As you can see from this story on SFBIZ, the mayor has finally decided to help out businesses with how to create a safe work environment;
It will focus on enhanced measures large business can take to control the spread of COVID-19.
“That’s really where the big issues are,†Mayor Paul TenHaken said. “We will be working with our business community, specifically some of our larger employers, to get resources and tools, including on-site spot checks to make sure they are utilizing best practices in slowing the spread of COVID.â€
Gee, I wonder who has been hammering about this for weeks? The lack of inaction has been deafening. It would be like installing fire sprinklers while your house is on fire.
Paul also decided to do an interview with the DTSF Rotary online today. He has some interesting things to say.
He decided it would be a good time to brag about his rental assistance program, a program that has zero transparency or accountability. In fact many renters getting this benefit are still being threatened with evictions. Why? Because since the city isn’t distributing the money, the non-profit that is, has no authority to enforce those rules. I warned from the beginning this was a bad route to go. Stehly has tried to make changes, but it may be too late.
PTH also brings up he may have to cut the city budget by 10-20%. Councilor Stehly commented on her FB page that this was the first time he has heard about this and wonder when he was going to fill them in on this. Last I checked the charter and council powers, they control the purse strings, not the mayor, but he still hasn’t figured that out in the past two years.
He also brings up this group of Type ‘A’ leaders he meets with on Thursdays. One councilor said to me, “Funny, that he has time to meet with these supposed business folks each week but no time to meet with councilors individually.†I also wonder if he is meeting with these people to become more like them, because while he has a few of the traits, certainly ‘workaholic’ and ‘highly organized’ doesn’t really fit his personality, unless you count him working hard at organizing his trucker hat collection in his garage.
He also said that Smithfields was probably not expecting a month ago to be closed now and being inspected by the CDC. That’s rich! It was inevitable that spread was going to happen there, they took virtually ZERO precautions! Not sure why Paul continues to defend them and their horrible planning. Oh, that’s right, MONEY! I have argued for years they need to close permanently. They have polluted our water and air repeatedly, and now helped to infect their workers who will infect a lot of us. It’s time the FEDS shut that place down for good, they won’t be missed.
Again, you want 3500 people to be out of work, and say the jobs “wouldn’t be missedâ€. What an a$$.
So you are saying the employment of 3500 people (who would probably leave this town if the plant closed virtually overnight) is more important than the health of the 250K that live in the SF MSA? You are the ass.
Say, Unstable Genius, I mean “NIQFNR,” when’s the next Taupeville Parade? Will Alex! have a float in it?
“This is going to be better, then the art contest!”
All of our governments are only reactionary – not proactive. They don’t foresee an impending crisis and take action to mitigate before the train comes in. They only take action once the crisis has come and is staring us in the face. That is not a modern problem – look at FDR who is the greatest president we will ever have. But he sat on his arse until we got Pearl Harbor.
I also want to point out that this plant which has been polluting our air and water for decades, treating it’s employees as though they are expendable and basically not a care in the world about the health and well being of our community is owned by COMMUNIST CHINESE INVESTORS who ship all of the profit straight out of town and country. It’s like the Event Center of Packing Plants. It would be a blessing and God send if this place got closed once and for all.
“they” won’t be missed. Real nice Scott you racist schmuck.
As far as your one councilor friend who is sad the mayor doesn’t talk to him (oh Starr you sad fellow) what’s the point. The 3 amigo losers don’t really matter, they obstruct and grandstand. Talking to them is pointless.
Scott, I don’t think you’ve thought about the ripple effect this would cause. Thousands of other jobs lost due to this many people being out of work at once. VSG, if you’re responding to me, you can save your breath. I read nothing you or your aliases post. It’s easy to spot you when you come up with a new alias. You can tell the person thinks he’s funny (he’s not), and all of them spell Chick Fil A wrong. Don’t bothering responding, I won’t read it.
When I use the word ‘They’ I am referring to the investors who have taken advantage of this community and the immigrant employees, I think the context of that sentence is pretty clear. And let’s face reality, the immigrants have no ties to this town, family is their home, and wherever family goes, they will go. That is why so many of them send money back to their home countries to bring their families here. If the plant closes, they will move to where the jobs are, that’s not a racist statement that is just a fact. Research it. I would perfectly fine with Smithfields staying, but they have a horrible track record for the safety of their workforce and the safety of the citizens of this town. Just look up all the violations they have racked up. What makes it even worse is they are not locally owned. We have no meaningful reason to keep them in operation, and you know it. Funny how everyone comes on here and rails on me about being to liberal but are the first to defend communists who are wreaking havoc on our free society. Grow a f’ing brain.
Meets with group of Type ‘A’ leaders on Thursday.
