Apparently dogs are a big concern, and maybe we will change our LLC for the hundreth time so people won’t notice we are . . .
Oh, Shucks.
Doc:Â Budget-SF-2018
Imagine that, a mayor managing a budget that invests in it’s people and customer service. GET OUT! I have often argued with people that there is no where in the US Constitution, State Constitution or City Charter that requires our city to spend capital on entertaining us.
Running a city is pretty simple. You take in tax dollars and you spend it on maintaining the city;
• Public Safety
• Planning and Zoning
• Infrastructure and Public utilities
If there is money left over we either refund it (LOL) or we spend it on parks, etc.
I do take a couple issues with the budget address itself (Video). Paul mentions that the police need riot gear for violent protests. Really? I don’t really have a response to that, unless of course the Keystone pipeline plans to go thru our town.
While I understand reorganizing certain departments when it comes to employees and roles, I do think the city needs to look at more technology to help reduce the number of city employees we have. This of course would require us to eliminate the person in charge of that. Please do that soon, we could probably save millions.
It seems some things will never change at city hall, no matter who is at the helm; Developers Run our city and have the keys to the cookie jar.
The assumption is that in tomorrow’s press conference we will be told everything is hunky-dory with the downtown parking ramp because Lamont has now taken control. While I don’t have an issue with Lamont building a hotel or that Journey is building that hotel and parking ramp, it doesn’t change how we got here and how the plan in itself is a bad one.
First off, the plan. We are only getting a handful of parking spots for the $20 million we are spending, and the 100 year lease is unheard of.
Now, let’s look at the players. Legacy is the developer who concocted this plan, they are forever tied to it. We can throw out all the accolades we want about Journey or Lamont, doesn’t matter. The taxpayers of Sioux Falls shouldn’t be giving one red cent to a poorly planned project with players that are being investigated for safety violations and a wrongful death.
Mayor TenHaken should have TERMINATED this project, paid whatever penalties and when asked why, he should say, “Why don’t you ask Daren Ketchum, Tracy Turbak and Mike Huether.” Mic drop.
It is hardly a secret that the city council was probably told about what would be presented in the press conference tomorrow in the executive session today. I talked to someone who attended the session. They were very clear with me that they couldn’t tell me what happened or what was said under penalty of law, or even what the topic of conversation was, but they did tell me this, “It didn’t go well.”
It is pretty evident to us local government nerds that there are way to many hold overs from the past administration that need to be given their walking papers, and until that happens, we will continue down the same path; Developers hold the key to the city.
Several city councilors have told me they have known little about the water reclamation expansion until after Former Mayor Bucktooth & Bowlcut left office. They have admitted that there was mention that the expansion WAS coming, but the price tag and water rate increases were NOT talked about.
The latest proposal is to increase our rates by 6% each year for the next 3 years and 3% every year after that. We will see how the council debates this proposal. My suggestion would be to bond $160 from the enterprise funds and $100 from the 2nd Penny to spread out the bond payment costs. In reality, the 2nd Penny should pay all of this since technically this is infrastructure/capital.
It is very curious that the pricetag was NOT talked about in the final months of the last administration’s term. Did he ask his Public Works director and finance department to embargo the information over the past year so he could justify bonding for the Administration building, parking ramp and $25 million dollar bond payment for Lewis & Clark? We can only imagine the answer to that question. I would suspect that the Public Works Department has known for at least the past two years this was coming AND it would be very expensive. Funny how this got dumped into TenHaken’s lap after Bucktooth did all his monument building. Go figure. Not to mention the $50 million dollar jail and $190 million School Bond.
If I was the city council I would grill Mr. Cotter on how long he knew about this expansion and the possible costs. Following orders to keep something a secret from Bucktooth is unacceptable.
We ramble about the latest city news. Listen HERE.