It has only been a week since the city election, and new candidates have not even been sworn in yet, and the ramrodding begins.
Presentations on the 2021 Financial Results and Eat Well, Sioux Falls Grant Program. There is NO attached documents (something I think moving forward we will not see in advance ever again).
I know I sound like a broken record, but I find it interesting that the 2021 financials were not presented to the public and city council in a public meeting until a week after the election. Millions in surpluses were given away before the election with NO official report. This is completely ass backwards.
If you look at the report you will notice that the audit was submitted to the city on March 23 and and acknowledgement to city council on March 28, one week before the election. Was the timing a coincidence? I think not.
Item #6, Approval of Contracts,
Sub-Item #2, Sioux Falls Arts Council Funding, $32K+, While I have NO issue with this, I am wondering why these non-profits don’t have to give a presentation about what they have been doing with the money. The same goes for the Pavilion that basically sucks the entertainment tax dry every year and the Levitt, in which we have no clue how they ended up financially in 2021.
Sub-Item #39, Technology, Website/Content Management System Agreement; Open Cities, $425,593.00 (Five Year Total), Optional $65K for additional consulting services per year. (up to $150K per year) New software replaces legacy website and content management system with a new more efficient website and content management system.
In some respects, having a team manage our website for $150K a year is probably a bargain, but if we had a competent IT department (one manager just recently got arrested for child abuse, something the media and mayor’s office ignored before the election) we could probably manage this internally. Open cities has a fairly decent reputation though they have to make some improvements. This would have also been a great item to have a public presentation about, but do you really think Captain Poopy Pants was going to lift the veil of secrecy about this? Don’t make me laugh.
Item #24, Washington Pavilion getting a liquor license. While I have my issues with the Pavilion, I think this is overdue. They should have had one on day one. The transfer is another issue from a veterans association.
Item #50, More surplus handouts.
Item #52, major overhaul of sidewalk ordinances (and mostly who is responsible). What I find most egregious in this change to ordinance is it is happening in the middle of an onslaught of over 2,600 citations in poorer neighborhoods (including my property). They want to change the rules in the middle of the game. If you read the ordinance, this sticks out;
The owner(s) of such real property shall be liable to the city for any and all damage or
injury caused by such neglect and shall be responsible for the costs of abating the public
nuisance. Examples of sidewalk defects constituting a public nuisance include, but are not
limited to:
So while the sidewalk is owned by the city and sits on city property they are somehow expecting your insurance or personal assets to cover personal injury claims on their property. It is utterly F’ing ridiculous. It’s like saying a car accident in front of your house is your responsibility because the street is next to your property. The street abuts the boulevard that abuts the sidewalk that abuts your property. I go back to the simplest of premises. We pay taxes for services. This means the city should maintain it’s property and liability from the taxes we pay.
Item #53, more money flying around for an ice ribbon we do not need.
Items #58-59, Resolutions, more money moving around after an election.
A liquor license for the Pavilion is a good idea. If you are working in the red, then maybe alcohol will help. I know sex sells, speaking of working in the red. Plus, a drunk person is less bothered by deteriorating parapets and cornices…. But, so much for ‘The Book of Mormon’ returning, however…. But what about ‘Cats’? It might be more tolerable with some booze.
Waste, coverup, fraud, and we’re not responsible after an election! Only the beginning for rubber stampers. With or without booze the Pavilion is still one big hangover.
What if an ice cream truck parks out in front of my humble little abode with its picket fence and spotted dog, and knowingly or not, sells E. coli tainted ice cream to little ones, could I be seen as the deep pocket? Or, only if the little ones didn’t have enough change?
I love tort law. Don’t you? It’s the only place where one has jurisdiction over everyone else. With criminal law you are totally dependent upon a compromised prosecutor, but with tort law you become the ultimate sovereign, who can reign terror upon others… Well, you do need an ambulance chaser as well, but they’re not too hard to find.
#GoodHumorMePlease
“Say, when is the local media going to start doing news stories about local ice cream trucks?”…. “(“Wow!, just think”…. “Not only a Food Truck Battle, but also an Ice Cream Truck Battle”…. “Then it could all culminate with the two battle winners competing against each other in a two truck demolition derby”…. (“But would nearby residents be liable for it all?”…. ))
The previous years financial books always come about the 2nd to 3rd week of April. The city goes thru their auditing phase where a 3rd party comes in and goes thru all the data between November and February, the 3rd Party provides a informational report typically in March, which occurred this past March the 2nd Tuesday of the month. Once the financial books are published, they go to print, and the become published around the 2nd/3rd week of April. So I do not think the election had anything to do with it, other than the fact the ‘date of the election’ was before the typical date of which the financials get published. Let’s also keep in mind, under the Ten Haken Administration – the Finance Director has done a fairly good job of presenting the financials each month, so its not like ‘we’ have not been receiving any data this entire time.
Besides, what is with all the hate over the Pavilion? It is a historical building that I am proud to make live on.
After all, its my former Highschool stomping grounds.
Mike, you are correct about the timeline, the problem is the booty prizes the mayor’s office was handing out before the election and BEFORE a financial report was provided.
We don’t hate the Pavilion. We hate the deficits. I went to school there, too. Some say Dylan did as well (But that’s been completely debunked.). It’s just that…. deficits,…. aren’t they socialism as well…. maybe at its best?
“Say, don’t forget about David Soul”…. “He went to the old Washington High as well”…. “But like Dylan, the Myron Floren claim has been debunked, too”….
Have you ever noticed that when people never actually graduate, they then refer to it as a “Highschool (high school) stomping grounds”? It’s like bragging about a date with a beautiful young woman, except, where’s the plural in date?
Bob Dylan and Myron Floren: I don’t think those two names have ever been used in the same sentence before. And Dylan even has a Nobel in literature, but even he has never bothered us with such eclectic succinctness.
Scott, thats an entirely different cause and effect. I agree, all these tax surpluses are getting more frequent, it is something we will have create discussion on during this rounds ‘budget talks’ that take place between July and August.