September 2017

Coming Soon; An Sioux Falls Ordinance Review

Did you know the City Council under Mayor Huether’s reign has passed over 300 ordinances (excluding zoning and planning).

I finally finished my review of these ordinances over the long weekend and will be sharing these revealing numbers with you soon. If you like government creating new regulations, rules and fee increases, you will like the results. If you think our city government should be a citizen advocate, you may be very disappointed in the numbers.

I will share those numbers this week, stay tuned.

Jodi Schwan makes a very ‘wise’ decision

Political advice? Not even going there.

A guess this is why the business community in Sioux Falls trusts Jodi, she makes wise decisions even when it comes to her own business model;

This Labor Day signals the start of another season: election season. The campaign talk, asks and advertising in local, state and federal races will increase from here.

I’m excited to see interest from so many varied individuals in running for office. It’s going to be interesting to watch many of these races unfold.

I’ll mostly observe from the sidelines, though.

You won’t see SiouxFalls.Business carrying candidate announcements, debates or political advertising. There is a lot to be said in business for knowing who you are and what your role should be in the marketplace and then fulfilling that role the best you can.  For us, it’s covering Sioux Falls-area business. And there is plenty of that news to cover. While I don’t rule out addressing issues of relevance to business that come up in the course of a campaign, that’s about the only minimal coverage I anticipate doing.

You may say that Jodi will be missing out on a potential lucrative revenue stream, but in the business she is in, content marketing, that may be the LAST route she wants to go. I applaud Schwan staying out of politics this election season.

As I look back on all the years I have been blogging (I was actually a blog contributor going back almost 20 years) I sometimes wish I wouldn’t have picked art, editorial cartooning and politics to blog about. They are all highly controversial topics. No matter what you say, you will have people either hate half the things you write about 100% of the time or only like 50% of things you write about 100% of the time, or something like that. I get it, not everyone will agree with your point of view. When you blog about politics, it’s much easier to make enemies than allies. But hey someone has to do it, it’s just not going to be Jodi Schwan. Good for her.

A new wind (smell) may be blowing over South Dakota in 2018

There are many stories circulating about the initiatives and referendums ‘circulating’ the state, but one seems to be standing out. I am hearing that ‘recreational’ marijuana is doing very well.

I have also personally opined that if rec gets on the ballot, it will pass. I wouldn’t even be surprised if it gets as high as 56% of the vote.

Besides the fact that people who smoke or have no problem with people who smoke voting for the initiative, there are many who don’t want to go through a prescription process to get the pain relief they need from a natural occurring drug. So who else would vote for rec use? Educators would get a dedicated 40% in revenue from the sale of the product. That could easily infuse over $20 million in the first year. There is also all the savings in law enforcement and incarceration, which should make police and state’s attorneys across our state very happy.

The only argument recently gaining steam against legal rec is ‘drug’ driving. Guess what, drinking and driving will still kill more people each year than any other kind of drug use. That and whether or not you are legally smoking and purchasing marijuana or not, just like drinking and driving, making it a legal product doesn’t change whether people will drive while using it.

Of course our last hurdle will be if our state legislature and AG will let this legally be put on the ballot, and if it passes, let it become state law. Like IM 22, if they override this, it would quite possibly be one of the stupidest things they have ever done (I know, where do we begin on that list).

Unlike Marsy’s Law and IM 22, the legislature, the citizens, the business community, and law enforcement best get ready, legal rec marijuana could be a stark reality next Fall in SD, instead of meddling with it or f’ing up this opportunity, let’s embrace it.

UPDATE: Paulson decided to go down the harder road

It seems John Paulson wants to run for the At-Large position being left empty by Rolfing instead of the Central District. I have also been told he may not have a choice since he doesn’t live in the Central District anyway. Either way, this will make the race for the Central District interesting with a race between many grassroots candidates.

UPDATE: Clara Hart also announced today she is running for At-Large against Paulson.

The candidate’s focus will be on “well-planned growth and finances, community investment and safety, strong neighborhoods and cohesive government.”

Now to find a challenger(s) to Paulson and all his BUZZ words that don’t mean anything, just like his tenure at Sanford. But he was a contender . . .

He was also a finalist for a seat on the Minnehaha County Commission. The seat was ultimately offered to Jean Bender.

. . . in a top-secret selection process. I had no idea he applied, that is because the Republican controlled Minnehaha County Commission kept that process top secret to the end.

I have a feeling that Paulson’s loss to Stehly is one of the reasons Rolfing is pushing for a change in the election threshold of candidates.

UPDATE: On Lalley’s show today Paulson said he does support the 51% threshold and thinks he could have beaten Stehly in a run-off. Maybe.

When Lalley asked him directly what one of his specific goals would be (special project, etc) while being on the council, he didn’t have a SPECIFIC project just that he wants the council to work more positively. This is probably one of the reasons Stehly beat Paulson and Nobles, Stehly had specifics what she wanted to accomplish on the council, they did not. AND she has stuck to those guns.

Touch of Europe Photo Book

This is a book I put together of mostly my photos I took of the Touch of Europe over the years. I haven’t printed any copies yet, but if you would like a copy of the 1st Edition let me know, I would like to print 50 copies and would sell between $10-15 each. I would like to add more photos for the 2nd edition. So if you like to add your photos OR would like a copy, let me know.

HERE IS THE DOWNLOAD LOW-REZ VERSION:TOE-BOOK-8-2017-B