2021

UPDATE II: Is ZEAL planning a partnership with the city?

UPDATE II: I had a chance to read the contract and a few things stick out. I will first make something very clear, this ‘DEAL’ should have been vetted through the council and it’s staff. The mayor has NO authority on a lease or even selling the building without the consent of the council. Now he could have opposed it and had his staff deny helping with any proposals but that could only drag out for so long. I am still of the opinion that this building could be sold and that the city shouldn’t be investing or hanging onto real estate (unless it contributes to society as a whole like roads, parks and water plants), and we certainly should NOT be leasing for $1 a year a historic building. I still wonder if there is a reason why the city isn’t falling over backwards to sell this property, maybe the answer will come out Tuesday night.

While I certainly support the ZEAL center’s mission and being DTSF is a great idea, it is NOT the responsibility of taxpayers to hold up this stool.

FINDINGS IN THE CONTRACT;

PAGE 3, Section 6, While we are only charging a $1 a year for the building, it seems the city will be leasing the parking from Raven, so we will be losing money on that part of the deal. I also question any contract agreements we may have with Raven since their recent sale has been approved. I would think any agreements we have with Raven before they sold should be renegotiated with the new owners (especially if it has something to do with selling the building.)

PAGE 3, Section 8, ZEAL will have the opportunity to Sub-lease office space while only paying $1 a year in rent (also on PAGE 5 in section 12 they will be able to sell naming rights. A revenue source for ZEAL.)

PAGE 4, Section 10, I question the Mayor’s sole authority of approving or NOT approving alterations. While it is mentioned that rent will be $1 per year there is NO dollar value in the entire contract of what ZEAL will be expected to spend. The number being thrown around is $1 Million to remodel but it just seems to be a handshake deal. I think a commitment of $1 million or more SHOULD be in the contract. What if ZEAL finds out that it will cost a lot more and wants to back out? What are our safeguards?

There is also the glaring conflict of interest the Mayor has because he once sat on the ZEAL board. Oh, nevermind, his COS also used to be an executive for a developer that seems to be getting all the TIFs in town so it all good and ethical.

While I have many more opinions on how this deal was cut I will await the discussion on Tuesday night and the 1st reading.

UPDATE: Item #39 covers the deal at Tuesday’s City Council Meeting;

1st Reading: AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO A LEASE BETWEEN THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS AND ZEAL D/B/A STARTUP SIOUX FALLS.

I haven’t done a serious read into the 17 page lease agreement, but there was some interesting things that stuck out to me like the parking agreement and how easy it will be for them to break the lease. Feel free to read the contract and let me know what you think; HERE.

Some ZEAL members have been telling people they are planning to bring a proposal forward at next weeks’ council meeting in which they will abandon their property by SE Tech (rent it to SE) and plan to rent the old Sioux Falls Parks and Rec building by the intersection of 6th & Phillips for $1 a year for 10 years while investing their own money in remodeling the building (Est. $1 million).

In my opinion the city should just sell the building to ZEAL or whoever. Why hang onto the property? Weren’t we told that we had to build a new administration building for new space? Now that we have it why do we need to keep an old building that the SFPD only uses once a week to train dogs (rumor)? Also, I agree ZEAL should be DTSF and this would be a great investment for them.

We just sold a parking lot that was being used for a rock bottom price of a half-million, why not sell this property and put it to good private use?

Just another handout to a group that doesn’t need it. I would suggest the city council amends this before it hits the agenda and put the building up for sale and give the option to ZEAL to put in the first bid.

While generally I am against most private/public partnerships, this one stinks of high heaven. There is NO reason why the taxpayers need to subsidize this. Local government is simple, and instead of putting ourselves in some stupid complicated contract over 10 years, just make it simple and draw up a bill of sale.

The idiocy and general laziness at Carnegie and City Hall is so immense these days I am surprised our city hasn’t imploded from stupid. Of course that would require someone to show up to light the fuse 🙂

UPDATE: Sioux Falls Zoo announces FREE admission on one of the coldest days of the year!

UPDATE: I guess there were 192 visitors on Monday with 19 of them with memberships. I believe 2 years ago when they offered a FREE day there was around 14,000 visitors. They need to do a FREE day once a month on a Saturday or Sunday.

While Councilor Pat Starr has been after the ZOO to offer FREE admission at least a couple of days of the year, like they did 2 years ago (you know since we subsidize them with our tax dollars and they will soon be asking to merge with another private non-profit) they decided to do it with very little notice or media coverage on a Monday after Christmas. They made the announcement only 24 hours in advance on Sunday, December 26 on their FB Page the FREE admission lasted all day on Monday from 10 AM-4:30 PM. Not sure who all got the press release, but the Argus made the announcement at 11 AM on Monday and KELO AM made the announcement at 12:30 PM on Monday.

While I will agree that even if it was cold, many of the animals are used to the cold weather and would have been out and active. Would not have Sunday been a better day with family in town and people off of work? And what about announcing it at least 5-10 days in advance? I guess I will have to give the Zoo credit for one thing, they at least keep their doors open all year unlike Great Bear that will close at the drop of the hat and not open until winter is half way over (what is up with this place? Who closes a winter sports facility because of the cold? Dumb.) I wonder if our new $4 million dollar ice ribbon will be closed for cold weather? 🙁

Hopefully Councilor Starr will inquire what the FREE attendance numbers were on Monday. My guess is about 17-23.

