Doc Recommend; The Social Dilemma
l3wis I highly recommend you watch this DOC, while there are many things you already know, there are some oh sh*t moments.
September 2020
Sioux Falls City Councilor Neitzert’s ethics complaint dismissed by council 5-2
I knew this was going to happen. Councilors Brekke and Starr voted against it.
To say it was a total 4 1/2 hour sh*t show is an understatement. Greg continued to say it was a political hit job but when questioned about that political hit job to show evidence all he could do is shuffle papers and look down at his feet.
At one point he pretended to not know what ALEC does (you know the shadow right wing group funded by the Koch Brothers who supported this conference). It would be like asking me what the ACLU does and not being able to answer it. It was laughable at best.
I also thought it was funny how Greg was answering the RS5’s questions before they finished asking the questions. Can you say rehearsal?
Even though the complaintant John Cunningham wasn’t provided around a 170 pages of evidence before the hearing he did a fine job of answering questions, and he beat down this was a political hit job. John said it best, “I’m concerned about ethics not politics.”
During my public input I told them right off the bat that I knew they would dismiss so I would go into the huff and puff of the meeting.
• I pointed out the clear conflict of interest and the bias the Mayor had tonight chairing the meeting since he attended the event with Greg. (I did not mention this in testimony, but Greg revealed tonight the former Deputy COS to the mayor TJ Nelson also attended the event with them. Guess who Nelson works for now? Greg’s counsel, Redstone. Hmmmmmmm.)
• I added that it was a partisan event because only Republicans were invited to attend.
• I said Greg didn’t bother to tell the council until he was at the event, I said, “It would be like calling my mom and telling her I was thinking about taking a vacation in Hawaii and when she asked me when, I would respond, I’m here now.” (My mother has a strict policy with me that I tell her in advance before I take long trips).
• Greg has yet to give the council or public a report of what he learned, though he was a chatterbox about it tonight, we still don’t know.
• I also took issue with the term ‘Common Practice’ and that the BOE failed in their duties to point this out but present NO evidence (Even Councilor Soehl brought this up in the final testimony). I said the only other person I can think of in the past 20 years that does this quite frequently is the current mayor.
• I went on to remind them that a city councilor’s email not flagged confidential by the city attorney because of pending litigation is a PUBLIC DOCUMENT and owned by the taxpayers (they tried to claim Starr leaked this document) I also said the same about Brekke pointing out chapters in the charter to citizens. I compared it to John Cunningham asking assistance from a city librarian to find a law book.
• I ended by saying this could have saved everyone a lot of time, capital and heartache if Neitzert would have not made this confidential and just apologized for what he did and reference that the code is vague. That would have proven he has real ethics and integrity, since he said several times during his testimony he ‘did nothing wrong’. Well then why hide behind confidentiality?
Lastly, I just want to say I agreed with Councilor Kiley’s final statement on this tonight, “This whole thing was disgusting.” It sure was. It sure was. It was a classic switcharoo of killing the messenger. And that was disgusting. Greg violated the ordinance and got off. That is disgusting Ricky and you enabled it.
Does Mayor TenHaken’s ‘Conflict’ allow him to chair the ethics hearing?
As you may or may not know, Councilor NitZert, I mean NutZert, I mean Nietzert has his ethics hearing at 6 PM Thursday at Carnegie Hall where he will appear to defend taking money from a third party partisan group for an all expense paid trip to Texas with Mayor TenHaken and a ‘mysterious’ city staffer which is a clear violation of city charter.
While Neitzert’s lawyer (who calls him NitZert) claims there is a conflict by councilors Brekke and Starr because they supposedly shared public documents, owned by taxpayers, to citizens, the real possible conflict is Mayor TenHaken chairing the hearing.
How can an elected official who possibly violated the same ordinance chair a hearing of his peer? This is the MAIN question.
I think the first motion in the hearing would be to remove the mayor as chair of this hearing because of his blatant conflict.
This isn’t really about Greg, it’s about Paul, and the circling of the wagons.
I hope Mr. Cunningham’s attorney points out this conflict at the beginning of the meeting and removes Paul from the proceedings.
I also want to say, I feel truly sorry for Greg, and I’m not being cynical (maybe a little). I had high hopes for the fellar, but he fell victim to the partisan machine and they will eat him alive while he remains a footnote in city government history.
Tomorrow night, Carnegie Town Hall will be transformed into the Globe Theater. I hope to be in the front row in the penny seats.
Minnehaha County Commissioner Jeff Barth calls out TenHaken’s Partisan Voter Suppression Bullsh*t
I got a ‘friendly’ call from Jeff last night about his performance at the meeting;
“In Mayor TenHaken’s letter, when he talks about the integrity of the election, I have to question his integrity,” Barth said during the Minnehaha County Commission meeting.
This appears to be what I have said it was from the beginning, blatant partisan voter suppression by Mayor Stoneless, and Jeff reiterated that at the meeting. Just look at how he has moved the goal posts in just a few days, first it was about ‘Security’ and when he couldn’t get any traction on that he said it was about ‘State Law’ than when that didn’t stick he said it was about what they do in Iowa.
I will have to agree with Barth, it’s not about any of those things, it’s just plain Bullsh*t coming from a very weak individual who continues to fail at leadership. If Paul had any stones at all, he would come in front of the County Commission and explain to them in person why he won’t do it, or at least send the person who is really running the city, COS Beck, to explain it.
When Paul was elected he had a long history of making a living at being a partisan hack, so I had no question in my mind he would continue that tradition as mayor, and he hasn’t disappointed in that respect. Just like the last guy who made a living from being a salesman, he continued that tradition as mayor.
Folks, in Sioux Falls, Covid is not what ails us, it’s our government.
Noem stiffs struggling South Dakota workers while bailing out their low wage employers
Well, I am not surprised, I knew Noem would find a way to bail out businesses instead of workers with the Covid money;
Gov. Kristi Noem will use nearly a third of the $1.25 billion in pandemic relief funds that South Dakota received this spring for a small business grant program.
Noem announced via her social media accounts Thursday afternoon that $400 million in CARES Act dollars allocated to South Dakota will be designated for small businesses that have suffered during the coronavirus pandemic.
Of course, we all know what a government ‘grant’ is, it is a handout, never to be paid back, and highly unlikely to trickle down to these business’ employees.
I suggested early on that this money go directly to individual South Dakotans so they could it invest back into our communities, whether that is paying bills or saving money for healthcare or for higher education, instead, she does what she does best, piss it down the legs of businesses that will hardly trickle that golden shower down onto the rest of us. I would really like to see how much of this money will be used to expand these businesses and hire more workers at living wages or a way for them to just pay off debt. I’m sure the legislature will conduct a study on it next year. Yeah right.