I decided to start with the EO that inflamed me the most when I first saw it. I have been wondering back to when Misplaced Mike was mayor how certain mid-management had been getting large raises that didn’t seem in line with their normal ‘STEPS’.
This is wrong on many levels, because these raises compound when you skip steps and it is the taxpayers that are holding the bag.
Also, how can you give ‘rewards’ or ‘bonuses’ to public employees? This is NOT a corporation with profits and losses, it’s ALL losses. There are other ways to reward good work. Maybe a point system that gives you a little bonus or extra PTO at the end of the year? But don’t be superficially be giving out bonuses in the disguise of REWARDS.
If you think our mayor has our best interest when it comes to our public investment in our public employees, AND THAT IS WHAT THEY ARE! AN INVESTMENT! you have another thing coming. He is giving away our tax dollars to win favor with the minions.
The irony is the mayor has the authority to sign off on any additional raise or bonus if he wants to, he doesn’t need this EO. Just a legal crutch and little else.
Talk about getting the hose poured on you at your first meeting! Public input was a riot! The people living in apartments owned by a Floridian Mob Boss showed up, one was an EMT for a city contractor! WOW! People from Taylor Street came to object to a massive apartment being built in their quaint neighborhood. As one inputer said, “It’s Bullsh1t!” Also, Mr. Stanga has returned.
Tim makes his second appearance in 2 weeks to complain about officers not investigating petty crime (break-ins). Tim, hate to break it to you, that has been the policy for decades!
One of the new councilors, Jennifer Sigette, expressed her dismay that no one showed up for 1st Reading of the massive mixed use God Kids work training living units at 18th and Minnesota.
These Bohemians have so much to learn. Ok, Jennifer, this is how it works, the planning department has been instructed to tell applicants and opponents (especially opponents) not to come to 1st reading because nothing goes on. That is why NO ONE was there. Soehl continued the rhetoric by saying that 1st reading almost always get passed (LIE! JUST VOTED ONE DOWN A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO) and no one really needs to come and speak because it is simply setting a date of a hearing. BULLSH!T, which probably came straight from the city attorney’s office, because Curt ain’t shart enough to figure that out.
And like a broken record playing the sound of a can being kicked down the road, the council re-elected the same dolts for leadership. TWO issues with this, 1) Every single Bohemian elected to the council in this last election is QUALIFIED to be in leadership. I may disagree with their politics, but they ain’t dummies. Give them an opportunity to lead! Barranco or Cole should have been elected vice-chair, and Merkouris should have gotten chair. Thomason should have been elected chair of the audit committee, but they reappointed Barranco. WHY!? The best way to learn and progress as an individual councilor and as a team is to have your feet thrown in the fire. Give the new peeps an opportunity.
Whatever CURT! Better go pick up your cardboard Burger King crown for the next meeting.
Also, the lack of discussion tonight before the nominations and election only shows the public you make most of these decisions behind closed doors. Do you think we are that naive? This is why no one shows up to vote or to complain. What’s the point?
Great article by Joe, agree almost 100%, but I wish he would have touched more on the lack of leadership;
I have the impression that no one in a leadership position is focusing on a long-term vision for our governments in the Sioux Falls area. Our mayor took office 6 years ago with the theme of “One Sioux Falls” to motivate city employees and the community. But I don’t believe it had anything to do with getting rid of unnecessary government boundaries in our city. And the business community, as reflected in the Chamber of Commerce and Forward Sioux Falls, seems equally uninterested in discussing the situation. They should care about this and get involved.
Also, I have had this coaster for awhile, I found it at a bar downtown a few months ago and wondered if anyone else has seen it? I got it right away, but I wonder if others are like, “This is cool.” Love random gorilla art.
I have known for around a year from multiple sources that Poops’ COS, Erica Beck, plans to run for mayor. I have resisted posting, because, well, I don’t believe it. First thing I said to my first source, “Does she plan on being the next Jim Entenman of mayoral politics? Spending the most money and getting the worst results?” And once peeps find out she is the one running the city the past 5 years or so, she really will get NO WHERE with her campaign. She really should register her candidacy as an LLC under Lloyd Companies. If you are going to run Erica, why not wear your true colors? GREEN & GREEN.
You’ve gone in such a wrong direction since the last time we talked. It is disappointing on many levels, because I think you are a smart urban planner who has been hoodwinked by power and money, and not GOD.
I wish you luck, but you are going to get creamed.
I have finished a review of the orders and have taken pics of over 30 different ones that I found of interest. I will be posting them over the next few weeks.
What are EOs?
EOs come from the mayor’s office and generally have to do with his administrative duties when handling city employees, but there is other stuff. The only EOs the city has on record are AFTER the charter change in the early 90’s. Many of the orders are missing sequence and several have been re-numbered (we will get to that in a moment).
Some interesting orders I found were EOs 138 & 139. The first one was established in 2005 by Mayor Munson (Office of Emergency Management) and it took another two years to implement EO 139 which was the actual Emergency Plan for the city in case of a major disaster. I was flabbergasted that a city of this size didn’t have an emergency plan until 2007. We really dodged a bullet on that one. It goes back to what Janet Brekke said all the time, the city needs to implement long term strategic plans ON EVERYTHING.
As for the renumbering, I noticed that in 2018 significant EOs were renumbered, this happened right as Huether was leaving office. But it gets better. I guess a citizen asked the city clerk to review them at this time, so he had to dig them up for them. When the citizen came to review them the city clerk proceeded to tell this person (the clerk was pretty new also) that before he could have them review them the city attorney (David P.) and city councilor Erpenbach came in and proceeded to remove several orders from the book and ‘shred’ them.
I couldn’t tell you where these orders went or what interest a city councilor would have in them, but it seems like some damage control to me. One of the reasons I wanted to review them is because I have known about this incident for several years.
Below is the index, you can see just how disorganized and strangely numbered they are.
As you know, I explore on my bike. So I LOVE this corridor, it reminds me of Minneapolis or Chicago, the problem? Wind tunnels. Any time I ride thru here on my bike, the wind directions are insane, and almost got knocked over.
Now, I could care less, but I have a feeling the next wicked T-Storm that rolls thru will wreak havoc. But that is just a guess, because, you know, I’m just a stupid blogger.
l3wis 
