Apparently the city of Sioux Falls didn’t have Booze Cart Fridays
It seemed everywhere you looked in 2019 in Sioux Falls (and in South Dakota) there were quitters. Whether that was several restaurants closing or the proposed closure of the Sioux Falls Canaries Stadium and Arena, it was the year of the quitter.
Let’s look at some of our local government quitters.
First, on a state level, Stace Nelson threw in the towel due to a combination of health issues and the corruption. Noem’s staff has been quitting at a breakneck speed. You can tell why she is so proud of her relationship with Donald Trump because they are cut from the same cloth. Do and say stupid things and your staff quits. Go figure.
In Sioux Falls we had some communication issues. Mostly with Mayor TenHaken not figuring out how to communicate with the public or the media. His police chief also has that issue (unless he needs to implement a fee on non-profits for festivals). Speaking of that, apparently the city is no longer going to assist with these festivals for free. More quitters.
Mayor Paul has also quit plowing the streets as much and ‘tried’ to quit using city employees for storm cleanup (but perfectly okay to pay them to put up Christmas lights at Falls Park).
We also can’t forget who has personally quit this year, with little rhyme or reason. Paula Hawks (Dem Chair), Aaron McGowan (State’s Attorney), Jason Reisdorfer (Innovative Drinker), and Brian Maher (SFSD Super). Heck even Marty Jackley quit his private law practice (oh and he quit his marriage to);
On October 18, 2019, Marty and Angela were divorced citing irreconcilable differences.
This is why I am flagging 2019 as the year of the quitter. Now if we can just get our president to quit. Come on Donnie, you only have a couple more hours – do the right thing.
While I hope he does good things, and I think he probably has some good ideas, otherwise Paul wouldn’t be so Gung Ho in hiring him, I think he will become easily frustrated and probably not make it very long in city government. But I wish him well in the short time he will be working for us.
I predicted he would last about a year. What is frustrating as a taxpayer is that during his tenure he never accomplished the goal of fixing transit. Now mind you, this is not a easy task, but it has gone in the wrong direction. But what has been even more frustrating is that in the short 15 months he worked for the city he flew all over the country receiving training from various organizations. While it is true that some of these orgs paid for the trips, he was still getting a salary while attending them, and now he gets to add it to his resume instead of benefitting us.
Jason said this in February of this year;
It motivated him alright, to find another job. I have no doubt his assistant and former Click Rain employee Allie Hartzler will probably get his job. As with most things city government, very, very, very predictable. I think the mayor has known about this for awhile.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. (Stehly at one of her numerous outreaches at Benson’s Flea market.)
I’ll get the uncomfortable part out of the way first. Theresa is my friend, a very good friend. In fact almost every time I have a conversation with Theresa, she asks how I am doing first. My career, my family, my faith and my health. She starts most conversations this way and I am sure she does it with all of her friends. She cares, even if she has a big mouth. It’s kind of cool, and it’s kind of her.
So why would I place my friend on this pedestal? Even if I didn’t know her personally, you have to admit you can’t ignore her perseverance. I have often said that Theresa may not get much legislation on the Sioux Falls city council passed, but she makes a difference. Here are a few examples;
• Potholes. After her and councilor Starr’s proposal to give a million dollars towards potholes fails, the mayor ramps up the program and puts several crews on it.
• The same could be said about the tornado cleanup. After she pressures the administration for city assistance, the city employees step up and provide the assistance. It goes one step further with Governor Noem securing Federal FEMA aid.
• After she meets with the prison warden, the mayor decides to use more prison labor. Which I think is a great step towards rehabilitation and repaying a debt to society, as well as learning good work and life skills.
• She helps compromise a deal with Lifescape’s street closure proposal, making the much needed organization in the community work with neighbors on a solution.
• One of the only councilors to respond to constituents on a regular basis, turning her part-time position into extra overtime and compassion for citizens.
