The CRC meets on Wednesday to discuss the 1st Chapter of the Charter. Zitterich is presenting a council commission to study the size and makeup of districts, which I support. If the CRC approves this, which I think they will, it go on the ballot for the June election and voters will be asked if they support forming such a commission.
The council will also reconsider the rezone of Tre Ministries project. This of course is the project that got the city to pay for a $500K demo job (no loan was given, we paid for it out of Public Works funds) and they lied about the investors. This is a bad idea all the way the around. I told someone from that neighborhood this was about the ‘credibility’ of the developer and a rezone can be denied because of that. I told this person I heard that Tre was changing it’s name to Lyre Ministries, it has a more Old Testament feel to it 🙂
I have to admit that some people have some strange business ideas. There was a business that closed by my house about a year ago and finally someone started leasing the retail space. It is a Bong and Gardening supply store. I looked at some of the ‘gardening supplies’. Let’s just say you could grow some killer indoor hydro toms, but I have never tried to smoke tomatoes in a bong.
As you can see from the PC’s website, they are supposed to have 9 members in attendance with one of them being non-voting (chair). They haven’t had a full house for YEARS! They have been warned about it by me personally and the council. I told a councilor last week when the agenda came out to look at all the rezones, all approved by 3 votes. He must have spread the news to his fellow councilors because Curt brought it up during the council meeting. He asked how they can approve something with 3 votes? Jason, from the planning office, who will lie to no end (Don Kearney must be mentoring him) said some had to recuse themselves and it was all consent agenda. It wasn’t, and why are we having planning members with conflicts? I know this is a volunteer position, but if you can’t attend the ONE meeting a month or you have multiple conflicts, maybe you should NOT take the position or resign. I would love to sit on the Planning Commission as a regular person not a business/developer/architect insider, as it currently is. If I was the city council, I would reject ANY recommendations from the PC unless it has at least 7 votes of approval, if not, send it back to the commission the next month. Trust me, if you do this a couple of times, developers and contractors will be LIVID and my guess is attendance would improve.
UPDATE: In a weird meeting where one of the Park’s managers apparently felt they needed to apologize to a board member for using the word BIKE instead of PEDESTRIAN we got to the bottom of what happened, this same manager confessed in a sheepish voice that ‘consultants’ came up with the detours. Well, that says it all. And why does the city use so many consultants when we have so much mid-management? Either have them do their job or get rid of them and stop depending on consultants and 6-figure managers who are glorified proofreaders. Speaking of bicycle and pedestrian safety in Sioux Falls, look at all the issues that have to be fixed, it’s like we have just ignored our pedestrian walkways for 20 years!
Typical of the city, talk about an issue after the fact. During the Active Transportation meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 8:30 AM at City Hall they will be discussing ‘Parks Trail Detour’. I hope commuters that were put off by the badly planned detours show up and express their displeasure on how this was handled. So you are going to discuss it after you failed? How about an apology so we can all move on.
SIOUX FALLS CITY COUNCIL CHAIR MERKOURIS LOVES TIFS!
During the budget hearing today Merkouris decided to put in his plug for TIFs and encouraging the state legislature to make the rules more lax to implement them. Here’s an idea Rich, how about throwing $50K at a public university so their economic department can study the ROI of TIFs in Sioux Falls. I have argued for years they would never do the study because it would reveal their ruse. Here’s your chance to prove me wrong 🙂
COUNCIL CHAIR STILL DOESN’T UNDERSTAND 1ST AMENDMENT
As the mayor stepped out early tonight for his annual jumping jack instructor dinner and charity auction, council chair Merkouris stepped in and struggled with his 1st Amendment knowledge. He cut off an inputer who dared to speak on a separate item already discussed. I’ll say it for the 1000th time; The chair of the meeting cannot cut you off for mere speech and the rules of the chamber only apply to those on the dais. The next time they try to cut you off, just ignore and keep talking. The entire council and mayor really need to take a course on the 1st Amendment, because they are clueless of the laws they swore to protect.
