I know, those last two made me hurl a bit in my mouth. I do know that Jeff, Pat and Greg are interested and if I had to be a dictator I would pick Barth. Hopefully the appointment process is open and we see every one interested testify at a public meeting. If that is the case, I will also apply and I encourage as many as possible community activists do so also. Even if they don’t pick you, it is a learning experience in municipal civic engagement and it may convince you to run for office someday.
Old Detroit Lewis has been down the appointment path many times. I even applied once to be appointed to the Minnehaha County Commission, and then Chair Cindy Heiberger said she was offended that I came to the public input portion of a meeting to give my resume in advance of the nomination process. Yeah, she was a real peach. She makes Councilor Erpenbach look like Mary Poppens.
Or when Dean Karsky was appointed to the City Council and when he actually ran for the seat he put on his signs ‘RE-ELECT’ Karsky. I think I asked him how can you be re-elected when you were never elected to begin with? He gave me his insurance salesman look of I either ‘I sharted or lied’. It was usually a Shlart (C).
This whole appointment process is pure hypocrisy when you consider we have to have a runoff for council races instead of a plurality.
I digress.
Recently, Councilor Dr. Cole announced she is moving for her job. Good for her, but no surprise. I warned everyone before the election that Brekke was retired and had the time to dedicate to the council position while Cole had a lot of commitments with her employer as a medical doctor and being a single mother and would not have the time to dedicate to the position. I was 100% correct. I even predicted she would not make it to the end of her term. I was 100% correct. City government is sooo predictable. Well no one listened so now here we are, we need to appoint someone to fill out Councilor Dr. Cole’s seat after she leaves town in December. The stint would be a simple 6-7 months (I know, South Park reference). Four councilors have confirmed they want to appoint someone who is not running for council in 2026 and simply want a placeholder until the next election. They also have expressed appointing a former councilor who would be willing to help out for a few months without the intention of running, which I totally support. The short list would be;
• Brekke
• Stehly
• Neitzert
Yeah, there is the vampire guy, but c’mon!?
I have suggested Brekke or Neitzert and Neitzert confirmed to me to today that he would ‘think about it’. He thought having a former councilor with no desire to run would be a good fit. Greg also had some biking initiatives he was working on when he left council that he could finish (many of the projects are already funded). But if I wanted to be a rabble rouser I would appoint Bob Kolbe. And don’t laugh, he has the experience and would run circles around the current dais.
COMPOST PILOT
I guess the City of Brookings, which oddly has a progressive community and a conservative local government has started a compost program, I have suggested to two councilors we look into this PILOT program in Sux. I guess food waste takes up 25% of the landfill and produces most of the methane gas. So it is kind of a double edged sword for us to have residents compost when we sell methane gas to POET which helps to self-fund and expand and improve the landfill. I compost as much as I can and have several bins outside. What is great is after about a year you pull from the bottom and the black fertile stuff that comes out is pure fertilizer gold.
I AM AWARE
I want to thank my diligent foot soldiers for the messages this week about a certain someone running for a certain office. I am aware and have been 🙂 all week.
NO FAUX-KING FASCISTS! – That was my favorite sign I saw at the protest today;
There was a small number of protest protesters.
When I took the photo a gentleman from the group asked if I would take them down Phillips in front of the protesters with flags. This guy was incredibly respectful and likely a veteran and he did say to me that I probably didn’t want to get into the political back and forth. I said, yeah, I had a No Kings protester ask to ride down the street with a signs, and told them no. That would send the wrong message and he was totally cool. I really appreciated that. And while there was close to 2-3K NO kings protesters or more, there was about 20 MAGA supporters.
IMAGE: Patrick Lalley
I enjoyed the peaceful interaction and commend both groups even though the SFPD and Feds tried to start a fake controversy about a stolen van with likely a joint laying on the floor into some conspiracy about Oklahoma City. What a f’kd up world we live in.
RANDOM FUNNY
As I was riding around the protest tonight a mom and her children were storming down the sidewalk in front of the wine shop just north of Minerva’s. They have this metal sandwich board sign in front of the wine shop and the boy totally smoked it. He was probably around eight? And had no mobile devices in his hand. Not only was I laughing, everyone who saw it was dying. The boy was fine and guessing by his red face, not forgetting this moment for awhile, but I have a point at his expense; They were obviously going to the protest and in a hurry, which is awesome. There were tons of families and kids and I even saw some grandparents taking a todler to the protest with her own handmade sign. A portrait of patriotism (they were likely in there 70’s or 80’s).
That is why it is so laughable and ridiculous that these supposed anti-american protesters are somehow violent?! (maybe to sandwich boards?).
No body is buying the bullshi!t. Trust me when you have 3000+ peeps on one street corner and 30 peeps from the opposition on the other street corner it sends a clear faux-king message!
It wasn’t a business decision to not allow protesters from either side to ride the Rick, it was a mortality decision, and how faux-king sad is that?! I don’t recognize this country anymore.
That’s a great question, we are still slow to have a full docket with NO ONE yet announcing for the SE District (Barranco is NOT running for a 2nd term as he is running for State Auditor instead).
AT-Large; Rich Merkouris will likely run for a 2nd term. No challengers have announced yet.
AT-Large; Cole is NOT running for a 2nd term and is actually unethically chairing a replacement candidate’s campaign, whose name we will not speak. No other challengers have announced.
Central; This is my district and I am excited to say there are a full slate of candidates;
Marshall ‘Illegally living out of district’ Selberg (Big f’ing Maybe)
Greg Jamison (Maybe)
Christine Erickson
Jamie Smith
Joe Batcheller
David Zoikaites
I think Erickson will make the runoff no matter who runs, BUT, I couldn’t tell you who will be up against her since half of the challengers could do it. Some argue it will be Erickson vs. Smith because it will be the conservative candidate vs. the progressive candidate and they will be the top two vote getters since we are a purple town, or at least 7% of us are 🙁 I’m not buying it because I think Jamison and Batcheller have Smith beat on city government knowledge and there may still be some morons out there that think MMM is still great, so yes, he has a chance of being in the runoff 🙁
Well, it only took a few days, but a local politician had to go there;
“We are finding it very hard to get people who want to put their hand in the air and serve,” TenHaken said. “Who would want to serve? Who would want to step up and lead, especially when you see things like what happened in the last 24 hours? Who would want to be bold and be a leader? And what that’s creating is a big leadership gap that we have right now.”
Participation by young folks in local politics has been bad for decades and I am not sure what the answer is. I know that trying to eliminate the city workforce of anyone over 50 in the union ranks may not be the best approach, or trying to compare the recent murder of a political activist as to why people shy away from local politics, or maybe it is because we have a closed government that can’t even be transparent about a mural!
I have ran many campaigns for council, some Repugs, some Dems, each election cycle presents new challenges as to WHO is paying attention and how to reach out to those folks. If there is one constant in political races, it is constant change and you need to adapt. I don’t think young people are as concerned about their safety as older people are at political events. I think what keeps participation low in local government is our low unemployment rate. Why do we have such a low rate? Because most people have 2-3 jobs to make ends meet, and when you are constantly working, you don’t have time for much else, and in your free time, it is highly unlikely you will be watching city council meetings or attending a protest. Because as a right to work state with little rights to organize for better wages and a terrible social safety net from the state, people are forced to work whether it is good for them or not.
Local government participation is low, that has been obvious for decades, but I’m not sure recent events sparked this disinterest, this cake has been baking for quite awhile, and Poops is one of the original chefs.
l3wis 
