Affordable Housing

Looks like the City of Sioux Falls is looking at a jury trial?

City Engineers and the Mayor are being sued in an affordable housing debacle.;

Sundance believes that Mayor Paul TenHaken or one of his staffers with the City was retaliating against them for seeking to terminate the restatement agreement as it conflicted with TenHaken’s “2026 Housing Action Plan” focusing on accessible housing, a key element of his 2022 reelection campaign and one of the four areas of TenHaken’s One Sioux Falls framework, the lawsuit states.

What do we mean by “accessible housing?” #OneSiouxFalls

Posted by Paul TenHaken on Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Ogborn echoed this.

“They (the City) wanted to get back at Sundance leaving the program because the mayor had not met his goal of providing affordable housing,” he said. “Sundance pulling out of the deal was another hit to that program, and at the end of the day, the City was going to exact retribution.”

TenHaken, according to The Sundance Group’s lawsuit, allegedly directed city officials to prevent the company from selling the units to force them into default with lenders. This, allegedly, was done to allow the City to acquire the project below Sundance’s development costs, enabling the City to sell the units under its affordable housing program and meet public housing targets promised during TenHaken’s campaign.

I have been salivating about a jury trial against the city for years, it may happen. I’ve been told by sources familiar with the suit that the judge may have agreed to a jury trial a few weeks ago but awaiting confirmation of that.

If this does go to trial, I think I will attend the proceedings, it is rare when the city gets sued that it goes to a jury trial, so this will be an exciting one to watch. It also scores just how corrupt this current mayor and his minions are. The city may just pay the settlement to avoid a trial, but I would demand the trial anyway, even if you may lose. The public needs to see how this administration operates, and it would be on full display in this case. I hope this leads to other corruption and fraud suits. Corruption must be punished, severely.

Omaha seizes control of Tzadik property

Mayor and City Council? Are you watching this? This is how you help and SERVICE your constituents;

The troubled City View apartments are in receivership — and may be headed toward a sale.

According to the court documents, City View’s owner owes the bank nearly $750,000 for past due interest, taxes, and insurance. Management originally borrowed $16.5 million but owe about $18 million in total.

The bank asked a judge to step in and have a third party manage the property, which is what led to the receivership.

Court documents indicate the bank requested the receivership hoping to satablize the apartments operations. It has also started a process that could lead to the sale of the property.

This should have happened in Sioux Falls a year ago. But with our piss poor state laws on consumer protection (more like business protection) they just kind of sit on their hands. And if you are really doing something THEN TELL US!

Bank suing Tzadik

Dakotanews reported about this about a month ago;

Now, tenants of several Tzadik properties in Sioux Falls and Rapid City are facing another concern; foreclosure.

I was able to see the cover letter of the case;

Notice that the State and County are listed in title, why not the city? I think with all the code enforcement violations the city could have contributed to this suit. But also notice a certain company that has gleaned millions in tax rebates and TIFs from the taxpayers of Sioux Falls is also listed as a defendant. Yeah, would have been a bad look for the city to get involved in a case against a massive city campaign donor. Wouldn’t it?

I have told residents of TZADIK that the mayor doesn’t give two rips about your living situation, if he did, he would have came down on them hard, a long, long, long time ago. Instead he just whines and schedules another chiropractor appointment.

City of Sioux Falls Tidbits

DELBRIDGE ANIMAL COLLECTION REFERENDUM FAILS

I was told they got between 500-1000 sigs, which surprised me, because I didn’t think they would get that many. I truly believe if Sioux Falls voters were polled about keeping the collection 80%+ would say they don’t care if it gets given away. Which is unfortunate because science and art are important, not to mention we are giving away a priceless collection of mounts. But people care more about the price of eggs and who wins an Oscar then they do about history.

NOEM GETS SERIOUS ABOUT HER CREDIT CARD RECEIPTS

It seems Noem now is calling Dakota Skab ‘Fake News’;

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem‘s legal team hit a South Dakota media outlet with a cease-and-desist letter demanding that it correct and end its knowingly “false and misleading” reporting that Noem allegedly racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars on a government-issued credit card when she served as governor, Fox News Digital has learned. 

“On behalf of former South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem in her personal capacity, I write out of concern that your website continues to publish false and misleading information about my client that you have known to be false since at least July 2024,” an attorney representing Noem in her personal capacity said in a letter to the co-founders of a South Dakota outlet called The Dakota Scout. The letter was obtained by Fox News Digital on Thursday. 

“Specifically, your website repeatedly, and inaccurately, refers to all charges on credit cards used by the Office of the Governor of South Dakota as charges of my client—allowing a conclusion by multiple commenters on the site and other news outlets that my client violated the laws of South Dakota or stole taxpayer funds for her personal use,” it continued.  “We demand that The Dakota Scout immediately cease spreading these false, misleading, and inaccurate statements and take immediate and significant steps to correct past inaccuracies.

Reading a FOX news story is like reading a 7th grader’s book report, either way, when I have read all the stories about her hair and nail receipts it seemed clear to me she was spending the money on her staff. But that is NOT what is in question, the question is why were you racking up these CC bills so your staff could travel with you? The taxpayers of SD shouldn’t have to foot the bill so your Trump ass-kissing entourage can parade all over the US. I’m sure the DS will fight this, but Noem’s law firm is pretty tough at this stuff. I think it would be ironic if the suit bankrupts the fledgling paper and the county commission, city council and school district have to grovel back to the Argus to print their legals. I’m sure the Argus would be happy to oblige, but I am guessing under a whole new rate.

SIOUX FALLS CITY COUNCIL GETS ROLLED BY THE MAYOR ON DUD FENCE

At the council meeting Tuesday night I spoke during public input (2:20:00) after Jordan Deffenbaugh spoke about the lack of policy leadership and transparency of the current council (47:30). I also told the council they need their own outside counsel (law firm) to write policy and they should put a line in next year’s budget for the expenditure. I knew it was going to be 8 yes votes. First off, because the council is extremely predictable and when I texted councilors to please vote no, I got no response, so I knew how this was going down. They act like they need unity on all votes, you don’t. I told them solving the problems of the city doesn’t take unity between councilors and the mayor it is about solving problems and sometimes you have to vote NO and start over. Many constituents including myself know this was cooked up by the mayor’s office and not dropped in councilor’s laps until the Thursday before the meeting, and let’s just say they weren’t happy about it. If I was them, I would have all voted NO and told the mayor that they will come up with a better solution within 30 days. Grow a sack already council.

WHY IS A NON-PROFIT PROVIDING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT LOANS?

I received a postcard in the mail recently from Habitat for Humanity asking me to apply for this program. Someone asked me how I would have received this. I said, I worked in direct mail for 30 years and you can buy a list for anything. So I am sure they purchased a mailing list that had homeowners in a certain income bracket, and that would certainly be me, LOL. While I appreciate this program, it had me thinking, why isn’t the city mailing out postcards for their similar program thru the Feds of community development loans? The premise is the same, help with needed home repairs. There is a reason we had to but a fence around the Dud, there is NO affordable housing in Sioux Falls and the places that are affordable are falling apart.