BIG HANDOUTS AGAIN TO DEVELOPERS
The city council agreed to lease parking for $1 a year to a stinky rich developer who didn’t plan for parking. That’s his problem and he can either pay a fair market value or forget about it. Jeffry Scherschligt the developer of Cherapa one and two decided he needed the parking because he is putting in a 20,000 square foot grocer. Kind of sounds like a for-profit business. So why would we give them a non-profit rate? Also, he claims he will do upgrades to the lot in exchange for the $1 a year. Better yet, give us receipts and we will reimburse you for the work thru deferred lease payments. Why on earth would we be giving it to them for nothing? Last I checked Jeff did this to make some money, so why aren’t we charging a going rate? Or better yet, he can buy the parcel and develop however he wants to. I have a feeling Jeff is doing this so he can secure the land once he has the money (I heard he is pretty stretched thin). Kind of hard to boot off a person who already did the improvements to the property, isn’t it? I wouldn’t even be surprised if he is angling to get the property for FREE in a few years. We have given this developer millions in tax payer upgrades to the river greenway, and here he is again at the trough, and we know why . . . he has no shame and the council rewards the welfare queens.
COUNCIL REZONES PROPERTY TO LIARS
So while the city won’t tear down the remaining properties on the MX Liquor lot, for gawd knows what reason, they have no problem spending $500K to demolish property for a religious non-profit who lied thru their teeth to get the demo money, and they reward the liars more by helping to cover up the lie by approving the rezone. They looked like a bunch of fools tonight, but that seems to be the typical theatre these days.
UPDATE: I reported about this a year ago that peeps are camping in our parks, it took the geniuses at city hall a year to figure out how to stop it, but I am NOT sure I am completely on board (Item #45):
This ordinance amendment addresses dwellings in public places and areas not intended for habitation. This ordinance reflects our growing concerns around public health, safety, and the responsible use of our parks, green spaces, and other public areas.
While our trespassing laws would work in there current form, I’m not sure adding more layers to a simple law that works well is the solution. When I brought up this issue, it wasn’t so the city would make it illegal to camp, all I was asking was to enforce our current trespassing laws and interact with these individuals to give them options. How does the SFPD handle it now? They just chase them out of an area, and they are back the next day. If you are not giving these folks an option for REAL shelter, and you are NOT arresting them on trespassing charges, what are you doing with them? Just chasing them to another picnic shelter. We need to work on PERMANENT removal instead of whack-a-mole. I thought about buying Foam Mallets for the police that they can use to chase the transients from the picnic shelters. If you are NOT going to enforce the common sense laws on the books now, the police might as well look just as ridiculous as the enforcement itself.
If you look at some of the city business over the past few weeks, it is obvious a lame duck is in charge, and he has really been flailing since the real mayor of the city resigned last month and now Poops can’t use the Erica Auto Pen anymore.
MAYOR TENHAKEN TO APPOINT FORMER CITY COUNCILOR RICK KILEY TO THE CHARTER REVISION COMMISSION (Item #49)
Let’s pretend for a moment that Rick was qualified to take this position (he is not), being a former city councilor he has a conflict of interest because he was only appointed to protect the interests of the city, the mayor’s office and the city council and could care less about changes that benefit the community as a whole. He was appointed to be another sock-blocker on the CRC tamping down citizen initiatives. I would encourage the city council to vote him down, but we know it will be an 8-0 vote of his approval, so I am looking forward to his arrival on the board 🙁 You do know that the public interacts with the CRC during these meetings unlike the chicken sh!t council that is scared of their own shadows. Rick doesn’t handle public interaction well, frequently talking down constituents at the meetings, it doesn’t roll that way at the CRC. Better put on your big kid pants Rick, this isn’t another day in the park city council meeting where you hide behind made up rules. Can’t wait for him to start telling his HS science teacher stories and how it applies to city law 🙂 I wonder if he will tell the story about the student in the hallway?
