SD State Legislature & City of Sioux Falls

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Annexation Legislation Fails

Of course we can mostly thank the Anti-Citizen League for killing the bill;

Yvonne Taylor of the South Dakota Municipal League told lawmakers that there are two steps in the annexation process that already require certified letters and a public vote.

Nothing gets me hotter than my tax dollars paying this lobbying organization and it’s anti-citizen, pro-corporate welfare agenda. They consistently lobby against bills that improve transparency and help citizens navigate local government. If I was the next mayor I would fire them so fast their heads would spin. Actually, I think the city council controls that expenditure, they should cancel it. We pay an operations manager almost $100K a year to help follow legislation in Pierre, why do we need a lobbyist, especially one that lobbies against the best interests of the citizenry?

It also didn’t help that Mike Cooper and Council Chair Rick Kiley showed up to talk against it. A witness told me that Kiley claimed that only ONE person complained about the annexation process when it comes to notification. What a stretch.

Investor Notification Legislation

While I think this is a great idea, like annexation, this will probably get killed in committee;

The bill, which hasn’t been assigned a formal number by the Legislative Research Council, would require companies working with governments on public-private projects that have been in existence for five years or more to disclose the names of any investors who own 5 percent or more of its shareholders or investors.

Like I said, great idea, but there is always loopholes in any of this stuff, just ask former city attorney Fiddle-Faddle. I also think it is sad that we have to pass laws in order to get the information the public should have a right to. And if any developer had one ounce of integrity, they would give up that information on their own. Oh, nevermind, I forgot we do business with people who drag cancer causing agents through out town without a care in the world. Real pillars of our community.

HERE is an interesting story about how well private/public partnerships work. I really believe the Village project will never happen, or we will be left holding the bag.

Alcohol Distributors still crying in their beers

While the craft brewers do 99% of the work creating their delicisousness, the beer distributors still want a cut for being a taxi service;

South Dakota beer distributors said this week a proposal aimed at letting craft brewers sell their beer directly to stores and restaurants gives them unfair advantages over other players in the beer industry.

Oh, baloney. They are simply saying it is foolish to go through a distributor to sell to someone next door. They will still have to use distributors for large scale distribution.

The greed the distributors are showing is the reason why people are buying online more and more, besides the fact that sales taxes are regressive, people are tired of paying a middle man (salesperson) for essentially not doing much. It is similar to art galleries taking a 40% commission for hanging a painting on a wall.

It also doesn’t help that we have legislators who have a direct conflict of interest with the legislation. Kolbeck and Beal should excuse themselves from voting on this legislation.

Thoelke thinks the rubberstamp school board works fine as is

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If it was coming from anyone but Todd, I would take this as a threat;

Thoelke also wants to keep the current school board intact.

“I feel like the five of us are cohesive … I don’t know that it’s time for a new person to dive in there,” he said.

Wow. That’s some good encouragement for the democratic process.

‘Please, don’t bother running because you would just over turn the apple cart if you won.’

First off, Mickelson is fairly new, and secondly I’m not sure that Parker is running again. Either way, I think NOW is the perfect time for new blood. I think the School Board has become a group of elitists, this of course wasn’t by accident. We saw this by how the last school board election was conducted (super precincts with none in the entire North side of the city) and Mickelson spending $6 a vote.

With the possibility of one of the largest opt-outs in the school district’s history coming this year or early 2019, NOW is the time to get some debate and discussion between school board members when it comes to property taxes and building new schools.

A rubberstamp school board will certainly not take the stand needed to balance property tax fairness with properly funding public education. I have contended all along that the district could pay for bonds out of their current budget but that would mean cutting some fat, and I’m not talking about teachers or support staff, I’m talking about at the top.

We have known for a long time what is wrong with the EC siding, we just want to know who authorized it!

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A letter writer points out the obvious problems with the Denty siding;

Would the mayor and his crew accept that kind of work in their own homes?

Apparently they would, because we speculate that is who authorized the installation. All the arguments over the appearance, structural integrity and silly settlement are secondary arguments to who authorized it.

During the mayor’s last ‘Shut Up and Listen’ episode the mayor said leaders should learn from their mistakes. You can’t learn from your mistakes unless you admit to them first. The mayor continues to deny a mistake was made by putting the flat panels on a curved building. It is obvious from the settlement details and the consultant’s siding review a mistake was made. In fact it is glaring. So why won’t the mayor just say he issued the code red? He continues to ask people to drop the subject, but until he ultimately takes responsibility, apologizes and than learns from that mistake by offering a long term solution it’s hard to drop it.

Please Mike, give us the documentation that shows you authorized the cost cutting installation, otherwise you can continue to hear about this topic until the election and beyond.