Who says Sioux Falls doesn’t get great conventions?
l3wis I think this is the second time SNL parodied Sioux Falls and conventions;
2025
One 2 . . . Three and Four and the disappearing TIF act
Photo; Sioux Falls Business Journal
Last night during the discussion on selling the parking lot downtown, something interesting came up. Councilors were concerned that someone wanted to buy the parking lot just to convert into a private parking lot and wanted to make sure there was enough parking if housing was built there and compared it to the One 2 building next to Ace Hardware downtown (the city sold the lot for a song). In the discussion it was revealed that instead of retail on the main floor of the building it is actually now 2 levels of parking (basement, 1st floor) and in making this decision they decided to add 2 floors of apartments to the building. Now, no big deal, development plans change, but it never got re-approved by the council. Which tells me an un-elected city employee made the decision and was likely backed up by the mayor’s office.
TIFs MAY BE A THING OF THE PAST IF THE SD STATE LEGISLATURE HAS THEIR WAY
During the working session yesterday the council discussed the legislative proposals for the 2026 session and their desire to change TIF applications;
• 50% of property needs to be blighted
• TIF must also get County approval (I would also suggest school board approval since they are the most impacted – remember COSTCO refused a TIF because of school funding)
• No grants can be approved with TIF
• Any TIF over $10 million must be approved by voters in a special election
I think these are all a good start, but I would suggest one quick fix; eliminate all TIFs except for community infrastructure like water and sewer services or fire stations.
TIFs have almost NO ROI unless used to fix a community problem like blight and infrastructure needs.
At the end of the discussion Rich Merkouris asked the city attorney ‘How many TIFs in Sioux Falls were granted for just blighted areas?’ Of course, Fiddle gave his normal answer, ‘I will get back to you.’ I might dig around on it this week and see for myself. If I had to guess we have probably only put out 20% of TIFs for blighted areas.
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Mayor’s ‘staff’ gets busted last night
Besides all the lying going on about the Sioux Falls Parks Master Plan, to which councilor Sigette said that the administration was NOT being transparent, there was another item that stirred the pot. Item #34 was a resolution to surplus the city parking lot at 13th and 1st. At first glance, this seems like a good idea, since that space could accommodate a whole host of things. If I had a couple million to blow I would do a 4-story structure with a partial courtyard, retail on 1st floor and 3 stories of studio apartments. I would even encourage it to be ‘carfree housing‘ so you wouldn’t need to have parking. Most of these developments have a couple of grocery runner e-cars they can use for errands as rentals;
But I knew when this popped up on the agenda, the jig was up. It was pretty obvious to me and many constituents who showed up to testify that the city already had a buyer (it was confusing as to who this developer may be, but it has some involvement with the Shriners next door). It really doesn’t matter who is buying the lot, as Sigette said, the administration is NOT being transparent, not just about the parks but parking downtown.
Normally how these supposed hearings go is the city staff put it on the agenda under the radar, they bully the council into voting for it and keeping their mouths shut and the public is the only one that appears at the meetings knowing this is wrong and basically corrupt. Not so fast. The council reamed the parking and planning staff about this, to which the planning director had to admit there is an interested party and why they are doing it.
SO WHY DON’T YOU JUST SAY THAT!? WHAT THE F’CK IS SOOOOO TOP SECRET ABOUT SELLING A PARKING LOT?!
Because, corruption can’t help itself. The mayor’s ‘staff’ has been getting away with these insider deals so long ($100 million in no-bid contracts for example) that it is just second nature for them. They were caught red handed last night, and it was fun to watch the constituents and the council double team the ‘staff’ over this corruption and lies. It was about time, and I hope ALL council meetings moving forward are like this, calling out the obvious corruption and lies of the staff.
And while the discussion last night was contentious, I think the council was extremely professional on how they approached it (they looked like an entirely different council last night) this is how government is supposed to work. Staff is supposed to give the council and the public ALL pertinent information, if they do not, it must be demanded of them before any votes take place, this finally happened last night. Erica’s ‘staff’ uh, I mean, Paul’s ‘staff’ is officially on notice and I’m lovin’ it!
I think with the government shutdown, this is prime time to evaluate ALL public employees and not only their job performance but their integrity and ethics. I can handle a little laziness, what I can’t tolerate is lies.
What a stupid argument
There was more stupidity occurring at the council meeting tonight. And guess what?! It’s happening again for the same reason; LACK OF TRANSPARENCY.
Just look at this stupid graph they have been man-splain’ to the council for over a year;
Notice, this is square footage of PUBLIC facilities. So what is the square footage of private facilities? As councilor Greg Neitzert said at a meeting last year; ‘There’s a gym on every corner of this town.’ I think he made it pretty clear when they first presented this stupid graph that there was NO comparison to the private sector, even after that warning over a year ago, they are still pitching this stupid argument. Sure, we may not have as much public fitness as other communities, but if you need to workout in Sioux Falls, you can find a gym and it is likely more affordable then the city.
I often tell councilors you need to support more outdoor / FREE recreation because it is something the private sector DOES not provide, and that is why we DON’T have much public indoor rec because we have an amazing city funded outdoor park system! How about we improve this? Or at least fix the broken equipment at Rotary Park!
Parks and Rec need to focus on what they do best, outdoor recreation and stop trying to act like they need to run a Gold’s Gym (I think they went bankrupt?)
UPDATE: Cry me a river . . . of crap
UPDATE: What’s with all the crying these days? I see he goes to same stylist as Sue Peterson. The intro was priceless, ‘Known to many as Mayor Mike’. Hey, Buddy, you lost that title 7 years ago, and you ain’t getting it back.
Public Works director, Cotter, did learn something from Huether, turn on the water works, uh I mean sewer works. No doubt it was an exhaustive project for Cotter, over 270 days of construction. But I am not sure it is worth crying about. Mr. Cotter gets paid $232K a year + benefits. We pay these wages because it is important job and it is hard. I compliment Cotter on getting this done, but it is his job. I also fault Cotter for not taking a firmer stand with Mike on the Sewer expansion. This project was supposed to be done BEFORE the Event Center and if we would have gone that route you would have saved taxpayers over $50 million in capital expenses and millions in interest payments, but Mike wanted that tin can so bad he had Cotter bury the project and any discussions about it. Cotter should have got in front of the council and pushed them to implement the project before the Event Center. So I guess it was appropriate to cry. While the project was a success, it would have been a heckuva a lot cheaper if we would have started it 10 years ago.
Rhoden spoke briefly at the end of the presser, and he was the only one that said anything that made sense. He basically said, these are the kind of (infrastructure) projects the government is setup to take care of. I agree, I have often said SF out of control spending could be tapered back by simply dedicating tax dollars to NEEDS not WANTS.
And now that the sewer plant is finished, get ready for the $30 million dollar bond next year to make repairs to the Denty. It’s coming.
WHEN YOU BUY A NEW CAR YOU HAVE TO BUILD A GARAGE FOR IT
I guess the Public Works department is angling for a new garage to house the new snow plows. The rumor is a building 100 x 300 FT. building. This should come as no surprise. They bought all these maintainers now they have to store them somewhere. Funny how the finance director didn’t mention this when he wanted the council to buy the maintainers. Even a pole barn that size will be millions. It reminds me of the applicant who showed up to the Zoning Board for an adjustment on his garage. He wanted to extend his garage 3 feet in the front. When asked his reason he said, “I bought a new truck and it doesn’t fit in the garage.” 🙂