TRE MINISTRIES BACKING OUT ON ORIGINAL PROPOSAL AFTER LYING TO CITY COUNCIL, Planning Commission (Item #5A)
So after they lied to the city council about investors and a developer so they could get a $500K, interest free loan (that never has to be paid back) to demolish the buildings on the existing property, including an historical building, they are having a change of plans. I hope the neighborhood shows up to bitch about this. They are basically scaling back the housing portion and are putting in an office building, like we need more office buildings in this town, right next to a bustling residential neighborhood. Tre really needs to sell the property to an apartment developer and put in housing instead of their indentured servant program they plan to run in the name JC. It often cracks me up when these supposed religious organizations lie in public meetings to get tax dollars. Maybe they need the 10 Commandments tacked up in their break room.
REZONE FOR DATA CENTER MOVING FORWARD EVEN WITH OPPOSITION FROM THE CITY OF BRANDON’S RESIDENTIAL GROWTH AREA (Item #46)
I don’t have a problem with a Data Center in the middle of a cornfield, but the problem is the City of Sioux Falls is sticking their noses in the County and specifically the City of Brandon’s residential growth map. Brandon is opposed to the rezone to allow a data center because they want the land to be developed residential as it is zoned right now. Also, the foreign owned company who owns the property has been very secretive about their plans, which should be worrisome. As for jobs? Sure, it will create hundreds of jobs for out-of-state contractors while being built, but very few once open, it’s just a gigantic building sucking electricity full of servers. The planning commission justified their zoning change because the owners will still have to go thru a permitting process. Hogwash. If you would have refused this rezone abruptly this whole process would be over and Brandon would get to keep the land for residential development. So what do we need more of in SE South Dakota? Data Centers or Housing? I think you know the answer, but does our city council? This would be a very easy NO vote, but they never make anything easy. Hopefully they can defer this until they have the full plans from the FOREIGN company proposing this.
CITY BALL FIELD TO BE NAMED AFTER FINANCIAL INSTITUTION WITH NO DOLLAR VALUE OF SPONSORSHIP (Item #44)
In one of the strangest park sponsorships I have ever seen, they are granting a 30 year naming sponsorship to a financial institution for a new ball field with NO DOLLAR AMOUNT mentioned in the sponsorship. I have never seen this before. They only reference what they will be paying for;
WHEREAS, HBA and the City agree that one of the conditions of such gift is to name the ballfield “Sammons Field at Prairie Meadows Park” for the life of the Improvements and may be referred to as the “Sammons Field” on any signage; and
While it is great they will be paying for the improvements (and why would we accept this field from Harrisburg?) there should be a yearly spending cap, so what is it? Transparency is just a turd to flush to this current administration. Don’t be fooled, the taxpayers of SF will be paying for most of the improvements, while we slap a financial institution’s name on it because they bought a couple of park benches. Even the rich and powerful now control our parks, while we have to pay to maintain them.
WHY DOES THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS NEED A MARKETING STRATEGY?
Media Planning and Buying Services and Strategic Marketing Support
First off, the city has a large media department, this can be handled internally, and secondly, the city doesn’t need a ‘Marketing Strategy’ you are a non-profit, not a for profit business. What we need is a qualified public information officer whose only job is to disseminate information to the media and public thru press releases, press conferences and city link. We give thousands to the SF Development Foundation each year to do this, that is LITERALLY their main purpose, DO YOUR JOB!
DAKOTAFREEPRESS IS BACK AT IT
This is unrelated to city bizzo, but Cory is back at it. I figured he would return, everyone needs a break. I will probably take a break after the 2026 city election.
I know, NO surprises here. So the developer spends over a year building this place while wrecking the street and when it comes time to re-surface the road, they just do the half adjacent to their building and have the other half full of potholes. When the developer bought the property from the city and presented their plans, the city should have put a condition in there that they would fix the street once the construction is finished. Developer welfare queens strike again, “Yeah, we are the brand spanking new apartment building downtown right next to the street that was hit by mortar rounds. Should be easy to find, when the front end of your car falls off, you will know you have arrived.”;
l3wis 
