Besides the potential Open Meetings violations at last Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, it seems Kiley was participating in some very strange behavior.
If a City Councilor has a conflict of interest with an item, they must recuse themselves and go in the back room. They must do this AT THE ANNOUNCEMENT of the item and not return until after the final vote. They can’t sit there and listen and then leave before the vote. They must ALSO tell us why they are leaving. Kiley didn’t do that.
My assumption was it was done to save the mayor from having to have a tie vote on Neitzert’s Amendment that Kiley saw in advance*.
Watch how this plays out on Item #40, resolution on development.
(FF 21:20) Kiley doesn’t leave at the beginning, and Erickson whispers something into his ear.
(FF 1:06) Kiley is still sitting on the dais and leans into Erickson and says something as Neitzert discusses his amendment. Between 1:06 and 1:10 he leaves the dais and goes into backroom before the Amendment vote of 4-3 saving the Mayor from breaking a tie. Kiley doesn’t return until after final motion vote and the announcement of the next item.
So Ricky Lee, seems like an interesting time to take a potty break? Talk about blatant corruption and scammery.
But that wasn’t the only time Ricky was up to his little bag of tricks with the help of his magician assistant Heels. *(FF: 2:38) While Neitzert gave an advance notice (several days) of his Garbage Hauler amendment, Ricky did not. It has been ruled in the past by the city attorney that councilors should give a 24 hour advance notice, they have called councilor Starr out on it. So Pat asked Ricky Lee about it and said he could do it because Pat did it in the past to which Pat responded sarcastically, “Yeah, I’d be happy to take credit for it.”
I did notice, I remember thinking during the meeting if this was done to avoid a so called ‘tie’ in the vote. I was in attendance that night, and I noticed all of what you mentioned. I have had no idea whether or not anyone picked up on that little ‘skit’. He was gone for at least 5-10 minutes, cause discussion on the amendment lasted for at least a good chunk of time, just about every councilor had made a public comment on Neitzert’s amendment.
There is no rule in our charter or ordinance that disallows any member of the council from leaving the forum to go to the bathroom or to get a drink of water, if they happen to miss the ‘public vote’ so be it.
*Hint: None of this would relevant if the city council composition was made up of an “ODD NUMBERED” City Council. Some of these little shenanigans would go away.
It was a bathroom break alright, he was probably crapping from his embarrassment of saving the mayor. It was pretty obvious he left the room to save Poop’s ass. Dispicable.
I thought something fishy was going on when a councilor left just before a 4 to 3 vote. On the other hand I was pleasantly surprised when council voted to respect city law and decline an illegal development plan.
It would be tragic if the Mayor had to leave a live feed on FB with his daughter to break a tie.
Speaking of that, I had a recent dream where the Mayor’s daughter starred in a new sequel to the old E.T. movie with E.T. being played by David Zokaites, then the zombies showed up, at a carwash…. not good.
“Say, speaking of that, I am currently working on a carwash concept – I hope to get Elon Musk involved in this one – that’s designed to wash convertibles with their tops down”…. “I am hoping to use some sort of force field to keep the spray at the halfway level of a cars body, but I still haven’t figure out how to get the windshields washed”…. “Maybe some carwash girls – In ‘Zokaites for Mayor’ bikinis – could wash the windshields at the end”… #TopsDownCarWash
I’m confused. It was Jensen who should have recused himself from the vote due to conflict of interest. His sister-in-law works for the applicant.
I also recently dreamt that Sioux Falls in the future was nothing but a bunch of taupe homes and car wash places. It was like that Tribbles episode on Star Trek, or the walnuts episode on The Dick Van Dyke Show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwG6MO92xtI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DHvwpV8SOk
I am trying to visualize a bikini sized sufficient to proclaim ‘Zokaites for Mayor’!!
But would it matter in a “tops down car wash”?