July 2017

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda for August 1, 2017

It all kicks off at 2 PM, at Carnegie for the Budget hearings. Of course, as you can tell from the SIRE links there are NO attached documents. Mayor Huether likes to keep everything top secret before he presents it so he doesn’t miss out on that element of surprise.

In the first hearing he will go over HR, Central Services, Community Development (Affordable Housing, Economic Development and Public Parking).

Maybe we will see if they are going to finally announce what is going on with the DT parking ramp. My sources tell me that contract negotiations have failed so far between the city and Legacy.

The council meeting certainly won’t be dry or short either, it will be a very long day for the council;

Item #35, 2nd Reading, Lacey Park will be up for rezoning from Ag land to Live Work. Councilor Stehly will be recusing herself due to her close relationship with the landowners and partially due to Rex Rolfing’s flying gavel puck. I suspect it will pass, maybe with some conditions.

Item #46 & #47, 2nd Readings, The Glory House will be officially gifted city property, with the purchase of some of the land because the Mayor doesn’t like handouts unless it is to tennis centers that bear his name.

Item #48, 1st Reading, Parks Board Districting. This is Stehly’s legislation that has gotten pushback from the mayor’s office.

I’m note sure if it will make it to a 2nd reading, but even if it does, it will be a rough ride to passage because even if it gets 5 votes to pass, the mayor could veto it. So it will essentially need 6 votes on 2nd reading. Either way, Stehly promises to bring it back next Spring after a new council and mayor are sworn in. Just like Snowgates, it will eventually get passed, so why fight it now?

Item #49, 1st Reading, the watered down version of the Rental Registration ordinance changes, I suspect there will probably be even more amendments to Erpenbach’s proposal.

Item #50, 1st Reading, this is a NEW $150 fee added to alcohol licensing for Off-Sale Delivery. This is the first I have heard about it, and it will be interesting to hear the reasoning behind the fee. I’m just as baffled as you.

Hopefully the council can take lots of pee breaks, they are going to need them.

City owned Golf Course leases up for Bid

I’m not sure how long Dakota Golf Management has had the lease on the city courses, but I’m pretty sure it’s been for over 40 years. Is this going to change?

The City of Sioux Falls, SD, requests proposals for the Lease or Management of the Sioux Falls Municipal Golf Courses.

I know that Great Life has sparked interest in this lease and will probably bid on it. It will be interesting to see if this plays out like the Paramedics Plus contract did.

City Archive of Videos on YouTube is the Tip of the Iceberg

As you may have probably noticed on South DaCola’s YouTube channel, Cameraman Bruce has been working hard on loading the city’s public videos;

A Sioux Falls activist is taking it upon himself to download and archive thousands of city government videos in an effort to make sure they’re always available to the public.

We have also been working on another special project that will change the way you can research and monitor local government, without my editorial rants, details coming soon. It’s gonna be YUGGGE!

Cynthia Mickelson spends 5.5x more than closest opponent

The final 2017 Sioux Falls School Board Race Final Finance Reports came in on July 18. With those reports in we can present the ‘REAL’ numbers of what was spent in the race. I am comparing the top two vote getters, Dobberpuhl and Mickelson.

 

Mickelson, 2,278 Votes. She spent $6.12 per vote

(Spent $13,944. She raised $21,504)

 

Dobberpuhl, 1,811 Votes. He spent $1.39 per vote

(Spent $2,524. He raised a little under $2,000)

 

I originally posted that Mickelson spent 7-10x more than Dobberpuhl, which was NOT TRUE and wanted to correct this with the final numbers.

Mickelson’s Final Report (PDF DOC: Mickelson-YearEnd Report) and First Report (PDF DOC: cyn-a11)

Dobberpuhl’s Final Report (PDF DOC: Dobberpuhl-Final)

I spoke to the School Board about the last school board election and not only raised concerns about how the election was handled (Lack of precincts, etc.) I suggested that there should be a spending cap of $5,000 for candidates. I think it is very hard for regular candidates to compete when their opponents outspend them in such a drastic way.