February 2022

Want Diversity in Leadership in Sioux Falls? Vote for TenHaken’s Opponent!

I often chuckle when I hear White, Christian, Republican Men talk about diversity;



“Representation matters,” TenHaken said. “So, as this community gets more diverse in a variety of different ways, people need to see leadership positions filled by people of all different backgrounds so they can aspire to the same thing.”


Five of the 12 people on his city executive team are either minority or female. TenHaken has directly hired four of those five individuals during his four years in office.

Ironically, I don’t think a single woman or minority has helped with Poops mayoral campaigns, except his wife. In fact his current campaign assistant used to be the Executive Director of the SD GOP.

What I find so ironic is that if you want to promote diversity in city leadership, you should vote for Paul’s opponent, an immigration attorney who is a Muslim female minority that has bi-racial children with her white husband. If anyone would promote diversity I think the choice is clear.

Paul’s talk about diversity is all smoke and mirrors. He knows his true supporters will NEVER vote for his opponent. In fact in the last election cycle when a minority was running for city council, the rumor was he got the door slammed in his face on several occasions. Paul has had several opportunities to promote minorities into leadership roles, and to his credit, he has, but NOT in key departments like public safety. The two fire chiefs and one police chief have all been white males and he has refused to do a national search only promoting from within leaving very little wiggle room for the diversification of these departments within their leadership. Poops had a great opportunity to find us a Police Chief with some diversity experience, but instead picked the guy with the best sideburns.


And let’s not forget his complete denial of the LGBTQ+ community existing in our city.

If you truly want diversity, don’t vote for Poops.

UPDATE: Open Meetings Complaint against Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken being sent to the Open Meetings Commission for Review

UPDATE: There seems to be confusion from several people in the media about Haggar’s original letter, so another one was submitted to Sierra and the AG’s office. Basically Haggar is saying he does NOT have the authority to rule on this, BUT the Open Meetings Commission under the direction of the AG’s office does. It now will be up to the OMC to first determine if the complaint is viable to hold a hearing. This could take 6-8 weeks. If they determine that it is viable they will have a hearing on the matter. I’m not sure what certain reporters in the media are confused about? All Mr. Haggar did was review the complaint and he felt it needed to be passed on because it has merit, so that is what he did. At this point we just need to wait to hear from the OMC. That is the only story here.

Minnehaha States Attorney, Daniel Haggar has determined that it appears that city ordinance was violated when citizens were not allowed to publicly comment on two items pulled from the consent agenda (see statement below).

In Haggar’s LETTER he has chosen to send the complaint over to the Open Meetings Commission. Here is the original Complaint.