2023

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.

UPDATE: Republicans lie, cheat & steal and when caught, lie some more

l3wis November 17, 2023 4Comments

I have been following the Freedom Works campaign stories that Patrick Lalley has been digging around on, and his latest touches on an industry I have worked in for 30 years;

Lawrence & Schiller didn’t win the $5M contract for Freedom Works Here, but their idea showed up as the centerpiece of the recuitment campaign produced by the governor’s political consultant.

Let’s just say in the marketing, graphics and communications world, highway robbery is common practice. In fact, I would argue that the industry would have collapsed on itself if it wasn’t ‘borrowing’ from itself concepts and ideas.

Where it gets complicated is when that robbery is blatant, like in this case. Most agencies know that you need to ‘tweak’ a concept you ‘borrowed’ just a tinge so you don’t have finger pointers.

The problem in this case is that the winning bidder (who suddenly popped up a day before presenting their bid and has deep political ties to Noem’s alleged boy toy) never submitted a creative concept. The losing bidder did, and it looks pretty close to final concept.

This doesn’t surprise me. Pierre is full of empty suits that wouldn’t know an original idea if it hit them like a runaway manure spreader.

But the denial by Noem’s staffer says it all;

The accusation that Go West used the creative from another firm’s bid is “completely false,” said Fury in a statement to Sioux Falls Live.

“The only similarity between the campaigns was the use of Gov. Noem’s image,” Fury said. “The chosen campaign works because of its humorous approach, specific metrics, and targeting to fill our specific job openings. We encourage L&S to be transparent by releasing their own creative pitch so that South Dakotans can see the difference for themselves.”

They are NOT going to do that. This agency has deep political ties to the state and the SD GOP and it would be a grave misstep to f’ck up that relationship over a stolen concept and I wouldn’t doubt if they were brought in as a 3rd party contractor on the project (Go West hired them to do the creative).

UPDATE: I was informed by Lalley that L & S was NOT a 3rd party contributor.

But we will never know.

Sioux Falls Sustainability Advocates change frustration into action

l3wis November 16, 2023 1Comments

Bravo to these folks!

“We can’t just sit by and do nothing, so we’re going to have these conversations,” Brandt-Jenson said. “… We are way behind. Just the fact that the biggest city in South Dakota has no real sustainability plan as a policy for our city is something to take note of.”

The coalition’s next effort is a community conversation on climate and sustainability at 8:45 a.m. on Dec. 2 at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls. The two-and-a-half hour event will allow residents to speak with each other, ask questions and hear from experts in the field, including South Dakota Climatologist Laura Edwards and University of South Dakota professor in sustainability Meghann Jarchow.

To often individuals (like myself) will take their frustrations out on city hall without the support of other citizens or advocates in the community, usually the results are a dead end. But when a group of advocates form a coalition join forces they can have a bigger voice.

Legendary Political Cartoonist Rob Rogers in Sioux Falls this weekend!

l3wis November 16, 2023 2Comments

I can’t believe I just saw this, but Mr. Rogers will be in Sioux Falls this weekend! It will be in coordination with an exhibit at Augustana.

Today Rogers will be conducting a lecture at Augie this afternoon at 4 PM and an artist reception on Friday.

Rogers is the Rock Star of the political cartooning world and if you can’t make the events at least go check out the exhibit throughout the month!