On Friday, does ‘a 180’ on shelter-in-place order for which he had scheduled a special 1st reading earlier in the week.
A plot cut cut directly from the script of The Godfather – Great Plains Edition.
On the agenda of that particular sit-down with the “heads of all of the families”: Give Paulie an offer he can’t refuse.
No meaningful reason to keep them in operation? I’m willing to bet all the farmers that sell their hogs would disagree. I bet a LARGE percentage of businesses in Sioux Falls would also disagree. You close Smithfield for good, you close a lot of other things for good too. Lot of money being spent in this town by Smithfield employees. I don’t see how a raging Liberal like you can wish for people to lose their jobs.
Hey, Unstable Genius, I mean “NIQFNR,” your obsession with me is obvious. If I was nothing, then why the obsession? All of your aliases have evolved around me. Oh, and it’s actually, Chick-fil-A. The “F” is not capitalized.
Did you listen to John Michael’s forum? The farmers are getting the shaft, a lot of research to back it up. The farmers would be much better off selling to small locally owned packers and lockers. You know, places that treat their workers like humans. You really have no concept of how bad this current business model is? Do you?
“Wait a minute, Unstable Genius, also known as “NIQFNR,” doesn’t read any of VSG’s stuff, yet, he claims VSG is not funny and is misspelling ‘Chick-fil-A,’ how’s that possible?”
“I wonder, too, if UG, or “NIQFNR,” or whatever his alias will be by then, will still be commenting after Alex! loses?”
A major pandemic with Sioux Falls the principle outbreak and TenHaken wants to promote a marathon. Someone grew up fed with a gold spoon. This reaction is what Richie Rich would come up with. I wish TenHaken would join the general population. We lost our jobs. We’ll get the virus. We suffer and you want to lace up $100 tennis shoes and go for a walk.
I guessed right on this mayor he should be a an actor instead of a mayor.People wives and husbands go to the hospital every day to fight this .And he sets like a couple of the council who can not make decisions he is a loser.
He will always be known as the mayor who held an art contest for kids, while the kids’ parents brought the corona home from the meatpacking plant.
Thoughts on the Downtown Rotary Club interview:
The reason this town is “generous,” is because there are a lot of rich people in this town, who profit immensely from a tale of two cities.
The reason our One Sioux Falls Fund has raised more, or as much as towns much larger than us, is because the “rich people” in town have plenty of cash, because they normally underpay their employees in this town.
If the mayor is right, that we are only in the first inning, when it comes to this virus within Sioux Falls, then why in the hell did he axe the shelter-in-place order? And if there’s not an appetite in this town for a s-i-p order, however, then how can you call yourself a leader? What about all the people in your parade, however?
You say you rely upon your COS for expertise during this crisis, but isn’t this the same expert who helped you to own the Bunker Ramp?
You want to know why you and your “Type A Guys” are going through this and wondering how to handle this? Well, it’s simple. You “Guys” voted for Trump and his arrogance and indifference to science and math, and this is what you get.
If we “need a cushion and a buffer,” then why did you axe the S-I-P order? Sioux Falls stats are very unique to the rest of the country. We are a hot spot and unlike most places, a large percentage of our cases are with younger people, and younger people tend to be more mobile, thus more likely to then infect the elder population in time; and especially in time, if you think we are only “in the first inning of this.”
I appreciate the perspective you bring, and I agree that Smithfield’s environmental degradation and abhorrent treatment of employees wouldn’t have me lamenting the corporation’s replacement. However, many of the actual employees exemplify the grit and selflessness I’d love to see remain in the Sioux Empire.
Daugaard had Build Dakota scholarships; I would love to see Governor Noem and Mayor TenHaken work to develop “Bridge Dakota” programs to help rid us of Smithfield and re-train and re-skill former Smithfield workers to facilitate transitioning to other job opportunities.
Jake, I would agree. The problem is there isn’t a strong ELL program for adults in our town. Councilor Brekke has been working on a stronger program, but until that happens it’s hard to transfer packers to other jobs. I hate to say it, but until they learn conversational English, they will be stuck as ‘laborers’ where speaking English does not matter.
I think the Mayor is doing a great job leading us through a very difficult time. I’m glad I voted for him and will vote for him again. Scott you are racist and you know it. Taupe is for winners!!
Smithfields as a company needs to go and bring back the 70’s John Morrel that paid well and had a community stake. Box meat has been wrecking farms and families for too long now.
We need a meat plant, but we deserve better than Smithfields.
I’ve heard from multiple people that most of these plants cant kill any larger than 175# hogs. A lot of farmers are scrambling right now to get hogs processed.
Lastly, we can make fun of mayor selfie all you want but Smithfields could have told us all to pound sand. They’re essential and it would take a judges order to stop them.
