November 2023

UPDATE: City of Sioux Falls new website an even bigger POS then before

l3wis November 20, 2023 7Comments

UPDATE: The new rating is up in the 90’s now, so we are gaining steam. I’m glad to see that the site is performing better! But they need to work on the search engines.

I didn’t have high expectations for the new city website, siouxfalls.gov. Even if they chose a good vendor and spent (I think $250K) on the redesign, I knew there would be all kinds of ways they would make it difficult for citizens to access the site.

It’s overall performance rating is 37%. A web developer told me with the kind of money the taxpayers spent on this redesign, and the use of actual coders, the website should have an overall rating of 90% or higher.

Besides it’s awful performance, they have hidden the agenda page. When you first click on the link all you get is a calendar with no reference to where the agendas are (you have to scroll all the way to the bottom, and it uses very useless and frustrating double scroll bars instead of direct links to the meetings.)

There is also NO livestream on the main page (something I suggested they do). Citylink should just be constantly streaming at the top of the page when you open up the site, or at least a quick link to it. As you can see, it is NOT working at all (once you find the page, which took me multiple searches). Some have said that I should give a few more weeks while they tweak it, but I am sorry, they should NOT have launched a site that is NOT working yet.

The search engine is almost non-functioning. I did 10 different searches for common public documents and got ZERO results.

Like I said above, I am not surprised the website turned out like this, they are just making things harder for citizens to access our government, and this website is a shining example of their lack of transparency and open government.

City websites should not be a graphic show pony, it should be a functioning, searchable site with access to vids, agendas and most importantly DATA!

It amazes me that the mayor, who ran a web development company would except this new format as a success. Just more of our money in a burn barrel.

SECOG puts out Survey

l3wis November 20, 2023 1Comments

I received a letter in the mail referring to an online survey South Eastern Council of Governments (SECOG) is conducting. Anyone can go online and do the survey and I encourage others to take it, it is very detailed when it comes to traffic in Sioux Falls.

UPDATE: Is the Sioux Falls Chamber bailing on the Legislative Coffees?

l3wis November 18, 2023 2Comments

UPDATE: It was confirmed to me that the Chamber did stop sponsoring the event and a new (existing) group will take it over. There will be an official announcement with all the details SOON!

I was told today by a source that the Sioux Falls Chamber sent out an email to members saying they will no longer sponsor the Legislative Coffees in Sioux Falls (or maybe just this year) and that the legislature has been notified.

Not sure if it is true, but I have been contacting other sources in hopes I can get a clearer understanding.

I’m cool with this as long as The League of Women Voters takes it over. I have never approved of the Chamber running the coffees. They represent their membership and little else, while the LWV is a non-profit that promotes civic engagement and voter registration.

I have also heard the venue is moving. Which is also good. The SE Tech location was horrible and extremely out of the way. It should be somewhere central again like Augie, USF, Hilton or Holiday Inn Downtown.

If anyone knows more deets, drop me a line and I will update the post accordingly.

UPDATE II: Who is bringing Ice Bumper Cars to the Bunker Ramp?

l3wis November 18, 2023 16Comments

UPDATE II: The city of Sioux Falls celebrates the 7^th anniversary of the 10:30 a.m. Dec. 2, 2016 building collapse with…. You guessed it Bunker Ramp Ice Bumper Cars!

Saturday, Dec. 2

North Pole Jingle & Mingle | 1 to 5 p.m.

SANTA: Experience the magic of the North Pole with a visit to Santa and Mrs. Claus. Take a moment to share your holiday wish list and create a special memory to last a lifetime! 

CANDY CANE HUNT: Kick off your Candy Cane Hunt at the 10th Street Mural for instructions and riddles to help you search your way through downtown. Candy canes will be scattered throughout downtown businesses. Once you solve the riddles and find the candy canes come back to the 10th Street Mural to visit Santa and collect a prize.  

GLICE & FREE ICE BUMPER CARS: Come down and enjoy FREE Ice Bumper Car rides provided by First PREMIER Bank and First PREMIER Bankcard.

Just curious if anyone in the halls of city hall realized this very bad coincidence with a tragic event?

Tone deaf.

UPDATE: Seems city hall had to get their propaganda wing of the administration to generate a story quick. Well you heard it here first. And as we assumed, it is the same group of merry pranksters funding this bizarre installation;

MarketBeat is serving as the presenting sponsor of the event, in addition to the plaza it sponsors farther south on Phillips Avenue next to the federal courthouse.

The project “is a great example of how public and private entities can work together to get things done,” Paulson added. “We are really impressed with the work that the city and the Washington Pavilion have done in a short period of time to spin up a second holiday plaza at the parking ramp site.”

MarketBeat also sponsored the mural painted on the ramp earlier this year.

The synthetic ice is part of a sponsorship from First Premier Bank/Premier Bankcard, which originally helped purchase it, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Sioux Empire, which sold it to the city at a reduced cost.

It’s actually looks pretty fun, but I am still confused how all of this never made a public agenda. So now we are taking private donations for activities on public property with NO public process?

Original Post:

A foot soldier called me a few moments ago to let me know the contraption they are building at the park by the bunker ramp will be a rink for ice bumper cars.

Who is paying for this?

A city official confirmed to me that no one has a clue who is funding this or where the concept is coming from.

Likely the usual suspects will appear as the likely donors.

But where was the public’s input?

Oh, that’s right, that doesn’t matter.

Why is the City of Sioux Falls researching Implied Trusts?

l3wis November 17, 2023 1Comments

I found this on the city council agenda (Item #6, approval of contracts-Please note, with the change in format on the new city website there is NO direct hyperlink to the meetings, you have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click on the specific meeting, I figured they were going to find a way to kill the direct hyperlinks with the new site, and they did);

What is an Implied Trust?

a type of trust (= a legal arrangement in which someone is given control over another person’s money or property) that a court decides it was someone’s intention to create, although it was not clearly stated

I don’t have a clue why the city is hiring outside counsel to research this, but I have a sneaky suspicion it may have to do with charitable donations to the city in the form of a trust, but I’m probably way off.

Hopefully a councilor will pull the item so we can find out what this is for.

COUNCIL TO VOTE ON MAKING UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR, ETHICAL

Item #31, The proposed ordinance provides clarity to the City Council and Board of Ethics in regards to the Ethics and Conflict of Interest ordinances is sponsored by Councilor Neitzert. He plans to bring some of these changes;

(b) City council members have a civic responsibility to support good government by every available legal and ethical means, to continue to inform and educate the citizenry about the affairs and processes of city government, and to make themselves available to citizens of the city so that they may ascertain and respond to the needs of the community. In doing so, city council members may join or affiliate with civic organizations that advocate and support the principles consistent with the constitution and laws of the United States and South Dakota. In furtherance of this section, city council members may attend conferences or events affiliated with a political party, and may hold appointed or elected positions within their respective political parties, including, but not limited to, precinct officer or delegate to party conventions. (the changes are in bold italics)

I don’t take issue with the delegate position, but I am adamantly opposed to allowing councilors to go to political events affiliated with a party on the taxpayers dime. If they want to pay for it themselves, I am cool with that, but taxpayers shouldn’t foot the bill. Our city government is non-partisan for a reason. because we try to keep party politics out of city government.