May 2020

Sioux Falls City Council Candidate Forums

Monday May 18th, Downtown Rotary Forum • At-Large Candidates Stehly and Jensen • Online at NOON.

Thursday May 21st, Council Candidate Forum • All candidates • 5:30 PM

Tuesday May 26th, Argus Leader • At-Large Candidates Stehly and Jensen • 10:30 AM.

There was a SF Chamber Committee private forum this past week and I spoke with someone who was in attendance. They basically said, ‘Theresa crushed it!” They also said Jensen knew very little about city government. Shocker!

My endorsements haven’t really changed;

• Vote NO on both Charter Amendments

• Stehly for At-Large. Like her or not, she has the best interest of the citizens at heart. She is also a champion of transparency.

• Julian Beaudion for NW district. Neitzert has been a turncoat.

• Cynthia Mickelson for school board. I know this may shock some people, but I think she has tried to open the school district up to more transparency. I don’t always agree with her, but I think she really works hard and tries to do the right thing.

• Crystal Johnson for Minnehaha State’s Attorney.

I also encourage everyone to absentee vote either by mail (complicated and they are way behind on applications) or in person at the election center, directly east of the Minnehaha County Administration building. I voted a week ago, brought my own pen, and I was the only one there. As I was leaving I soaked my hands in hand sanitizer by the door.

When endorsing candidates, transparency is key

First I will start with a plug, VOTE STEHLY! Unless you want to turn the RS5 into the RS6. And who needs TWO Marshall Selbergs on the council anyway?

These two endorsement videos on FB for Count Jensen were okay, but they lacked transparency. The first one is by the person who worked for Mayor TenHaken at ClickVain and took over the company when he became mayor. The second video is of a person married to Craig Lloyd’s nephew who works for the family business.

I’m wondering why neither wanted to mention their ‘deep roots’ in the Sioux Falls community? Oh, that’s right, because of the HUGE CONFLICTS OF INTEREST! If you want someone to endorse you, that is awesome, but they should be transparent about who they are.

UPDATE: One Team Sioux Falls Employee Video (4/23/2020)

UPDATE: After watching this video last night, I figured there was a reason they only make these sessions for the employees and NOT the public.

There seemed to be a lot of back patting going on with what a wonderful job everyone is doing who works for the city. Remember, this video was shot on May 23. The only one who didn’t bloviate was Jeff. I also found Shawn’s statement that the city ended last year on ‘solid ground’ interesting, as if he were speaking to the board of directors of a private for-profit business. First off, the city isn’t a business. Secondly, if the city is finishing the year on ‘solid ground’ that tells me we are paying too much in taxes. I have often said the city shouldn’t bond for ANY projects and maintain a balanced budget and a very small emergency fund. Right now the city has over $60 million in that fund. WAY TOO MUCH! Especially when the city depends on church volunteers to clean up after storms, then gets a check from FEMA to boot.

TEN HAKEN HAS THE AUTHORITY TO ASK THE PUBLIC TO WEAR MASKS IN PUBLIC BUILDINGS

While it is debatable if the Mayor and City council can tell businesses to require customers to wear masks, the city has that authority, in fact, Paul doesn’t even need the blessing of the city council, he can simply direct his health department to require it. He said in the recent press conference that city buildings will reopen on Monday, but won’t require the public to wear a mask. Why not? I would think this would be wise just for health insurance costs. Paul can post signs on all public buildings requiring people to wear masks to enter. But like everything else during this pandemic, his courage to make a decision seems to have a virus.