The point of the new ordinance is to help encourage mixed use housing and retail in higher density areas. Something that is long overdue.
Councilor Merkouris suggested during the item discussion that maybe there should be more requirements when it comes to the type of varied construction and units a developer builds.
Councilor Soehl protested based purely on citizens griping to him about the transition between single family and multi-family and having to be the one to make the decision.
Well after almost 8 years on the city council, Mr. Soehl has finally figured out he is part of the policy body of city government and sometimes has to make decisions that affect real people’s lives. Who knew?
His partner in crime and fellow lazy leadership companion, Alex Jensen had an even better solution, let the developers determine zoning and development.
After I stopped laughing at the initial statements, I realized as Alex continued to stammer and mumble he was dead serious. He feels the development community should just determine long term growth and housing.
Well guess what Alex, we have allowed this to happen over the past 30 years and what it has created is a cottage industry of developers building McMansions and condos (with TIF funded parking ramps attached) while ignoring our workforce and affordable housing crunch in Sioux Falls. We let the industry fart around long enough it is time we changed ordinances to encourage this kind of growth instead.
Of course, I don’t expect any major changes during the cruise control administration. They will probably just take the initial proposal, water it down and have have the Pumpkin Policy Advisor re-write it.
The developers run the city and at least two city councilors proved it in their testimonies.
ADMINISTRATION CRONIES STOPPED SHOWING UP FOR CONSENT AGENDA QUESTIONING
During the meeting last night councilor Starr asked for an item to be removed from the consent agenda. He also followed protocol and informed the department within the city the day before that he had questions about the item. No one showed up to answer the questions. So now the administration isn’t even bothering to show up to council meetings?
COUNCIL STRUGGLING WITH EMPLOYEE MANAGEMENT
During last week’s operations committee meeting the council discussed how to hire and maintain city council employees. After listening to the discussion it makes you wonder who has been managing the city council employees? Certainly not the council or leadership. My suggestion all along was to bump up the pay a little to the operations manager and make him king sh!t of the council employees. If there is any problems he can’t deal with he can bring those to the council in an executive session. I am not sure why the council likes to make things so complicated? I think they only have 5-6 full-time employees, that’s less then a food truck.
MAYOR TENHAKEN ASKING FOR REGISTRATION ‘AGAIN’ FOR STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS
Mayor Paul TenHaken will deliver the 2023 State of the City address on Monday, April 17 at the Sioux Falls Convention Center. Doors open at 7:30 a.m. that day. This year’s event will feature a special panel discussion on the Riverline District.
The event is free and open to the public. Advance registration is requested by April 7 because breakfast will be served. Please note that seating is limited, but the address will be available to view via livestream on the City of Sioux Falls’ Facebook page.
First off, you don’t need to register for a public event, this is just a way to collect data on who may be attending and secondly, who is paying for the breakfast?
Based on the comments, there is a clear reluctance from many who participated in this exercise to support a large-scale publicly funded sports venue. To be clear, I did not read all the comments and I have not seen the results of the survey that went with this, which might give a broader look at the sentiment. But each time I saw someone mention a stadium, the number of negative reactions far exceeded the number of positives.
Besides the very glaring and obvious sentiment taxpayers don’t want us to invest in a baseball stadium there are other issues that NO one wants to talk about;
• Besides infrastructure (like roads, utilities and green space) citizen taxpayers should not be involved in any type of purchase agreement with this land. We will take care of the infrastructure, let the developers take care of the investment
• Housing will be a challenge. Unless there is some long term plan to create a quiet zone in the area or remove the tracks all together, it will be a hard sell putting apartments next to the busiest train line downtown.
• Drake Springs limits permanent development. One of the main reasons a stadium or other outdoor venue is being pushed is because where the Drake Springs lie would cause water issues with any permanent structure. In other words because of the natural springs in a large part of this area, green space will be the ONLY option.
I’m not sure why the mayor is pushing this development so hard, but if I had to guess it is because some of his friends involved with this are looking to pad their pockets on the backs of taxpayers because that is how it is done in Sioux Falls. Play ball!
Patrick Lalley of Siouxfallslive.com wrote an interesting article about how the city council doesn’t have any staff advocates, I’m not sure that is the problem;
The council has some research and legislative assistance. They may need more of an ombudsperson who advocates on their behalf.
