South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

2018

Elections Sioux Falls Tom Hurlbert

Will Rock Garden Tour be pulled from SD Public TV?

l3wis 1Comments

Weeds? City Ordinances? What’s the difference?

Trust me, trying to dig up stuff about city council candidates isn’t something I spend a lot of time on, but someone pointed out to me that Tom Hurlbert, who is running for Sioux Falls city council central district, and who also is a co-host on Rock Garden tour may be violating Federal and State laws when it comes to campaigning.

Huh?

Well, there is nothing wrong with him doing the show, their is also nothing wrong with airing the show online, the problem is since he announced he is running for public office, technically, the Rock Garden Show he appears in cannot be aired on publicly funded media sources, as it could appear as SDPTV is endorsing him as a candidate. The running of the show on SDPTV should be suspended until after the election.

I know, seems silly to think that a show that talks about weeds and Wall Drug would have anything to do with a city council race, but hey kids, that’s the rules.

Denny Sanford Premier Center Event Center Greg Neitzert SF City Council Sioux Falls

Events Center Siding Consultant confirmed it; Flat siding on curved building = BAD

l3wis 9Comments

There were two revealing moments yesterday during the Sioux Falls city council informational meeting when council was questioning the siding review consultant.

Councilor Neitzert started asking some pretty (basic) questions and got some very frank answers. What I noticed was when the consultant answered two of these questions, he wasn’t nervous, but VERY confident in his response.

So what were they?

Neitzert asked if the siding was applied to the building according to specifications?

Consultant, “The siding was not installed according to specifications.”

(We have to remember that while MJ Dalsin was the contractor on the siding, they used a subcontractor that Mortenson recommended for the curved portion of the building, and were NOT the direct contractor installing the siding. That contractor is responsible for the buckling siding on the Pinnacle in Lincoln and the botched dome job on the Corn Palace they had to redo).

Neitzert then asked about the photos of the siding being installed, and asked the consultant if he thought it was visible the buckling was occurring during installation.

The consultant confirmed that it was apparent the siding was buckling during installation.

So where does this leave us? Right at the beginning; WHO AUTHORIZED THE FLAT PANELS?!

While councilor Stehly wants to hire outside legal counsel for an opinion about the legality of looking at the draft reports I think the council needs to pressure the mayor publicly for the documentation that has the signoff for the installation.

Let’s be realistic here, it was either the mayor or someone directly below him that authorized the installation, the public isn’t stupid. So please Mike, stop being a chickensh*t and fess up already – you ordered the Code Red.

Elections SF City Council Sioux Falls Tom Hurlbert

New candidate for Sioux Falls City Council should be running against Erickson instead

l3wis 4Comments

You may know Mr. Hurlbert from the Rock Garden Tour radio program, or as a local architect, but now he wants to be on the city council;

“As an architect, I listen to my clients and deliver solutions,” he said. “As a member of the city council, my clients would be the citizens of Sioux Falls.  I want to listen, build consensus, be transparent, and deliver solutions to make our city even better.”

Not sure why Tom would want to fiddle around in a crowded race that will only result in a runoff anyway when he could challenge Erickson instead, avoid a runoff and have a very good chance of eliminating Ms. Flip-Flopper from the city council.

Tom can be a little on the odd side, but I think that has more to do with his sense of humor, but he is super smart and well versed in politics and social issues, he will make a great city councilor if he succeeds.

Democrats Minnehaha County

Sioux Falls Chamber caves to Republican Pouting – Punishes Dems

l3wis 12Comments

* FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE *

Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce won’t allow Minnehaha County Democrats to sponsor annual legislative coffees

January 15, 2018

On Thursday, January tenth the Minnehaha County Democratic Party (MCDP) was notified they won’t be allowed to sponsor the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce (SFACC) Legislative Coffees as they have for years.

The Minnehaha County Republican Party (MCRP), the Minnehaha-Lincoln Republican Women, and Americans for Prosperity all pulled their sponsorship from the SFACC Legislative Coffees for 2018. Speculation is the conservative organizations didn’t like a recent article (Argus Leader, Sept. 20, 2017) in which SFACC President and CEO, Jason Ball expressed concern over events that are “antagonistic to immigrants and new demographic groups in Sioux Falls,” and “legislation and policies that negatively target specific populations …”

“We believe the Republicans are trying to punish the Chamber for a stance that they don’t agree with. Unfortunately, that resulted in the Chamber trying to smooth things over by removing us, the opposition party, from the event,” said Heather Halverson, Minnehaha County Democratic Party Chairwoman “We see this as an effort to appease the Republicans, while removing our voice. From our perspective, this is undemocratic.”

This year’s events will be held at the Holiday Inn City Centre from 10:00 am to 11:45 am on February 3rd, 10th, and 24th. The SFACC Legislative Coffees include legislators from area districts and allow the public to ask timely questions related to the 2018 legislative session. The Republican legislators that attend the coffees outnumber the Democrats twenty-six to four.

“We have been a longtime sponsor of the Legislative Coffees. As the minority party in the state, it is very important for us to have a table at the event, and allow local residents to stop by and ask us questions about our platform, legislative matters and our upcoming events,” said Halverson. “We aren’t the party that picked up our ball and went home because we didn’t like the way the game was going.”

Heather Halverson, Chair

Minnehaha County Democratic Party
SouthDaCola Notes; While I could care less what either party is up to in our state, I think this is pretty crappy to treat the MCDP this way because the Republicans are a bunch of whiny crybabies that want to continue to push their racist and homophobic views on the rest of us. The sad part is that the Chamber should NOT have to apologize for Jason’s comments, he is right, being a racist is bad for business.
Mayor Almost Done Mayor Grump Toad Mayor High Crimes Mayor Hubris Mayor Pants on Fire Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Media Mike Huether Sioux Falls

It’s not up to Mayor Huether to determine who is a journalist or media

l3wis 4Comments

Even though both Bruce and I have been cleared by the Secret Service to cover presidential campaign events, that’s NOT good enough for Hizzoner;

Mayor Mike Huether doesn’t think a having a blog and a Youtube channel makes someone a legitimate journalist, but industry professionals say it’s not his place to decide.

There is NO licensing process or test to become a journalist. The rules are pretty simple;

While the mayor doesn’t take questions from Danielson at press conferences, South Dakota Newspaper Association Dave Bordewyk said Danielson and anyone seeking information from their government have just as much right to attend press conferences and make any inquiries as reporters from established media sources. And if a citizen plans to convey the information they gather to others, they’re a journalist.

“Thankfully we don’t live in a country where the journalists have to be licensed, you don’t have to apply to be a journalist in America still,” he said.

Bordewyk said public officials can pick and choose which media members and citizens they acknowledge, but, ideally, no member of a community would be shunned from participating.

“You would hope those in government would error on the side of casting a wide net in terms of allowing anyone to ask questions,” he said. “Press conferences are a pretty public event after all.”

I don’t think the mayor looks at it as a ‘public event’ he looks at it as ‘his event’ and a time to spread his ‘positive’ propaganda.

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