City Councilor Theresa Stehly collects over 1,000 signatures in 10 days. More than 35 volunteers helped to ensure that Theresa Stehly has secured her place on the ballot. These volunteers collected the signatures of their neighbors and friends to start their effort to return Theresa Stehly to the Atâ€Large City Council position.
Stehly gratefully states “The response from the public has been overwhelming. Many people have expressed their appreciation that I am running, to continue the representation of the Sioux Falls residents.”
Citizen advocate Theresa Stehly is seeking a second term as member of the Sioux Falls City Council in the April 14, 2020, municipal City Council election.
Contact Theresa Stehly 605â€929â€8783 theresastehly@yahoo.comÂ
Towards the end of this interview today with Belfrage, Mayor Selfie talked about the upcoming election and made some ‘veiled’ references towards Stehly and how the ‘council needs to get along’ and ‘build consensus’ which is code for rumber stampers. We will find out on April 14th just how happy the citizens are with how Stehly conducts council business.
Congratulations. We believe in you. Now, time to win the election.
One thing about city government is where there’s power, there’s corruption. Theresa is the Serpico who can tame some of it.
I think the city should form a task force, I mean a focus group, to see how citizens feel about our current city government and its responsiveness to citizens’ needs.
(- and Woodstock adds: “No, let’s call it a ‘Task Force,’ that sounds more important”…..)
As long as anyone talks about reforming the structure/nature of city government(s), please consider that in many cities around the world of comparable size to SF there are city councils comprised of several dozen members (not 8 or 9) and truly do function as local legislatures, not corporate boards. It is far more difficult and expensive to corrupt 46 of 90 council members to 5 of 9 and specific communities are far more well represented.
I totally agree rufusx. The democratizing of our city government has been a slow and painful process. Some of us remember when this town was run by a mayor and two commissioners prior to 1986. Then, it was a mayor and four commissioners until 1994, when we went to the current city council set-up. So, I think you are totally right, whey you say, that we need to expand the size of the city council.
In 1994, just before we voted to change to a city council system, Sioux Falls and Miami, Florida were the only two cities in the country with a population over 100,000 that used the less democratic commission form of city government.
If you remember right, the commission system was born out of a necessity to rebuild Galveston, Texas after that city suffered a devastating hurricane in the early part of the 20th century. The Texas legislature then changed their laws concerning municipal governments to allow Galveston to get their feet back on the ground with a some what benevolent dictatorial approach to city government, but over time this form of government became popular for obvious reasons; and I am afraid the convenience of that type of local government still lingers in the minds of many of our city fathers and mothers, and movers and shakers, which then, in turn, is primarily responsible for this current city government in our town, that appears to be owned by a few, and nothing is more telling, then when a candidate for city council raises $250,000 and boasts of backings from many of the establishment players here in this town.