Sioux Falls Slumlords; The Tale of Two Cities

by

I have been aware of this situation for awhile from seeing it on FB, but never realized just how bad it was;

Roach infestations, mold and broken security doors, leading to homeless encampments. Those are just a few of the issues that low-income tenants are facing living in various properties in Sioux Falls owned by Tzadik Management.



Part of the issue is that code enforcement and the health department really doesn’t enforce much of anything unless you are a lowly homeowner;



“We have a pretty good rapport with the regional managers from Tzadik and the property maintenance staff from the city and they seem to address it pretty quickly,” Tobias said.



Yeah, I bet you have a pretty good rapport, which means turn the other cheek. I heard during the pandemic when most city employees were hiding in their basements, few inspections were happening. I have been complaining about the complex/lot at 15th and Cliff for years which consists of several empty buildings with roofs falling in, and two abandoned houses all owned by the same person and the city has done little to nothing. But they did show up in my neighborhood to spray my sidewalk in front of my house for a ¼ inch crack. Git R’ Done!

This is a prime example of the tale of two cities. While we have tax payer incentivized condos and parking ramps going up downtown, we have a crumbling housing system in our core that has been going on since I moved here in 1991. The city leaders and staff just turn the other way. There has also been a rumor circulating that affordable housing in our core is being hoarded and not being rented out or sold for rehabilitation.

When I hear our current elected officials talk about the housing crisis in Sioux Falls and all the fabulous things that are going to do, I know better. I am pretty sure if they can’t figure out a minor roach infestation, they are going to really struggle rebuilding the core.

I encourage people to vote for Brekke, Reistroffer, Ingle and Pam Cole in the upcoming election if they want to see a council that will work on these issues.

Are people skirting building permits in Sioux Falls?

by

I found out today many people across the city are doing ‘projects’ on their homes without permits. Some of these properties have been reported to the city. Most of the projects are new roofs, but there have been reports of window replacements and even an entire house being gutted.

I guess one of the reasons this is going on is because the city has limited their building inspections. Not sure if that is true, but if it is, it seems odd. Building inspectors have less interaction with the public than police or fire does. If they are sitting on their butts at home, time to get back to work!

If our governor and mayor tell us we all need to go to work each day because hot dog makers, credit card hucksters and personal trainers are ‘essential’, it’s time they put their money where their mouth is and order all city and state workers to either be working full-time from home and if they cannot, report for duty. If anyone one is essential right now, it is people drawing a salary from taxpayers. If the rest of us can endure being exposed to Covid, the government workers should be able to also.

Maybe the Mayor needs to test his SOAR program out first on city employees?

The hypocrisy is unprecedented – and all reported from Noem’s $130K FOX News studio in the basement of the governor’s mansion.

When she was running for governor, my mother coined her as ‘Donita Trump’. How true it is. How true it is!

Maybe she should resign and hand the reigns over to Rep. Mike Saba, the only elected official in state government who is trying to fight through this crisis with calculated and studied approaches.

Count Jensen violating campaign signage rules

by

I don’t get too upset about this, because almost every city election cycle this happens. You are not supposed to place signs in the boulevard (parking strip) because it is city owned property. My argument is that anything the city owns, I own, but rules are rules.

While some would argue that if a candidate hands out signs to supporters, they really can’t control where the supporter puts the sign. Which is true. But you can tell the supporter to not post in the boulevard.

But what makes this case interesting is that the yard these signs are in, are a supposedly a close family member of Jensen. Rules be damned for the Chosen One!

Probably stuck there in the middle of the night.

City of Sioux Falls should be able to force Eastern-Ellis RR to cleanup tracks

by

For several years the Pettigrew Heights and All Saints Neighborhoods have been volunteering their time to clean up the tracks owned by Eastern-Ellis RR that run directly through their neighborhoods. While the RR does provide a dump car and some employees, volunteers do most of the work. They walk through very tall grass that they won’t mow to pick up all kinds of junk including hazardous materials and needles.

This is something neighborhood associations should NOT have to be responsible for. Having BBQs, community gardens, neighborhood watch meetings, tree planting events, etc. are great examples of the associations getting together to better their neighborhoods. Cleaning up hazardous waste for an inept RR company SHOULD NOT be their job.

I have heard for several years that the city has been unsuccessful in getting them to clean up their property.

They claim it is a Federal issue because the RR’s are regulated by the Feds and are on Federal easement land. I have often felt this was a line of bull and a city should have local control over code enforcement issues, especially when it comes to cleaning up property and mowing.

I checked with Dusty Johnson to see ‘who’ is responsible for enforcement. His staff quickly researched the issue within a week and had this response;

I had Andrew Rasmussen dig into this a little bit and here’s what he found out:

• In conversations with both the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the SD Department of Transportation (SDDOT), it was made clear the jurisdiction lies with the City of Sioux Falls.

• Both the FRA and SDDOT explained they are unable to enforce a local code or ordinance, particularly when it involves a private company.

In other words, the City’s Code Enforcement office ‘CAN’ enforce that Eastern Ellis cleanup their own mess.

I would like to thank Dusty and his staff for the quick response. 

Code Enforcement Hearing (Dec 14, 2018)

by

Those crazy kids in Sioux Falls code enforcement are up to their old games again. This December 14th, 2018 pretend hearing has real consequences. A family reports vandalism at their property, tries to get police to investigate and a vengeful code enforcement department decides to punish them for having been vandalized. It gets worse. The town’s ticketing agents decide the family should be punished for not accepting their unknown punishments. What?

How does this even make sense? It doesn’t if you actually believe in a truly open and constitutional system. Our code enforcement system sees these crimes and punishments as just their average day’s work.

The kangaroo court system of enforcing property and health codes in Sioux Falls was declared unconstitutional after a previous city attorney with the assistance of the ticketing agent / enforcer were caught making up evidence, reports and transcripts just to win in their special court.

This questionably legal process has been operated for a long time.

In this example of the kangaroo court. watch the video for the snide reactions of the ticket agent. He shows his contempt toward the couple who are only trying to protect their civil rights. It also does if you understand the kangaroo court system was ruled unconstitutional by the South Dakota Supreme Court.

Even though the ticket agent for this trip to the kangaroo court knew the couple’s correct address, he still sent the notice to a totally different address and declared the ticket / citation still valid. Reminds us of the complaints leveled against the ticket agents when the fines were dropped in blue bags and left in water puddles to be found later when property owners were doing yard work.

There is something very wrong about the way our town’s code enforcers seem to think our rights are just suggestions and they are the only ones who matter. The ticket agents seem to think they have a right to climb over fences, climb up ladders to look into private property, assist in vandalism and other known crimes is all in a day’s work.

When is our town’s administration going to fire and prosecute these true lawbreakers? When are we going to quit seeing these kangaroo courts? Does our police department work in concert with this questionably legal process? We don’t know for sure but it does make us wonder.