January 2025

Is the Sioux Falls School District recruiting school board candidates?

This is pretty odd coming from an organization that does everything in their power to make sure nobody votes in their elections. There was also the illegal finance report they filed and edited. There is also the dubious school bond election where the citizens voted in the Putin Bonds (Lalley said the results of the election seemed Soviet). I don’t think Carly and Nan want to run again and they are looking for replacements. Also, just a note, when asking folks to get involved with local government, try not to schedule that meeting conflicting with another local body (City Council Meeting). I see this often where the school board will have an important meeting at the same time as the city or county. Can you folks coordinate? I know the mayor meets with the Super on a regular basis (probably working out more closed government strategies). I was glad to see Nold replacing Stavem, but why didn’t they just hire him before Stavem? The things this body does in executive session really makes you scratch your head.

Good Blessing Mr. Yarrow

It didn’t hit at first. A friend texted me today that a great man died. I did not know what to think. A few years ago I took a weird trip to the Hills to see a ‘Honor the Earth’ concert put on by Native Americans. Pete put it on, he was the organizer. Between meeting him and Arlo Guthrie, I was in a complete different world. I want people to know, whether you like his music or not, doesn’t matter. We don’t make people like this anymore.

Why are restaurants in Sioux Falls failing?

Well, at least someone in the media has figured it out;

I am beginning to wonder if this market is adding restaurants faster than it’s growing the resident and visitor population. 

That’s one of the problems. The other is horrible service (many experienced managers and servers left the industry during Covid, permanently). Prices of course with inflation are also to blame. Food quality is also at an all time low due to cost cutting by restaurants. Also, there really is no destinations. Just look at the restaurants and bars that are always busy, they have great service, good food, decent price points and a reason to be there. I’m sorry, an aluminum stool at a bar with Coors Light on tap and a buffalo chicken wrap on the menu isn’t roping me in or keeping me there. I think the hospitality industry in Sioux Falls needs to realize the same old, same old, just ain’t cutting it anymore.

There is only a handful of locally owned restaurants I go to anymore, and they are getting slimmer. I also got a kick out of this statement;

and even the impact of so many people using weight-loss drugs, 

I about fell out of my chair laughing at that one. If people can’t afford to go out to eat, they certainly can’t afford $1,000 a month designer diet pills. Look around at people when you are at a restaurant and count the people who are NOT overweight. You may find 2-3 out of 40. Trust me, people are getting enough food to eat. It’s the garbage we are being fed.

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda (Jan 7, 2025)

The council has had a few weeks off, so I knew stuff was piling up, and it’s a big-in;

City Council Informational • Tuesday January 7, 2025, 4 PM

• Real Time Information Center by Jon Thum, Police Chief (not sure what this is but looks interesting). Hopefully this will be an effort by the SFPD to be more open with citizens and their assistance in helping to solve crime. I’m sorry, but a large majority of the 16 murders this year in Sioux Falls were preventable and we need to be sharing more data and information with the public.

Regular Meeting • Tuesday January 7, 2025, 6 PM

Item #22, This resolution of necessity is for the construction of an urban section connecting Detroit to the existing urban section of Grant Street which is 650+/- feet East of Detroit Avenue. (This will be an interesting item during discussion. I am NOT sure if the properties are willing to pay for the completion of this street, but maybe that is what was negotiated?)

Item #29, An ordinance of the City of Sioux Falls authorizing the City to issue bonds backed and repaid by the City’s existing 2nd penny sales tax to utilize for $68,000,000 in parks and recreation improvements at the Westside Recreation Center, Kuehn Park, and Frank Olson Park. (IMO, the city council missed an incredible opportunity to put these bonds to a vote during the spring elections. The numbers have been the same for over a year, there has been NO mysteries. They will pass it even though most taxpayers in Sioux Falls have no idea this is going on.)

Item #6, Approval of Contracts;

Sub-Item #3 (When you have to pay a private contractor $70K to create a budget book you have to question the competency of our finance department. Maybe they need to hire a private contractor to replace the staples in their staplers to?)

Sub-Item #6 (Settlement for $595K for easement property. Notice that this was awarded to the developer who sold the Tre Ministries property and will not be developing it).

Sub-Item #7 (Why are we paying the RR $100K for bridge repair? Biggest Grifters EVER!)

Sub-Item #15 (Onward and Leadership Training Agreement. More waste on leadership programs. Maybe teach city employees how to be more efficient and productive?)

Sub-Item #16 (Millions more to the Pavilion to fix something? I would really like a tally of how much money from the entertainment tax we have spent so far on the Pavilion. May guess it is north of $100 million since it’s inception. A project that was supposed to cost $19 million and when finally completed was around $50 million, with millions more in repairs and subsidies over the years).

Is this proof that Mayor TenHaken is actively pursuing closed government?

Not sure, but I will lay this out for you. Around a year ago or so MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization of Sioux Falls) had a zoom meeting. At the meeting were several city administrators I believe from Tea, Canton and Mayor TenHaken. The city manager of Harrisburg could NOT attend so he designated a private contractor who was the city’s acting (part-time) planning director at the time (they just recently pulled back after hiring Watertown’s Planning person). The ‘fill-in’ at the meeting said the discussion quickly turned to the dividing line between SF and Harrisburg and Poops adamant distinction of HWY 101 being that line. The ‘fill-in’, a former city of Sioux Falls engineer, disagreed with the mayor and said that is not ‘definitive’ and never has been. Then the mayor proceeded to accuse this person of lying about what he ‘knows’ and what he believes (I am still waiting for the minutes from the meeting). Besides the meeting itself being a little rough and contentious it was what Poops did after the meeting that was really petty. He instructed that MPO changes it’s meeting rules only to include city employees as fill-ins and not private contractors. While I agree, seemed it a little odd you would send your private contractor to this meeting, BUT, they were discussing planning and development and he was the acting planning director for Harrisburg, so it made sense at the time. I just find it incredibly insecure and petty to make a rule change because you didn’t like a private citizen telling you what was up in an a official meeting so you change the rules. You got a lot of issues man.