The city council has three full-time clerks, an operations manager and and legislative person, I am not sure they need more (I have even suggested they cut back to 2 clerks and an operations person).
The problem is council vice-chair Jensen and chair Soehl who were both re-elected by their peers last year to the same positions. Their main responsibility is to be the connection between the mayor’s office and the council, not only negotiating with the administration but informing the rest of the council what is in the pipeline.
In fact we still have gotten NO reason why Shana Nelson left as Audit Manager (she was appointed in a public meeting) and joined the administration as a Housing Compliance Manager (which garnered her a $7,000 raise).
Not only has council leadership failed the council when it comes to transparency but they have failed the constituents also.
I would suggest the rest of the city council hold a special election and appoint Starr as chair and Merkouris as vice-chair and get some adults in those seats.
I know, I know, a little early, but you would be surprised how much chatter has been going on already about the next mayoral race. The below predictions are PURE speculation based on convos I have had with city government nerds;
• Mike Huether, the former mayor has been actively reaching out to potential supporters and it is highly likely he will run.
• Greg Jamison, Greg currently serves in the SD legislature, but I have a fishy feeling he would love another round with Mr. Huether.
• Christine Erickson, she is coming off a very successful campaign against the stinky folks, and she has the ego to take a stab at this.
• Alex Jensen, not sure what to think of this, but his name has been floated out there by TenHaken worshippers.
• Greg Neizert, not sure if he is interested, but it seems like the most logical next political step.
• Theresa Stehly, I doubt she will run, but I can almost guarantee if she does run she will be in the runoff.
I’m sure there will be a couple of other Zombies (SNARK!) entering the race, but I have a feeling we will see a very crowded and diverse group.
It has often been confusing to me over the last couple of election cycles sitting councilors have been hosting public fundraisers for challengers to incumbent councilors. I can understand that you may not like the incumbent you serve with and you certainly have a 1st Amendment right to speak publicly about it and even donate money to their opponent. But you do have to question the integrity and ethics of these councilors who will openly HOST a fundraiser that is challenging the incumbent, and using their official titles as councilors on the media promoting the event.
The irony is the incumbent is probably one of the most qualified city councilors we have ever had, working several years in the law offices of city hall. You also have to factor in their dedication towards open government and transparency. But what makes the other councilors (and three of the Mayor’s campaign GOONS, with a sprinkling of bankers, bonders and trusters) support of this candidate puzzling to me is that the incumbent has always been in lock step with the rest of the council on most issues, especially when it comes to development and growth.
So while she may still make it into the rubber stamp club on occasion, I think her questioning of the administration and especially their confused and inept legal counsel, it disqualifies you from the club, so they need a new member; A physician that has ZERO experience when it comes to planning, litigation and long term strategic planning. A perfect fit for the rubber stampers.
You know what they say, even if you know your are wrong, never admit it, just dig in deeper. During the latest episode of Inside Town Hall in which Councilor Brekke tells us to eat more vegetables and drive electric cars, Jensen continues to push the narrative that if we just give contractors and developers even more tax breaks we will get more housing (he supports legislative proposals that would create entire neighborhood TIFs, instead of individual homeowners and a rebate of excise taxes to contractors). While at the same time promoting (low-wage) workers to live someplace else. When it comes to affordable and accessible housing, it starts at the bottom, not at the top. But not in Sioux Falls, hand all the TIFilicious goodies to the ones at the top hoping they will throw us some crumbs while spray painting the poorer neighborhoods sidewalks.
And why would we NOT think Alex’s plan wouldn’t work? He works at the number #1 bank in the Nation, and he had no problem advertising the place while appearing on a tax payer funded program. Actually surprised me because every time he sits on the dais at Carnegie he has no problem flaunting his SF City Council logo wear puffy vest we all paid for (even though I suggested they just all get magnetic badges instead). It must have been at the cleaners when he recorded this show so he had to wear his primary employer’s vest instead.