Hence the “Bridging” to get us where we need to be. ESL investment and re-skilling could be one bridge. How might that bridge help us meet needs here in SD?
One area is healthcare (home health aides, nursing home assistants, etc.), and whom does national data suggest comprises a sizable portion of that workforce?
Immigrants https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05514.
Of course, the details would need to be worked out, but let’s say they have a pilot program where a percentage of former Smithfield employees are eligible for ESL and home health training if they complete the program and serve in high needs sectors like home health, nursing homes, etc. for at least three years (ideally more). Many have already demonstrated they can work long hours in strenuous conditions.
If you are referring LJL to applying to be on the volunteer board the VAC, then sure. But I have never applied to work for the city as an employee. Like most of the supposed info you have on me it is total BS cooked up by the ilk you keep company with, a bunch of F’cking Assholes.
Face it. You’re just not funny. Repeated comments about the same things tend to get a tad bit boring. Taupeville, trucker hats, chick fil a, bunker ramp, need I continue. Hire a writer to get you some new material.
Chase and Vsbnfg could be part of the mayors snitch team. You don’t like the material don’t read it.
Say, “Chase” and “Very stable but not funny genius,” let me guess, you are also known as “Unstable Genius” and “name in quotes for no reason,” right? That’s what I thought. And for a person who supposedly doesn’t read my comments, you sure keep up on them. #TaupeIsForCannotThinkOutOfTheBoxButtKissers
“Chase?”…. “That sounds like the name of a spoiled teenager who lives south of 57th”….
Snitch team. Lol. I guess it’s better than being on the bitch team. I have no problem reading other peoples viewpoints. I was just stating my own, sorry you have a problem with that. Taupe is the new Black.
“Woodstock?”… that sounds like a spoiled adult who lives North of 57th….
#cantaffordtaupe
The City of Sioux Falls pays several people very high wages to develop disaster preparedness plans. We pay a mayor to supervise them and ensure the taxpayers are getting their money’s worth.
To anyone who has even had cursory education on disaster planning for situations caused by person to person transmission, for example dirty bombs or contagious diseases the answers are known. It is 101 class that you develop a plan to prioritize mitigation of those situations by starting with the high density, long exposure, large population situations and working down the list. The next question is whether it is better to shut down immediately and mitigate or mitigate on the fly. For example if a large plant had 6 months of inventory on the shelf having them shut down, mitigate and reopen would be the minimal disruption plan. If they had 1 week on the shelf then staying open might be better. Of course if you have six months and the public thinks you have one week there are new profit opportunities.
How well did the disaster preparedness process work in Sioux Falls? What was the plan and how well was it executed? How many times over his tenure did the Mayor last require the disaster preparedness folks to come to his office and explain their plans? When did the City Council chair call for accountability for all the money being spent on disaster preparedness?
“Chase, trust me, there’s all kinds of unfortunate taupe housing all around me, but I don’t buy into the taupe conformity, but I am guilty of the white or black SUV thing, however”…. “‘And taupe is the new Black?'”….” Seriously, what would you really know about that comparison?”
those of you wanting a return to the morrells of the 70’s probably also cheered when the company broke the union in the 80’s.
I didn’t Scott. Unions have their place and this is an industry that needs one. Obviously the union they have now is useful for collecting dues and that it. Too sad.
Carcass quarters and halves direct to grocery is how it should be.
Loser Jay Loser, the rumor is that old smithy’s has gobs of meat in the reefer at a certain flopping park warehouse that they haven’t been able to ship to their communist clients. Not sure if that is true, but if it is, maybe that is why they are closed now. This isn’t about feeding Americans folks.
Financial planners have been telling us to have 3 to 6 months of assets saved in case of a crisis.
Its been 4 weeks. Where have we failed?
I read an SBA recommendation over a decade ago if you are going to open a new privately owned restaurant or hospitality business you should have 18 to 24 months of capital on hand because even if you are a little successful you won’t produce a noticeable profit for that long. Dreamers and shoestring budgets don’t cut it.
This obviously applies to many SF residents and businesses.
People have taken on mortgages, car/truck/RV/boat payments, credit card balances and on and on which they could never afford.
Individuals who wanted to be self-employed have started businesses without viable business plans.
Reality….the City’s restrictions have only been in place for a couple of weeks…..and, those who have not been living beyond their means will survive this.
Others will not….
Thin skinned this week l3wuss? I’ll guess that $600 a week fact is still burning. Oh well.
30% of Smithfields globally does get shipped to China, that is from their own info. That said they have closer plants to ports so what is cut in SF stays in the US. I’m also told that SF Smithfields has a medical devision collecting pig donor parts.