1st Amendment

1st Amendment Federal Spending Sioux Falls Washington Pavilion

Fiddler on the Roof

l3wis January 20, 2026 2Comments

I figured this would eventually rear it’s head;

I guess we will have to wait and see the evidence before making any conclusions on this, BUT, as I understand it the reason ARS had to make additional repairs was because they damaged it while making the initial repairs, not sure if that is true, but I would assume this is why McGill didn’t pay them to make the repairs, because ARS was responsible. Like I said, I haven’t seen the evidence yet, but I also find it peculiar that the city is suing on behalf of a contractor? In my opinion the city (taxpayers) should get our money back from McGill for the repairs, but that should NOT go to ARS since they are partially responsible. I guess I am not buying the ‘on for seen damage’ claims for additional costs. Why? Because this roof has been a repair issue since 2015, and before that, the first year it opened people noticed water damage on the fourth floor, I saw it myself. We all knew the amount of damage, that’s why the price tag was so high.

It will be interesting what the courts decide, but we will never hear about it in the local news.

1st Amendment Denny Sanford Premier Center Employee Free Choice Act Employment Event Center Sioux Falls Uncategorized Unemployment

A ‘Dumpling’ of a Deal

l3wis January 19, 2026 2Comments

So this bank president wrote an editorial, that I won’t even link, because it read like an internal memo to the Chamber of Commerce, but he had to tell us how great it is for the state to be dumpling millions in taxdollars and rebates to the new dumpling factory being built in Sioux Falls. He also downplayed the conflicts of interest and scandals around the place because we are going to get 650 JOBS!

And that is the real reason we got this dumpling of a deal. Low wages, no corporate income taxes, TIFs, tax rebates, state backed low interest loans, direct handouts. Things couldn’t look better for the Koreans that will be making BANK from our cheap labor. There is even rumors they are going to build apartment complexes around the facility so the workers won’t have transportation costs. Kinda tells you what kind of labor demographic they are looking at (I bet they will build them a big community garden right next to the Data Center);

Ironically, looks like a line worker makes more then a teller at the bank the writer of the editorial runs;

I love it when these corporate rats climb out of their luxury suites at the Denty and decide to address the minions to tell us how good we have it.

Recently they have said that if the Federal Minimum Wage kept up with inflation, it would be at about $23 per hour in 2026. It is Not, it is about a third that.

I still think a living wage in Sioux Falls is $20 an hour if it comes with benefits and investment opportunities.

I guess low wage companies are going to come to our state whether we like it or not, but please, stop using my tax dollars to incentivize foreign investors. You clearly did NO research on Korean work ethic, but I have a feeling they will try to instill it here. Can’t wait to read those horror stories.

When fat ass bank presidents try to tell me about all the golden opportunities for the community because he gave away MY tax dollars to his rich buddies, it reminds of this story about a guy who wants an island, and he wants me to pay for it. I know. CRAZY! Besides, there is only one dumpling in this world worthy, the softball sized flour dumplings at Bohemian Cafe in Omaha (RIP). You put in a factory like that, and I will open a Kolache and Kuchen bakery next door.

1st Amendment SF City Council Sioux Falls

A Data Center in Sioux Falls is very bad for the local economy

l3wis January 19, 2026 2Comments

I am still astounded that not at least ONE journalist or news organization in Sioux Falls hasn’t done a deep dive on Data Centers. It is obvious to me, the cons outweigh the pros. Don’t believe me? Try to find a positive story about Data Centers from a legitimate news source. You can’t find them. Sure there is propaganda put out by the Data Center lobby using social media, but those are paid for stories.

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

Let’s work on Transparency, Survey Says?

l3wis January 18, 2026 3Comments

Yeah, I know, you can’t make this crap up (Item #7);

It appears the city council is hiring the same company (Polco) who did the National Community Survey to do a survey about government engagement. Council was already told what they need to work on;

For the record, this may be just a back payment for the survey and other consulting work, but that is usually paid in advance, so it appears they are doing another survey to figure out why the first survey turned out so bad. This is insanity. You need to have a public forum at the convention center and have constituents present their open government ideas to your FACE! You are so scared of the general public you have to blow $30K on another survey so you don’t have to interact with the public. Do you even have an inkling on how open government works? Apparently not.

I wonder if the comments will be deleted from this survey also?

You also ONLY have a month to put OPEN GOVERNMENT transparency on the June ballot. That would be my suggestion, let the voters decide how transparent their government needs to be by putting a package of open government ordinances on the general ballot. But that would have taken planning and having public forums on it starting this past summer. They were to busy trying to build a fence around Dudley.

Oh, and I find it funny the city is spending $500K on the Pavilion’s garage, and subsidizes the Lodge restaurant at the ice ribbon to the tune of $300K a year (also ran by the Pavilion). Did you also know the Pavilion offers NO free programming. Zilch! The art museum WAS free, but Mr. Greedy who runs the Pavilion broke that promise and started charging us. IMO, the subsidies to the Pavilion need to end since there is ZERO public benefit without purchasing a ticket. And even though it is a city owned building, upgrades and maintenance should be paid for by the Pavilion, and there should be a lease agreement.

