Dem Forum, June 12, 2020
l3wis 
June 2020
Why is Mayor TenHaken tweeting during a council meeting?
I’m pretty sure the chair of the council meeting shouldn’t be tweeting while running a meeting. At the time he had his phone shoved up his butt farting out his ‘Puffery’ the city clerk was telling us how wonderfully he ran the city election. Oh the irony. The excellence in running a meeting and running an election. Bravo. You both deserve a gold star, or is it a coin, hard to keep track these days Wilbur the Coyote.
This is one of the reasons Stehly & Brekke have asked phones to be banned from council meetings, and our mayor is foolish enough to tweet this out during a meeting?! WOW! He is really more ignorant than I originally thought. But no surprise, emulating his hero Donny Trump. “We’ll get them with this tweet! That’ll show the Libs!” Maybe next week during the meeting he can read bedtime stories to his kids via Zoom while they are discussing zoning issues? His nickname this week; Mayor Multi-Task. So much talent. He really should aspire to be something greater than the mayor of a sleepy midwest town. Hypocrites belong in Washington, not SoDak.
As I predicted ‘Riot Buses’ from Fargo were Facebook B.S.
While I was uncertain if riots were going to occur, I certainly figured it wasn’t going to be some mysterious group from Fargo. The SF Chamber has apologized;
“Griffen said he should have verified the information with police before suggesting protest buses were headed to Sioux Falls from Fargo. The rumor, he said, came from the Downtown Sioux Falls Inc. organization, whose leader said it came from a city councilor.”
The irony is if you know anything about Anti-Fa, they are a loose knit group of individuals, and certainly not racists, and anti-fascism not pro-fascism. As I predicted, it was a bunch of latch key kids with nothing better to do on a summer night.
Sioux Falls City Council FAKE outrage over recount expenses
Funny how these things change in a matter of days. Last Wednesday night Alex Jensen and his Campaign Treasurer, Matt Paulson proclaimed if Alex would have lost by 110 votes, he would request a recount also. Heck, as I understand it, Alex already has an attorney hired to handle the recount. But now there seems to be some ‘Fake’ outrage from city councilors (mainly Erickson) that this is going to cost taxpayers money. Last I checked, that is usually the case, unless of course City Clerk Greco and Auditor Litz would like to volunteer their time for the recount? There will also be a judge and other city employees involved. But wouldn’t we be paying them anyway to show up to work?
It’s funny how all of sudden Erickson is a fiscal conservative when trying to save dollars on a recount but doesn’t blink an eye about the millions wasted on these projects that she proudly went along with;
State Theatre ($1.5 million)
EC Siding Siding ($1 million FAKE settlement – NO warranty)
Bunker Ramp ($26 million and counting)
Administration Building HVAC replacement
Ski Lift at Great Bear
New roof on Pavilion
As one my former co-workers used to say about my former boss, “He’s concerned about saving pennies while dollars are flying out the window.†Christine, take your fake fiscal outrage and shove it! Elections are important, especially recounts, this is not the time to worry about a couple of grand while millions are flying out the window due to your very bad decisions.
A recount in the City of Sioux Falls At-Large election likely
As I have said before, a recount is likely. I have also said that if Jensen would have lost by 109 votes, he would have asked for one to, so I found this statement interesting from him today;
Any results that finish within two percent when the final votes are tallied can be subject to a recount, should the defeated candidate make the request formally. With almost 30,000 votes cast, city officials would need to dedicate significant time and money to any recount efforts.
It’s like he is trying to ‘shame’ Stehly into not asking for the recount (even though he would have if the tables were turned). If she asks, it will not be a fast process. I also take issue with people who always want to ‘save’ money on elections. It is the last budgetary item we should be worried about. Heck we have given more to the private non-profit State Theatre than we gave towards this election, probably 10x more. Maybe Jensen should bring that up?
After the canvass tonight, Stehly has until next Tuesday to decide if she wants a recount. After that, it could take a couple of weeks to knock one out. Also, both sides get to pick a person to represent them (likely attorneys). I heard a rumor about who the Jensen team picked, and if it is who I think it is, he is a heavy hitter in the GOP, he is also very smart, but also very conniving and will use every trick in the book to throw out votes, hopefully Stehly picks someone who is also smart & cunning but someone with integrity to combat the rat from the SD GOP.
You will see this play out as a battle between attorneys.
The interesting factor is who the city finance director picks to be the third person on the grassy knoll. As we know, Mr. Pritchett was appointed by the mayor, and the mayor openly supported Jensen, so it will be interesting to see who this ‘fair and balanced’ third person is. I wouldn’t hold my breath.
I still think Stehly could pull this off, but she is already trailing, so there is a good possibility she doesn’t. I’m okay with that, and I think she is at peace with it to. But I also know that she knows she needs to fight to the end, just like she has done over the past 4 years.
The best news from all this? Stehly stays until the recount is over and the installation occurs, which could mean another 3 weeks. Amen!