There may be a reason why the Washington Pavilion Management is hiding the 2020 Financial Report

They pocketed gobs of money?

Over the past couple of days I have been told that the Pavilion has been actively trying to hide the 2020 report because of the buckets of money they brought in (a year that they were pretty much closed) and they fear if city leadership saw this or the public, their massive subsidies in operational and maintenance costs would go bye bye.

As I have stated for awhile, the Pavilion pretty much eats up the entertainment tax every year for maintenance. The bonds for the place have been paid off for a long time and the 3rd penny never went away, so it is slush fund for the Pavilion to add capital to the building without dipping into operational subsidies. The place is a complete f’ing money pit and the only thing that is FREE in the building is the bathrooms.

During COVID the Pavilion pretty much closed their doors, cancelled that season, laid off most part-time employees and a handful of full time. Most would assume that would mean financial ruin, but it is quite possible it is the exact opposite. Without any rent to pay, a significant reduction in labor costs, Federal Covid money and around 40%(?) of patrons never asking for a refund on their season tickets (they were allowed to make it a charitable donation toward the Pavilion) the place likely cashed in, BIG TIME while crickets roamed the halls.

I urge the city council to DEMAND the 2020 financial report be handed over and released to the public. It would also be nice to see what the 6-figure salary of the director has risen to (rumors are it hovers at $200K).

Living Wage in South Dakota should be at $22.50 per hour

I have been advocating for a long time that living wage in South Dakota, especially Sioux Falls should probably be nipping the heels of $20.00 per hour, imagine my surprise when this report came out;

This means that of the 50 states, (Puerto Rico and D.C. are not included) South Dakota is one which costs the least to survive in. But how does a $9.95 minimum wage match up to a $45,000 living wage?

Assuming a 40-hour work week, and 50 working weeks per year, a $9.95 wage comes to $19,900 per year. To match the living wage for South Dakota, the minimum wage would need to rise to $22.50/hour.

Our cost of living adjustments are also very high (notice housing);

While we have a governor who blabs about liberty and freedom and a mayor who decries ‘wage inflation’ you can tell the reality is that we lag very far behind and don’t look to their supposed leadership to help the situation. It’s time to start electing representation that wants to make changes instead of coddle the business elites, hospital industrial complex, and welfare developers.

Reflecting on 2021 in Sioux Falls City Government, Part II

You will see a continuing trend in the current administration, a HATRED towards transparency and dozens of potential coverups;

• City leadership flexes their muscles when it comes to homelessness . . . uh, I mean . . . violent crime . . . uh, I mean . . . open government, uh, sorry, wrong again . . . ugly green cable boxes above the ground (even though the city approved these in advance).

• The SF Shopping News closes permanently and the Argus Leader closes printing operations in Sioux Falls and South Dakota and moves it out of state.

• Two lawyers, a pastor, a doctor, and a medical professional all announce they are running for city offices in 2022. But no plumbers.

• Denny Sanford is named in a child pornography investigation after media groups sued to get the information.

• Business owners in Sioux Falls somehow convince Mayor Poops to latch onto the new right-winger cheap ass Republican business owners talking point ‘wage inflation’ claiming if Sioux Falls businesses have to compete by paying more it will somehow destroy our business climate (you know, low wages and taxes for businesses willing to move here).

• TenHaken forms a Youth Council (an idea he stole from one of his opponents) and packs it with kids of his friends and city directors.

• A citizen advocate files two open meetings violations against the Mayor and City, it is still being investigated by the MC State’s Attorney office (I think he will throw it out).

• National media inquires about Mayor TenHaken’s ties to communist businessmen, he has not surprisingly remained silent.

• After a SouthDaCola foot soldier makes me aware of a Q-Anon bench in Yankton Trail Park, the placard mysteriously disappears (just like the panhandler electronic traffic sign).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmQEBFYrEx0

• The area around the Bishop Dudley House continues to get worse with little to no attention from the media or city leadership.

• CountCilor Alex Jensen suggests the solution to our housing problems in Sioux Falls is to ask workers to live in surrounding towns instead of here.

• The Jesus Plows continue to reappear in Sioux Falls.

• City Council passes a valet service garbage ordinance to give garbage haulers the excuse to raise rates and they do it while violating their own 24 hour amendment presentation rule (Kiley).

• Sioux Falls residents lose their minds and wait hours in a drive thru for a chicken sandwich.

• Washington Pavilion has yet to release their 2020 annual report or what the CEO, Darrin Smith is getting paid.

• The Chief Cultural Officer for the city quits and the housing director mysteriously leaves the city.

• Murder at Gilberto’s still remains unsolved (even though the rumor is a suspect is being held). I am still puzzled why the SFPD has said very little about this incident.

• A private Sioux Falls Parks Foundation is created to find ways to funnel wealthy people’s money into the public parks system for projects they desire.

• The SF Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau part ways with little to NO media coverage. I guess the negotiations behind closed doors were quite bitter.

• The city announces they are working on a plan to rebuild core neighborhoods (suspiciously only a couple of months from a city election).

• Appeal of Neitzert’s Ethics Hearing in Circuit Court gets thrown out.

• The city hits a record billion dollars in building permits with about 20-30% supported by taxpayers.

• The facade easement program gets brought back from the dead even though it shouldn’t have died with the Copper Lounge collapse.