• Organizing a meeting with Whittier Neighborhood businesses to work on solutions for intoxicated transients.
• While her texting legislation of the city council fails, she has gotten them on their toes to pay closer attention to the meetings instead of their phones.
• Bringing beekeeping to Sioux Falls, even though some Negative Nancy’s on the council have treated potential beekeepers as public nuisances instead of encouraging natural food production.
• Giving almost daily reports on social media about city issues and publishing a monthly column, ‘The Stehly Report’ in a weekly shopper.
• Making Sioux Falls neighbors well aware of annexation intentions and putting the meetings in the fore front.
• Having the courage to call out the conflict of interest hiring of the new internal auditor with no auditing experience.
• Doing the same with the online tool salesman who got appointed our technology manager of the city so he could fly around the country and tell us the latest museum he is boozing at on Mayor Bloomberg’s dime.
• Shortly after the local paper railed on her about ‘grandstanding’ they reported about the failed Bunker Ramp downtown something Stehly has fought hard from the beginning due to corruption, special deals, wasting taxpayer money and the general lack of government transparency.
• Speaking of Big ‘T’ and the ‘T’ word. While Stehly has gotten a lot of flack about her big mouth, it has helped to open government up to the people. Her almost daily and weekly rants about open government and transparency has gotten her a reputation, and it’s not so bad. She has the elite in town trying to raise $150K for her opponent, even though she has not announced. Of course they are scared, they should be. Loose lips sink ships, and the big ship builders in town are worried about another 4 years of Stehly. She has interrupted their ‘progress’ at the detriment of the rest of us working stiffs.
While her ‘style’ isn’t always in favor, her results have been astounding. That’s why I am calling Theresa Stehly the local government hero of 2019, and if she runs again in 2020, she will win in a landslide, spending only the pennies she pulled out of the seats of her late model Toyota, to the detriment of failed, corrupt, state employees blogging from podunk towns 40 minutes away.
We are all screaming for ice cream. Made with hemp of course.
I guess I could go on and on about Trump. But I won’t. Let’s focus on Sioux Falls and South Dakota.
Aaron McGowan takes the prize locally. The fiasco he has left Minnehaha County is embarrassing. What is even more embarrassing is the lack of intervention by the commission until it was too late. I’m not sure if I am so disappointed in him as I am with the commission and lack of general oversight.
In second is Paula Hawks who fought tooth and nail to become the chair of the SD Democratic Party only to resign a few months later because she didn’t cash a couple of checks laying in some desk drawers. I have a feeling we will be hearing from Paula in 2020. Pray for her, but more importantly, pray for the Democratic Party.
The number one prize goes to Kristi Noem, who has embarrassed female politicians across the state as the first female governor. She has confused industrial ag products with drugs. She has made a mockery of drug policy in the state. She has zero comprehension of the 1st amendment and 2nd amendment. She has taken nepotism to a new level. She has taken a dump on public education. And she has done it all with a wink and a smile. She is truly disgusting on soooooo many levels. She has shown to be one of the hugest failures in local government in 2019, and the Snow Queen rodeo star’s reign is not over. Screw impeaching Trump, we should be impeaching our governor.Â
And you thought Janklow sucked!
Honorable Mentions;
• Minnehaha County Commission (Beating up on the treasurer over monthly reports while the State’s Attorney was absent).
• Paul TenHaken. For a guy who used to run a communications company, he struggles with communicating.
• Dan Lederman, the GOP Party chair. Besides the fact that he does his business in Iowa, he is paid to be a lobbyist for the Islamic Saudi government. He also had very little to do with Representative Saba (a Democrat) bringing in a trade deal with the Egyptians, and had zero to say about it.
• Greg Neitzert. His rage and anger for Stehly is overwhelming. He makes Rick Kiley look like a pussy cat and Curt Soehl look like Rhodes Scholar. I don’t think dunking him in a 55 gallon drum of hand sanitizer could help.
l3wis 