I was a little surprised that a former state legislator and current city councilor could be so confused about how the city can apply TIFs. During his interview on KELO AM (Sept 21) Jensen says the city should use TIFs for affordable and accessible housing. Imagine my surprise, especially since Jensen gleefully voted for 3 TIFs totaling $144 million that have ZERO to do with affordable housing. But what he said about what needs to change really surprised me even more. Jensen said the state has to change laws in order to do that. Huh?
While the State could certainly do that, it is not necessary. As I have proposed, with Home Rule we can make our charter stricter than State Law, we just cannot violate the law;
Application for TIF will only be accepted for projects that will eliminate blight, build density in the core, and simultaneously provide affordable and workforce housing. Home rule charter allows the city to be stricter than state law.
There are three ways we could go about this change. The easiest would be the council just proposing the change and voting on it. That would be as simple as a presentation about the change and a 1st and 2nd reading. The next easiest would be my proposal above and have the CRC put the change on the ballot and let the voters make that change. There is also a 3rd option which would be the hardest and that would be to do a petition drive to get it on the ballot.
This is why Jensen’s statement baffles me. The Council and himself already have the power to make this change, we don’t have to wait for the legislature to do something. And if he really believed that TIFs should only be applied this way why did he vote for three that have to do with parking ramps, slush funds and Korean owned egg roll factories?
Talking out of both sides of your butt must be a vampire thing.
UPDATE: Jensen also touches on this during inside Town Hall. Alex offers some strange solutions to our housing shortages;
• Encourage people to live in our neighboring small communities. So basically he is telling people to come to SE South Dakota to work in Sioux Falls, but BTW, we don’t have any room for you in our town. So once you punch out, and go home please take those wages you made in Sioux Falls and pay your taxes in Tea or Brandon or Crooks.
I have suggested for over a decade you could do a pilot program in a core neighborhood in a 4-6 block radius. The city would fix the roads, water, sewer, curb, gutter, city owned sidewalks and lighting. You then could get the residents and property owners in that sector to sign onto a group tax incentive program thru community development to fix up the properties. Depending on income levels the help could be tax rebates or NO or LOW interest loans. As we have seen, the Mayor already has the discretionary power to that.
• Senator Jack Kolbeck brought up TIFs. Either Jack is naive or he is in on the scam, but he wants to get the TIF down to 0% for developers and eliminate excise taxes for them. He then says “So they can pass the savings down to the consumer/renter.” The tired old Reaganomics argument of trickle down. If you are giving the tax cut to the developer, the developer or contractor will simply put that money in their pocket. They know with the demand of housing in Sioux Falls they have NO reason to pass ‘savings’ on down to the consumer. The tax breaks should go to the consumer once the home is purchased. Trickle down DOES NOT WORK, we have proof of this with the enormous income gap that was created by these horrible policies.
• Jack also brings up expanding the prison built homes project to Sioux Falls prison. While I am all for this program, I think the inmates should get paid better for it, I also think they should have job guarantees in the industry when they get out and work it into their probation or parole.
I’m not saying the city needs to do this all at once or even change existing ordinances, just try a pilot program based on existing zoning and laws. Shape Places already fixed a hurdle that allows residential areas like this to either fix up or expand their properties. This isn’t rocket science folks. It’s what I told a friend the other day about the issues at the Dudley House. We have this desire in local government to re-invent the wheel and make things complicated while giving them fancy names. We don’t have to do that, we can get simple straight forward ideas from other communities on what works and we don’t even need to travel or pick up a phone to do it. You can get online and see thousands of projects. It just takes time, research and google. When I used to be a full-time graphic designer a fellow designer told me his secret to being so good, ‘90% of my ideas are stolen’.
The only problem is you will have to be late for work to have that conversation with them;
Public Invited to Discuss Strategies to Expand Homeownership in Sioux Falls Councilors Alex Jensen and Christine Erickson will hear from citizens on how the city can make homeownership more accessible in Sioux Falls. Ideas gained from this outreach effort could be used for future legislative efforts intended to tackle the lack of homeownership opportunities. When: Thursday, May 20th Where: HyVee at 37th and Minnesota Time: 7:30am to 9:00amÂ
I have often noticed that if city councilors really want to hear from constituents they have these kind of meetings on a Saturday or after 5 PM. The Vice-CountCilor and Errackticson have ZERO interest in talking to constituents about these issues, that is why they are doing it on a Thursday morning when most working class stiffs are at work. Jensen even said in the meeting yesterday something like, “We would like to discuss these ideas with developers and contractors, oh, and I guess the public can come to.†You can’t make this stuff up, even if you tried.
