South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

October 2017

SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, October 17, 2017

l3wis 2Comments

Informational Meeting

It starts with a presentation from building services than the administration makes a second attempt at squelching the siding settlement kerfuffle. I’m hearing that the administration is trying to tie up any loose ends at this meeting. Some on the council want it to die also. But I still think they need to pursue a 2nd opinion on the matter. We will see who truly supports transparency.

UPDATE: It ends with an executive session (CANCELLED), which I assume may have to do with the upcoming golf management contract. Maybe councilors will finally be getting the info they are asking for? Maybe they will be told to STFU.

Who knows?

But I am told by DaCola foot soldiers on the street rumors are that Dakota Golf Management will get the renewal though GreatLife has the better offer.

Land Use Committee

Right after the informational, the council will dive into one topic at this committee meeting, an update on boulevard gardens and plantings. It will be interesting to see how this has been going. I plan a boulevard display this summer.

City Council Meeting

While we Him and Haw about what happened to the ever dwindling events center settlement, in Item#1 of approval of contracts we are spending over $100K on premium seating.

There is also a steady course of zoning items and we finish with filling multiple citizen board seats. Something the mayor would never give up, but seems to struggle with keeping up.

Code Enforcement SF City Council Sioux Falls

What? Code Enforcement? No, citizen abuse and dumpsters

l3wis 3Comments
Who would have thought this video would touch such a nerve when we posted it in 2014. City employee Darin McDonald was fined for his dumpsters during an interesting time of property transfers in his neighborhood. Dan Daily had the SD Supreme Court declare code enforcement process in Sioux Falls unconstitutional and still has not been fixed. Cameraman Bruce was arrested for raspberries and garlic only to have the judge tell the city to leave his yard alone.
Project Trim, flowers in the boulevards, campers, grass, snow, sidewalks and so many citizen irritations caused by overzealous out of control city administrations. There are so many more and we will be highlighting them as we can get the information. If you have a story to tell, let us know. You never know what can be done.
The fallout is happening and it is filling dumpsters. South Dakota has already declared this process unconstitutional but Sioux Falls keeps doing it anyway. Testimony on Tuesday September 9, 2014 was an interesting day for the City Council of Sioux Falls SD.
During the open discussion portion of the regular council Informational session, Kermit Staggers brought up a discussion of code enforcement abuse performed by city officers on behalf of troubled neighbors. It was a good topic to bring up.
Some of the councilors did not understand why it was an issue. It seems the people being abused don’t feel their councilors care enough to help them to even ask them for help. Who is left to answer and fight for the average public? Kermit.
Michele Erpenbach and Dean Karsky decide to stick up for the mayor and his administration. Nothing new from them. Greg Jamison tries to discuss the compromise reached among the council a few years ago but they seem to have forgotten to reach out to the community, like usual.
At the Public Input portion of the regular Council meeting, Darrin McDonald had a great presentation on the city snitch program. Dumpsters, dumpsters and more dumpsters mostly owned by the city are in violation of city code. Where are the citations due the mayor, Pavilion, Sheraton?
Before the City Hall lurkers bombard us with abuse they should look at their own backsides.
The Council needs to rein in the code enforcement mess in Sioux Falls. Code enforcers are used by nasty ‘Good’ neighbors to hurt many neighbors in this best little city. Once a citizen tries to work with our code enforcement staff, they know you are a sucker, so look out. Once they know you are weak, they will find ways to abuse the law to hurt you. So look out.
Cameraman Bruce Danielson
Denny Sanford Premier Center Event Center Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Uh . . . Thanks for the Documents? I think?

l3wis 5Comments

It only took 3 years and a Supreme Court decision and now the city has decided to release (some) of the Events Center building documentation. (click on Item 4A, and you will see the PDF DOCS on the lower right hand side of your screen).

The obvious reason we WANT to see the siding report is that it may or may not tell us if we will need to do maintenance to the siding in the near future. Attorney invoices from 3 years ago don’t help much. Just saying.

UPDATE: I had a chance to review most of the documents. Besides the fact we spent thousands of dollars on outside legal counsel, there was something that stuck out, over and over. That in a moment.

I will say this first, while I can be uber-critical and cynical of local government, there is a part of me that understands that public officials (either elected or appointed) don’t always make the right decision. Most of the time that is for two reasons; 1) They didn’t get the proper information or did not seek it out before making the decision OR 2) it has to do with their political philosophies. While those two are not totally inexcusable, they are within reason. Nobody is perfect, we all make mistakes, we all tell a lie from time to time, but we try to LEARN from our missteps.

But what stuck out on the siding settlement and the attached documents is that in the dozens of pages of memos and letters between all parties involved (contractors, city employees, architects, manufacturers, legal teams, etc.) they all had a repetitive theme in their correspondence; APPLYING THIS SIDING IS NOT A RECOMMENDED OR GOOD IDEA. But for some reason at the end of the day, they did it anyway.

Why? Well that seems to be the Million dollar question. Like I said, most mistakes by public officials are excusable, but it is baffling to me with all the warnings that anyone would approve this siding job. Somebody was following orders, and someone was giving them. Can anyone say “Code Red”.

Mike Huether SF City Council Sioux Falls

Kudos to 1/2 the council and mayor for voting down casino loophole

l3wis 7Comments

Sioux Falls City council meeting, 10/10/17 (FF: 45:00)

Bravo to councilors Erpenbach (who led the charge), Starr, Rolfing, Stehly and Mayor Huether (breaking tie) for voting NO on the casino common space ordinance.

I was actually surprised it tied, but wasn’t surprised Mike voted NO. It is well known in certain circles he doesn’t like VL casinos. I think he called them once ‘junky’ looking.

It was a stupid ordinance for a couple of reasons. While it probably makes sense to have adjoining casinos who have the same owner sharing a beer cooler, that really was only the minor intent. While the separate casinos would have their own set of machines, name, signage and their own entrances and bathrooms, the casino owners wanted them to ‘share’ ONE employee. Besides the fact that the casino owner is being a tight wad when it comes to labor, he is actually endangering his ONE employee more and making BOTH sides of the casino more vulnerable to robberies. Stand alone VL casinos are already burglar magnets, how does this make them anymore safe? Fortunately at least half of them saw that this was very bad idea when it comes to crime and safety. What was strange was that Kiley said he agreed with the NO voters, but voted for it anyway. Now that’s leadership Rick.

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