UPDATE: Kettle meet Black

My first reaction to the kerfuffle over the banning of the Municipal League’s Chief Lobbyist and Director was complete laughter. It seems to be a couple of ‘Whackies’ going at it. I wanted to call Haugaard and ask him to ban her for life.

Either way, it doesn’t seem he has the legal authority to ban Taylor based on free speech rights.

But also in defense of Taylor (though it pains me) I thought she was a little light on her criticism of 20% of the legislature being ‘Whackies’. I would set that bar much higher, like closer to 90%.

But what makes the situation even more ironic (and down right funny) is Taylor and Haugaard both are on the anti-citizen team when it comes to proposed and passed legislation. Steve’s party consistently is working against the good folks of South Dakota, and so is Taylor (just on different playing fields). I would say they have a heckuva a lot more in common than differences.

UPDATE: For instance there is a DRAFT bill the Anti-Citizen League (my nickname for them) is pushing to repeal the law that basically would ban public input at all public meetings EXCEPT regular meetings held by city councils and county commissions. In essence going backwards. The ACL has long hated public input into anything and has strived for years to let muni’s pass sales tax increases, that they say would ‘Sunset’. Nothing ever sunsets, especially tax increases.

COPY OF DRAFT: Open-Meeting-Cleanup-DRAFT

Highlight;

In a corresponding email, Taylor says, “Hi, all – attached is the copy of our re-write of the open meeting laws.  The intent is clean-up, readability, and clarification.  This has been a long, negotiated process, and in its current form, the newspapers are OK with it.  I will appreciate you thoughts and comments, and am happy to answer questions.”

The ‘newspapers are OK with it.’? What about the citizens?! You know, the people who pay your wages! Sneaky, Sneaky, Sneaky, Snake.

With Haugaard’s recent ‘banning’ of Taylor, I think it is finally time for Sioux Falls to cut our ties to the League and stop wasting approximately $70K a year for their ‘Lobbyist’ help. They are not helping. As I have argued in the past, we have a city council operations manager and a deputy COS, T.J. TypeOver who can handle our lobbying needs.

I also wonder what our very Republican City Council Chair, Erickson, who has long been a defender of Taylor’s actions thinks of this latest ripple? Seems she is in the best position to alleviate the situation. My solution? FIRE Taylor and send Haugaard a Thank You card with a copy of the Constitution.