But we need to cut other subsidies;

I would agree with the city that a review of services needed to be conducted with NGO’s receiving city funds, but why weren’t we doing this all along? Oh that’s right, because our elected leaders and city management are incompetent. I also think the city should do zero based budgeting. In other words, the city should start each department with $0 at the beginning of the budgeting process and justify their budget and expenditures. Right now, they just tack a percentage onto last year’s budget and march forward. It is lazy and it costs taxpayers probably over $100 million a year+ in unneeded expenditures and budgeting. We have a full-time finance department, they should be working on this all year long and getting rid of waste!

I agree with Mike Z, that the city council needs to do a full investigation and forensic audit of every single city department if they really want to get unnecessary spending under control.

I’m sure they’ll take another survey before making that decision though.

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

Trust

l3wis January 14, 2026 0Comments

‘firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.’

With the council suddenly decided they wanted to do something about transparency, this word popped in my head. The public no longer ‘trusts’ elected officials. Why is that? We could go into a long diatribe about how they vote, who funds their campaigns and all of their conflicts of interest and multiple ethics and open meeting violations, it is some of that, but all of that corruption occurred because of closed government, which has been intentional for almost 20 years.

The timing is ALSO suspect. Councilor Merkouris who was just appointed council chair (this is a little game they play when an incumbent is up for reelection, they appoint them as chair so it looks like they are important.) I have never understood the game, because most people watching it, know what is going on. Merkouris has had 4 years to make these changes, but has fought them all the way. Why? Because corruption cannot occur in a transparent government. Merkouris is up for reelection and has a challenger, this is why he is doing it. Let’s look at Rich’s track record. He headed up the homeless task force that barely made a dent in homelessness and has actually gotten worse. Even though they have tons of national support to help with a solution they instead blew money on marketing campaigns, unneeded ordinances and a fence.

I don’t trust him farther then I can throw him. Maybe less.

Here are Merkouris’ transparency concepts (that I suspect will get watered down and amended before the council takes final action);

Creating consistent public input opportunities across boards and committee meetings as a way to make sure expectations are clear for when folks can weigh in,
Finding ways to improve how various entities give notice when a meeting is going to happen,
Creating consistency in meeting locations,
And looking at ways to improve meeting agendas so people understand what decisions are being made when they show up.

While I have stated that I have been after the council for almost 20 years about transparency I proposed almost every single one of these proposals to Brekke and Stehly, they tried to get some stuff passed but got tons of push back, this is WHY I don’t trust Merkouris on this.

Here are my suggestions;

• Public input at ALL public meetings should be at the beginning of the meeting between the consent agenda and 1st Readings of items. It should be 5 minutes and no limit on how many people can testify.

• Post all agendas for ALL meetings on the same agenda page, and have a BIG BUTTON LINK to the agenda page at the top of the city’s home page website.

• Have ALL meetings at Carnegie, Main Conference Room of Admin or City Hall Chambers ONLY! Record ALL meetings and post on YouTube and stream in real time. Have meetings when people can attend or watch. I have said all public meetings should be after 5:30 PM Mon-Friday so people can attend. I would also do an experiment with Saturday meetings.

• This is a Mike Zitterich idea; There should be a Q & A with the council and mayor in the Carnegie overflow room on the last day of the month 30 Minutes before the regular scheduled meeting. This would be a wonderful chance for constituents to ask questions with the help of the media. It would really show you cared about transparency AND it would probably alleviate the volatile public input during the regular meeting.

• Eliminate the rule that you can’t interact or engage with the public. I think Huether* got rid of this rule. It pisses people off and irritates them that you can’t answer simple questions. Munson was famous for interacting with constituents, he kind of had a special talent for it. I find it ironic that Paul breaks this rule EVERY meeting when he cuts people off and gets into an argument with them. The next time he tries to censor me, I think I will bring up he is breaking decorum rules.

I also think the next mayor needs to hire a director level Public Information Officer who manages transparency and records for the city. I will agree with council on one thing, it is NOT their job to manage meetings, that is staff.

All of this stuff is Transparency 101, that’s why I don’t trust much will come from this, except more closed government. I want people to know I HATE PETITION DRIVES, they are messy, they can involve court cases, they are hard work, and, most of all they should be UNNECESSARY. Why? Because our Sioux Falls city council is a non-partisan representative government, that means they should vote and create policy around what the constituents want.

*MY MAN MIKE MIGHT RUN FOR SOMETHING?

So Huether is either running for Mayor, Governor or US Congress against Jackboots as an Indy. But I am also hearing he is SCARED TO DEATH of losing. That is why I am going with US Congress. It would be most beneficial to him to be in DC, and Jackboots is a flawed candidate involved in gobs of scandals;

Gear UP

EB-4

SOS state cover-up (he decided since Gant and Pitty didn’t steal money from the petty cash drawer they were innocent).

DCI Sexual Harrassment and the list goes on. (oh and he buried the investigation of Huether hitting Cameraman Bruce.)

Huether can beat Jackboots, and he doesn’t like to lose. We will see. (but I really hope he runs against Dusty, because that ass whooping will be fun to watch.)

Fiddler on the Roof

A ‘Dumpling’ of a Deal

A Data Center in Sioux Falls is very bad for the local economy

Let’s work on Transparency, Survey Says?

Trust

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Accept the Invitation

Transparency Changes with the Sioux Falls City Council

A name is important, especially in an Emergency

Jim Crow in Turner County