Randy.

I would also like to congratulate Mickelson, she had a well-oiled machine behind her, and she threw everything but the kitchen sink at it. Huge donations, yard signs, direct mail, radio ads, bumper stickers and robo calls. If she were running for governor, her chances would be very good . . . oh that’s right . . .

« Previous Page — Next Page »

You Missed

Elections SF City Council Sioux Falls Vernon Brown

Sioux Falls City Council violated so many rules tonight it was ALMOST comical, but I am NOT laughing

1st Amendment abortion Larry Rhoden Marty Jackley South Dakotans

Rhoden and Jackley apparently don’t know what the 1st Amendment is

1st Amendment Downtown Sioux Falls Homeless SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Sioux Falls Citizen Survey results down in almost every category since 2021

1st Amendment Donita Trump Noem Humor Kristi Noem Political Satire Satire Trump

Trump to Ban Androgynous names