Nepotism run amuck at Sioux Falls City Hall
l3wis Besides the secretive roof repair happening at the Pavilion they are also installing new outdoor sculptures.
Besides COS Erica Beck’s son getting a job in HR straight out of college, there seems to be some other nepotism and conflicts going on. There was a rumor for awhile that the Public Works Director’s wife who owns an interior design company got the contract for the redesign on city hall recently (that is a rumor I am still looking into), but his son, who owns Urban Oasis, apparently got the contract to install the sculptures. His father makes $232K a year with the city, so it seems a bit odd that he would need even more from the taxpayers. Now they could argue that the sculptures purchase and installation was paid for by a private donation so there is NO conflict, BUT, as I argued in the past that since these sculptures are sitting on public property, they are public art, and the taxpayers will be responsible for their future maintenance, this is a public project NO matter who is paying for it because we own the property the sculptures are being placed on. There are plenty of experienced landscape contractors in Sioux Falls who could have done the job, and with more then a couple years experience. This was clearly an inside handshake deal. I wonder what the city council will do about it. My guess, like the Selberg incident, they will look the other way.
