City Council Working Session • 2 PM
They will be discussion unobligated funds and amendments.
There are some interesting proposals in the unobligated funds;
• A NEW Batallion Chief for ALS and EMS. It will be interesting to see what proposal the Mayor’s office has with public ambulances.
• SWAT armor for bomb techs. One city councilor asked me, “Don’t they have this already?” I would hope so.
• A new Full-Time Bike Trail Service worker. While this isn’t unusual in itself, at $64K a year, where do I apply for this job?
• A ‘community branding’ expenditure of $25,000. Not sure who they are giving this to and what for? I would think that the CVB would have this in their budget already with the BID Tax.
City Council Informational Meeting • 4 PM
They will be approving the CVB yearly budget and getting a presentation about the early renewal of the Paramedics Plus contract. Hopefully we will have more details about the Mayor’s proposal on EMS.
City Council Public Services Meeting • Around 5 PM (After Informational meeting)
They will get a presentation on updating the Landfill ordinances.
Councilors Neitzert and Erickson are also proposing new ‘community standards’ for outdoor natural gas fire pits at commercial/retail/public/hospitality locations. Apparently they met back in May with city officials to discuss it. Who knew?
City Council Regular Meeting • 7 PM
Item #1, Approval of Contracts. Another EXTRA $56K towards the DT Parking Ramp boondoggle.
Item #3, Approving a Parks and Rec consultant at $200K. I do know that some of the councilors are dissenting on this, so I am not sure if this will pass or not.
(FF: 1:31 to hear me discuss the parks study)
Item#4, 1st Reading. A 2.1% property tax increase by the city. This has never failed to pass by the council for a very long time. I would expect they have the votes to pass this on 2nd reading, but I would also guess there will be some dissenters. So much for the $2 a month tax increase? Right?
Item#5-7, 1st readings, ordinances dealing with Ash trees that are needed. I feel there will be 100% support on these items.
Item#9, Resolution to certify the City Council supports stopping demolition of historic homes. I still don’t know all the details on this and why they are voting on this again, I thought it was a done deal. I was told this was only to ‘certify’ the vote and decision already made by the city council, which I find odd. It will be interesting to see what kind of testimony comes from this and if this is some kind of trick to reverse the decision. Seriously, I am clueless on this one.
Item #10, Resolution adopting 2019 Budget and Capital Budget. I believe this is when the city council will debate the budget and amendments. I have NO idea what those amendments will be, but they will be revealed at the working session earlier in the afternoon. When Dr. Staggers was on the city council he propose several amendments. I miss those days 🙂
Item #11, Resolution approving the DT special assessment role. Not sure if any businesses will dissent paying this extra tax that helps to fund DTSF, but has been some in past years.
Item #13, A resolution approving the BID Tax budget for the CVB.
Item #14, A resolution asking for grant assistance from the state to help with the Emerald Ash Borer and equipment that needs to be purchased to remove trees.
Items #16-17, resolutions, An alley way and street vacation. I don’t know much about these items, I guess I will wait to see the presentations.
Charter Revision Meeting, 4 PM Wednesday, Sep 12
They will be discussing the mayor’s salary. I find it interesting that the Sioux Falls mayor is one of the highest paid in the region, even with much larger cities. Madison, WI and St. Paul, MN only pay more. Sioux Falls mayor makes $124K full time, Des Moines mayor only makes $52K, Lincoln, $80K and Omaha, $102K. These are all full-time positions. I’m wondering if Des Moines pay is so low because they may have a city administrator?
Hey, I want the bike trail job! I’ll do a great job too. Because someone needs to have the courage to keep the bears and mountain lions off the trail….
Bike trail is just a mis-named service road for the COE and police driving heavy vehicles on it. It’s not much of an attraction for the city unless you can ride a bike with those car sized tires. It is so bumpy and cracked up, Huether even quit strolling it in his palanquin years ago.
Wow, the bike trail servicer gets paid more than the county’s prosecutors/public defenders. Clearly we got priorities straight round here.