South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

2025

Uncategorized

Councilor Barranco suggests a ‘Renters Ombudsman’ in the city attorney’s office

l3wis 9Comments

This wasn’t the first councilor to make this suggestion. Councilor Janet Brekke, also an attorney and the first full-time city attorney, said they need a citizen’s ombudsman in the office to answer basic questions about property rights, etc. Personally, I think it is a great idea. The city attorney’s office works for us, we pay their wages and benefits and if we have a basic question about our legal rights as a citizen of this city, we should be able to get an answer. This in no way is expecting the city to represent a citizen in court, this is basically a Q & A service to citizens. I wouldn’t even be opposed to this person sitting on the staff of the HelpLine center with a dedicated line and funding from the city. This is important. There are so many slumlords in town and most people don’t know where to turn.

Barranco wants to add funding for this to this year’s budget and as he said in the budget hearing, he knows he has some work to do to win over his fellow councilors,

Also during this period in the meeting Chair Soehl ‘allowed’ other councilors to bring up their priorities with the budget, and that is what Barranco addressed. Lucy was rambling about something with the parks(?). Sorry, every time she talks I just tune out. Merkouris was talking about crime prevention funding, which I totally support, but then quickly went into the ‘kids’ which he brings up a lot. Hey, I’m with you man, but sometimes your priorities are whacked. Go serve on the school board already! This is all the things they address! The city’s responsibilities are simple; infrastructure, crime, fire. That’s it! If you want to help raise the kids of this community, sit on the respective board. It’s not the city council Rich. Curt’s priority was making sure we had ambulance funding in place in 2026 when the contract runs out. I would encourage the council to go a step further and put a plan together for a municipal ambulance service and compare that with a private service. Right now, we are getting screwed as taxpayers and patients! Basically the SFFD provides FREE EMT service and the private ambulance shows up as a taxi to the hospital and the city gets NO reimbursement for that service while the taxi service collects all the fees. With a muni service we hire a third party bill collector and we receive a commission on those rides, and if someone is unable to pay, it is a simple write-off by the city. This isn’t rocket science Curtis the Blurtist!

Dean Karsky Downtown Sioux Falls Homeless Mayor TenHaken Minnehaha County Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls Homeless Forum

l3wis 1Comments

I was surprised this was filmed, but after watching I realized that it was a live streaming event on SDPTV, so why didn’t the city livestream on FB and in YT? It often baffles me that the city will hold these live forums or debates and instead of livestreaming in YouTube they record and post later? WHY?! And why did we only get a day notice of the event? It was said during the event that this was in planning for weeks. Also, the moderator, Lori Walsh from SDPTV was only asking the questions sent to her from the audience on TV and in the crowd. Pastor Poops and her clashed when she asked why we can’t go to other communities for solutions, and it was his theme of the evening, blame others, point fingers at others, too big of a problem for him to solve then lastly ignore it because it is NOT my job. He went on to complain that many of these service providers are not sharing data with the SFPD. Why would they? There are Federal laws about peeps personal data and if you are seeking to acquire information about a certain individual you need to go to a judge and get a warrant. Does this guy even understand personal privacy? Just because you are living on the streets or a shelter doesn’t mean the same Federal laws don’t apply to you. It amazed me that most of the panel knew what they were talking about, even the DSS Secretary, Altoff, who tried to cover up sexual abuse in the Catholic Diocese years ago, knew what he was talking about. Karksy and Poops, not so much. Paul has this attitude that if it is a problem to big for him to solve, he walks away. Pretty sad for a person who is supposed to be running our city. Still find it ironic when he was running for his first term he told the crowd at Democratic Forum he was going to close the Dudley house because he would solve homelessness in Sioux Falls. As I looked around the crowd, I wasn’t the only one laughing. While I agree with his stance now that this is NOT a problem you solve but manage, you have to at least be doing one of those things, and he is doing neither.

Affordable Housing Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Omaha holding big event Tuesday to help Tzadik residents

l3wis 3Comments

UPDATE: So, things are not getting much better. So this happened;

So while the tenants are getting gouged on utilities by the service provider, the landlord isn’t even paying the bills. To turn tenants gas off in the middle of winter is CRIMINAL and it is time for the SFPD to produce an arrest warrant for this guy.

As you know, the city of Omaha is also dealing with that dirty rotten rat who owns Tzadik properties;

Health and safety concerns have been raised after conditions at City View Apartments were brought to the attention of the city, and it’s because of those issues that local attorney Dave Pantos said residents could possibly get out of their lease for free.

Well look there, a local attorney willing to help, in Sioux Falls, not so much. In fact I was in a meeting with an attorney and state representative Kadyn Wittman several months ago with tenants and all they got was the ‘HAND’ and little help, but no surprise. They have more important things to do, like making sure transgender females can use the woman’s bathroom 🙁 Most attorneys in Sioux Falls are on retainer with the city and won’t take personal cases against the city or landlords because they like the city’s butter on their bread. It is almost impossible to get a SF attorney to represent you against the city, maybe the SD Supreme Court in all their knowledge should address this? LMFAO! They are so useless, I don’t think I could even count on them to be a school cross guard. Either way, they are getting legal representation, unfortunately they have to get it from out of state.

Oh, but besides rent for an apartment crawling in cockroaches, frozen pipes, broken security, broken pipes, broken fire alarms, mold and nails flying out of the garbage disposal they make the residents pay a service company for utilities, and it is a doozy. I will post two bills that are completely different but still make no sense;

When this was first sent to me, I told them, “Pretty obvious you are being gouged.” I have a 900 Square foot house that I live alone in and these above charges equal about $177 in winter and $90 in the summer so I find this to be an incredible ‘GRIFT’ by the service provider and the landlord. I actually laughed with the service fee. Really?! After basically taking a 100% or more commission you still charge a service fee. RATS!!!!!!

The saddest part is the inaction from city hall. The city government has a lot of power when it comes to putting this person in compliance, but they are to big of wimps to do it. It only took 20+ years to tear down a recycling center that almost fell over before the bulldozers showed up by my house, so I am guessing that maybe in 2045 these folks will get some help 🙁

But hey, we gotta build a ninja warrior complex in the Arena! Priorities people!

Education funding South Dakotans State Funding State Legislature

More evidence the SD State Legislature is out of touch with constituents

l3wis 10Comments

The sad part is that they don’t care and are on a mission from God;

  • By a 36%-58% margin, voters oppose “a school voucher program, also known as education savings accounts, where the state gives parents tax dollars that pay for their student to attend a private school or be homeschooled rather than a public school.”
  • This opposition includes parents of public school students (21% of the electorate), who oppose the proposal by a 33%-58% margin.

When I talk to parents that home school or send to private school (Chritian) they are opposed to them also. They understand that it is a CHOICE to send their kids to whatever school they want to and enjoy that freedom. They feel that public funding should only be for public schools and this is a slippery slope. I would agree. Of course the legislature claims public schools are ‘indoctrinating’ students. Which I found laughable since public school kids are not forced into Mass during the school day. Let’s talk indoctrination. This will likely pass with the 10 Commandments, and once again the SD State Legislature which is 90% right wing nutzos, didn’t listen to the voters just the Bible stuck up their arsses.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

You Missed

1st Amendment Elections SF City Council Sioux Falls Trump

UPDATE: Let Sioux Falls Vote! Sign Data Center petition!

1st Amendment Elections Marty Jackley Mike Huether Rich Merkouris SF City Council Sioux Falls Uncategorized

Trust

1st Amendment Open Government Open Meetings SF City Council Sioux Falls

I have been telling council this stuff for over a decade

1st Amendment Music

First Ave Doc, many memories