UPDATE: Apparently it was the fault of the applicant. Once I get more information I will post.

City of Sioux Falls Licensing Specialist Jamie Palmer (who mysteriously left the council as an assistant clerk to be promoted after Debra Owen’s termination) has been warned about this several times over the years;

The following alcoholic beverage item is requested for consideration on July 1, 2021.
The application was not received in time for consideration at a regularly-scheduled City
Council Meeting. The item meets the criteria set forth by State Law in which no notice is
required to be published and no hearing needs to be scheduled.

I even remember Erpenbach ripping her a new one about getting her ducks in row so they don’t have to approve these licenses last minute, or after the fact (this really happened). I wonder how many times the city council and mayor’s office are going to tolerate this incompetence before showing her the door? Oh that’s right, if you are a city director, your screwups are unlimited, unless of course your name is Chellee, Jason, Matt, Brad, Mike, TJ or the poor sap who flips people off while filling potholes.

I’m sure the likely excuse will be the city council hasn’t met for 3 weeks in a row for an official meeting, but the Levitt agenda has been out for well over a couple of months, Jamie knew this was coming.

Oh, and why hasn’t the council met in 3 weeks? Good question.

I’m sure we will see the same pointy fingers at Jamie asking her how she continually f’cks this stuff up and little else done about it.

Another symptom of cruise control government.

I still have to snicker a bit they are approving a liquor license, at a special meeting, at 10:30 in the morning on a Thursday. Well it’s NOON somewhere!

8 Thoughts on “Sioux Falls City Council has special meeting Thursday morning to bail out the city’s licensing agent . . . again

  1. Mike Lee Zitterich on June 30, 2021 at 12:07 pm said:

    Technically, the City Council only meets in general session the first 3 weeks of each month as per the charter, while they did meet last week for an Informational Meeting. Could be, the application for a liquor license came in within the last 2 weeks, I am sure there are more to it to obtaining a liquor license – background checks, criminal record checks, history, legalities, contracts, etc.

  2. l3wis on June 30, 2021 at 12:54 pm said:

    Read the post, the Levitt schedule has been out for over 2 months, this wasn’t a last minute deal

  3. The Guy From Guernsey on June 30, 2021 at 2:03 pm said:

    I need to know more information before castigating a city bureaucrat.

    On which Council meeting date were the single-day liquor licenses for the June Levitt concert dates presented and approved?

    On what date did the prospective licensee submit the application for the July 2 and July 3 events?

    In the end, the responsibility falls upon the license applicant to get an application submitted in order that it gains City Council approval prior to the event.

  4. Mike Lee Zitterich on June 30, 2021 at 2:35 pm said:

    Yes, I saw that, I was simply thinking, what if, contract talks, planning discussions, perhaps even a backload of licenses in the past few months came into question. you know as much as I do, there are at least 10 licenses being approved each week. I have to watch the meeting this morning to see what the discussion was, which I have not done yet. If you are correct and she is slow at her job, perhaps we need a change, but i do not want to “falsely” accuse anyone of any wrong doing. Just not me.

  5. L3wis on June 30, 2021 at 3:54 pm said:

    I have been digging around a bit on this one. First off, Jamie has done this in the past and should know better, but we know more tomorrow if the applicant didn’t put paperwork in on time. My guess is if they are having a special meeting, it is probably the city’s fault, and why they shouldn’t skip 3 weeks at a time.

  6. The Guy From Guernsey on June 30, 2021 at 10:25 pm said:

    The answer to one of my questions (“On which Council meeting date were the single-day liquor licenses for the June Levitt concert dates presented and approved?”) is apparently June 1 (the address listed for the events is the business office for Levitt at the Falls).
    Is there reason that the applicant didn’t submit for approval on all of the event dates for the entire season?

  7. l3wis on July 1, 2021 at 12:15 am said:

    Great question. As I understand it, they pay per event, so the delay may have happened for that. But it doesn’t change the fact that someone needed to notify them they were not meeting for 3 weeks straight. My prediction is that the blame will fall on a domino effect of errors by both parties.

  8. "Woodstock" on July 1, 2021 at 1:12 pm said:

    “Is a licensing agent like a county agent?….”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jn32OCQ7ns

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