November 2017
Updated Campaign Platform for 2018 Municipal Election
If you are running for mayor or city council for the 2018 Municipal election, you should have your work cut out for you. This is my UPDATED list of what the next mayor and council should focus on.
• Crime: While crime in Sioux Falls hasn’t gotten out of control and is manageable, the increasing violent crime rate over the past 5 years should concern us. The candidate(s) that come up with a leading solution(s) while making the public still feel safe will garner attention. I have suggested concentrated patrolling, more neighborhood watch programs and educating the public about what to look for when it comes to suspicious activity (drug dealing, domestic violence, etc.) Also an increased social media presence.
I would also like to see the police department to receive several national certifications, use body cameras, incorporate a stringent officer fitness program and create a drug task force with Federal assistance from the FBI, CIA and DEA so we can stop playing whack a mole.
• Transparency: This is just a given. We have had one of the most secretive administrations to date. Trust me, Munson and Hanson were not much better, but Huether has taken his dictatorship (home rule charter) to heart. Heck, our local paper had to sue in Supreme Court to get a contract. The next council and mayor need to open the books and communication, and it shouldn’t even be a fight, it should just be done. A healthy democracy depends on it. This means opening communication with the city council and working together with them and the mayor on the budget and legislation.
• Affordable Housing: It is probably the NUMBER ONE issue affecting Sioux Falls right now, but it is closely tied into with crime. When people don’t have a decent place to live or a decent job to pay for it, it breeds crime. I suggest the next mayor and city council take away focus from big development and TIFS (urban sprawl) and concentrate on the core and proper of Sioux Falls. First off, big development will survive, they have plenty support from private investors and banks. Plus urban sprawl only hurts our infrastructure budget (building more NEW infrastructure means more to take care of). We need to concentrate more on community development loans to private homeowners and landlords of small apartment complexes. Not only can they be helped with NO or LOW interest development loans, there are plenty of Federal grants they can apply for. This of course will take bigger staff to go door to door in these neighborhoods and promote this kind of revitalization. It will also have to come from the real estate and mortgage banking industry willing to invest in first time home buyers and young families to rebuild these older neighborhoods. Another measure tied into this would be passing a city ordinance minimum wage within SF city limit of at least $10-11 an hour. I would also suggest a city ordinance that eliminates wage collusion by requiring employers in Sioux Falls to print what their starting salary is in their employment ads.
• Homelessness/Poverty/Food insecurity: While I think our city does a great job with housing the homeless and helping people with food insecurity, I think we fail huge with transitioning them out of homelessness and poverty. Besides our low-wage culture in South Dakota the lack of good mental illness treatment really holds back people transitioning back into real life and self-sufficiency. I’m not sure what all the answers are, but I think it will take a stronger relationship with our county governments.
• Shared services with Lincoln/Minnehaha counties: Not only would this save tax payers millions, working together to solve our public safety issues and public mental health needs would make us a stronger community. I see a lot of overlapping between the 3 governments and inefficiencies. If we can build a library system together, we can certainly do a lot more.
ODDS & ENDS
• Create a Public Ambulance service: Besides the fact we would save taxpayers money and create a more affordable service, let’s look at the obvious. Our fire department is already showing up for medical emergencies, most of the time faster than the private ambulance. Our fire fighters are already trained, some better than the private ambulance. The only real cost initially would be adding the ambulances to the fire stations. Public ambulance service would pay for itself thru billing the consumers, because right now, all we are doing is subsidizing the private service with no monetary return.
• Fix the worst streets first: I would focus a lot of our 2nd penny road money to fixing our core’s worst streets. This would encourage more people to move back to the core of our city, fix up the older neighborhoods and slow urban sprawl which only costs us more and more in new infrastructure that we have to maintain.
• Sell the Railroad Re-development land to highest bidder, ASAP: Let FREE enterprise develop the land without trickle down developer welfare. The best plans will stand on their own without handouts.
• Stop the revolving door of businesses Downtown: Create a Downtown retail/restaurant development plan that strategically focuses on aggressive diversity of businesses.
I’m sure I will add more to this closer to the election. What are your ideas?
Jolene Loetscher stumbles a bit in Lalley interview
Know your hot button issues especially when running for mayor.
Jolene was on the Good Ship Lalley Pop (podcast has yet to post) show today, and she did pretty good, but she stumbled a bit when asked about the Downtown Parking Ramp. She said she supported the project and that it was good for downtown development. She went on to say that councilor Neitzert did a good job of ‘crunching numbers’ and explaining why we are paying double the national average for stalls. (Because we tax payers are taking on a 100% of the ‘soft costs’ which are about $6 million, and IMO should be SHARED with the developers like the ramp wrap, architectural and engineering designs, utility upgrades and reinforced foundation that is needed to support the PRIVATE hotel).
When Jolene was asked if the private investors should be released, she said YES. A good answer on it’s face . . . but.
What Jolene must not know, or has missed is that you can support this project all you want, but if you don’t support the investors staying secret you can’t support the project, it’s part of the convoluted plan. You can’t have your cake and eat it to.
The city doesn’t want us to know and says that NO public officials (or family members) are investing. Even if we trust them on that verbal only promise, there is NOTHING preventing public officials from investing in other NON-PUBLIC partnerships with the same secret investors, something I think is happening and is a conflict of interest IMO and probably the #1 reason these investors are being kept secret. It is NO secret that the mayor and some of the other councilors do invest in local development projects. But do these lines get a little blurred when you are helping your fellow investors out on a public project? You know, that whole back scratching thingy.
While the city has NO intentions of releasing the names of the private investors, only the guarantors, which includes Aaron Hultgren whose construction company has been fined thousands of dollars for OSHA safety violations for the Copper Lounge building collapse. Hultgren’s name alone attached to this project is another reason why the public should know most of the private investors.
I will give credit to Jolene for sticking up for transparency, but you can’t have it both ways as mayor. Private developers will fight you tooth and nail before releasing those names. So would Jolene cave to secrecy or would she forgo public/private development for transparency? Good question.
I have argued all along the best way to have transparency with development in Sioux Falls is by creating or eliminating regulation legislation that supports growth instead of handouts like TIF’s and taxpayer partnerships. These tax incentives NEVER trickle down to the common citizen taxpayer in this town. It hasn’t worked since Reagan introduced this asinine way of governing and it never will. Let FREE enterprise and development in Sioux Falls sink or swim on it’s own and let our tax dollars provide the services that truly trickle down to us all instead blowing millions on developer welfare projects.
So please Jolene, keep fighting for transparency, just don’t expect developers to get on board.
Downtown Parking Ramp * NOTICE * Postcard
Councilor Stehly mailed this postcard yesterday to select voters throughout our city. All the FACTS on the postcard have been verified by Community Development Manager Darin Ketchum during the 1st Reading.
Sioux Falls City Councilors Starr & Stehly on FORUM
Pat and Theresa talk about the Downtown Parking Ramp Boondoggle, LISTEN HERE.
Replay of Belfrage’s interview this morning, LISTEN HERE and citizens reaction to the parking ramp, LISTEN HERE.
Pat and Theresa will also be at Democratic Forum talking about the project on Friday (noon at the VFW).
Theresa wrote a letter to the editor about the ramp, READ IT HERE.
Pat will also be on my Podcast on Monday talking about the Ramp.