Whether the city attorney is elected or appointed, he should only be in an advisory role either way. But what makes this even more troublesome is that he is appointed by the Mayor, if he were to come a voting member he would have the influence of the mayor.

I’m still baffled who might have came up with even suggesting such a ridiculous notion.

What makes it even more ironic is that at the beginning of the meeting, the city attorney, Stacy Kooistra, admits, AGAIN, that he didn’t know how to answer questions, this time about redistricting so he called on another ‘expert’ in the room, city clerk Tom Greco. Oh boy.

But the most (un)entertaining part was when councilor Brekke suggested to the CRC that the council should prepare a long range strategic plan, and it should be written in the charter (even though she admitted it didn’t really need to be in there – because it is kind of their job anyway).

Well that conversation went from bad to worse when one of the CRC members suggested that the mayor should do the long range strategic plan. In frustration, Brekke had to remind them that in the charter, the council is the legislative policy body and the mayor is administrative. She likened it to a paint by number painting, the council draws the lines and puts in the numbers and the mayor fills in the sections with paint.

They didn’t seem to comprehend why a part-time council would want to do such a thing or have time for it, and it was a better job for the mayor.

C’mon folks! This is civics 101, the council is the legislative body that compiles policy (Brekke compared it to a corporation’s board of directors) and the mayor is the executive branch executing the policies (the CEO). But this isn’t something Brekke pulled from her rear end, IT IS ALREADY WRITTEN IN THE CHARTER THIS WAY!

Shouldn’t the CRC know a little something about what is already in the charter?

The former mayor screwed the pooch on this entire process by becoming the ‘planner’ in chief and twisting the arms of 3 councilors to go his way.

I think the first order of business for the long range strategic plan is to terminate all the current members of the CRC.

By l3wis

4 thoughts on “Charter Revision Commission suggests City Attorney becomes voting member of board”
  1. The purpose of the CRC is to refine the charter such that it’s democratic. Instead, they’ve strengthened the mayor’s power. It seems the CRC stalls reform and promotes Oligarchy. We need a new charter or a version of the old one. The best version of a CRC is with SD State Supreme Court supervision.

  2. This “strong mayor” sh*t is a stain on our municipal democracy. The current administration is a virtual Petri dish culturing an arrogant virus infecting city government with an escalating power grabbing disease. Now more than ever, Sioux Falls residents need objective adults in the room to administer inoculations against the spread of this plague.

  3. Dr. Carl E. Zylstra was Dordt College’s third president. Like his predecessors, Zylstra was a pastor in the Christian Reformed Church. He was appointed president in 1996.

    Paul Ten Haken is a native of Worthington, Minnesota and a graduate of Dordt College.

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