Soehl didn’t even bother to show up tonight and got elected Chair (he was vice-chair). While Jensen hasn’t even been there a year, he got elected vice-chair, even though Brekke or Starr deserved the position. This was obviously political and partisan. Brekke and Starr tend to question the other councilors and administration and probably the reason they were not nominated. I don’t think Starr was interested but I think Brekke did want to be vice-chair. Further proof in this town and city government it is who you know, not what you know. Erickson got elected to operations committee even though she is done in about a year. Probably one of the most pathetic council chair elections I have ever seen, but certainly not shocking.
UPDATE: Supposedly Councilor Selberg should have recused himself from this vote also since the developer he is working for is considering investing in this project also. It’s hard to keep track of all the conflicts these councilors have.
Don’t get me wrong, he probably did the right thing, but he gave little explanation why he recused himself. He did site this city code;
30.017 VOTING PROCEDURE. City council members may not abstain from voting, but may absent themselves from the meeting by physically leaving the meeting at the time an item is called by the clerk. Members with a financial interest in a matter shall disclose that interest and shall absent themselves from the meeting by physically leaving the meeting while the matter is considered.
In item #48 tonight at the city council meeting there was a controversial apartment zoning, the applicants are Cresten Capital Holdings. Without mentioning specific names, individuals investors in this group gave heavily to Jenson’s council campaign. Jensen also works for a bank that could be helping to fund this project.
Two great reasons to recuse himself.
The remaining seven councilors voted to move it to 2nd reading.
My only concern is the influence Jensen may have behind the scenes with planning staff and other councilors and one of the biggest reasons I opposed him on the council because of all the conflicts of interest he has financially with the city not only because of the bank he works for but deals like this.
Like I said, he did the right thing by recusing himself, but I would sure like an explanation from a councilor who bought his seat on this council with the very money he received from the investors in this project.
What do you get when a hospital lawyer, an ad agency exec, a banker, a developer, an angel fund investor and a guy who does business out of a UPS Store PO Box join forces? One heck of a political action committee. (PAC)
We all knew that there would be more money funneled into Jensen’s campaign chest after the last finance report before the election. He received an additional $13K coming from the Buffalo PAC. Curiously he didn’t spend it all, in fact he only spent about $3K on the campaign in it’s waning days (Full report). Curiously he spent around $8,500 on legal fees ($1,000 donated). I’m assuming that was for the recount. What I find ironic is that with all the money and power swirling around the SD GOP who helped get Alex elected that not one single lawyer took him on pro-bono for the recount. Stehly’s (a Republican) attorney, the Chair of the SD Democratic Party, Randy Seiler offered his services for free to Theresa. So basically the donors to the Buffalo PAC and ultimately Jensen funneled money to a Republican Law Firm (Redstone). I know, mind boggling.
Curiously the PAC is registered to a Sioux Falls residential address, a home owned by a SF hospital attorney (not the green one) and an ad agency executive (the big one in town). Both of them also have a connection (still trying to figure out) to a Sioux Falls city director that TenHaken appointed. Strangely they were only used as conduit because none of them donated to the PAC.
So who did? Well the usual suspects, with two of them pouring thousands of dollars towards Alex through various PACs, family members and individual donations. I’m surprised they didn’t find a way to get dead relatives to give since it is against the law now to use your toddler children.
BUFFALO PAC DONORS:
Matthew Paulson – $5,000.00 (Jensen’s campaign treasurer and suspected manager)
Dana Dykhouse – $5,000.00
Crescent Venture Capital (Kevin Tupy ) – $2,000.00
Daniel Costello – $1,000.00
Yes, I know, not surprising since most of these characters already had been throwing money at Jensen’s campaign. I wonder if they knew he gave half of their donation to a law firm?
It's setting up to be another hot day in much of KELOLAND. However, we do have a better chance of scattered rain this afternoon across the east. More on the that story in moment. Highs yesterday reached the mid 90s in many areas from Aberdeen to Sioux Falls, a growing sign of the dry weather […]
