Erickson’s Announcement
l3wis 
Elections
So what candidates are ‘qualified’ to be mayor?
I was pondering this today, what if I didn’t know any of the candidates running for mayor? I didn’t know them personally or even knew what they looked like and I was asked to review their professional resume (non-government experience) who would I lean towards? Well, just based on resumes it would be Joe Batcheller.
I know this sounds odd, because Joe has NOT announced yet, but it sounds like he is running, and he checks most of the boxes;
• Non-partisan moderate (not even sure if he is a Dem, Repug or Indy)
• Lead a non-profit for several years
• Worked as an urban planner (his degree)
I think the last point sealed the deal for me, because we had no mayor since Hanson that had any government experience, especially planning.
This is NOT an endorsement of a fella who hasn’t announced yet. It’s just something I thought I would look at. Joe is going to have to show some enthusiasm and some pizzazz when he is out on the trail, and I’m not sure he can pull that off, BUT on paper, he’s a winner.
We know how it rolls in SF, it comes down to looks and personality, and if you ain’t got it, you are toast.
I am encouraging citizens to actually research the professional resumes of the candidates running instead of just looking at a wink and a nod from another salesperson.
The next mayor will be handed a giant stinking turd; half the directors will be gone, the operating expenses on all the new play palaces will drain tax dollars and we will likely be in a ‘light’ recession by the end of the year, and like the last one in 2008, it will take several more years for the middle class to get caught up in Sioux Falls. I still know people who are still behind the 8-Ball from that recession.
We are going to need a leader who knows city government and how to pull it’s levers.
Erickson to run for mayor
Well, it hasn’t been a secret that Christine Erickson is running for mayor. She confirmed the news with me over a month ago but was working out logistics before announcing. We actually had a long and productive conversation. I pretty much told her it was ‘hers to lose’ unless some dark horse business person announces. I also asked her feelings about working with council and she pretty much said she will stay out of their way unless they ask for assistance from the mayor’s office. Now, granted, all mayoral candidates say that, and never deliver, because the power goes straight to their heads and it irks them that 8 part-time councilors are telling them how to run a city. They are not, they are proposing a framework you should follow. I think Christine will be more sympathetic because of her legislative and council experience. But, she knows all the tricks on how to hide things from council. I’m not sure who else will announce. Beck and Huether still seem to be hold outs, at this point, and many others have said they will likely NOT run. Former DTSF director, Joe Batcheller will also likely announce soon.
*I assisted Erickson in the past on FREE youth public transit initiative and school start date initiative.
Is Rolfing returning to council chambers next week to defend his stupid election rule?
The rumor from city hall moles is that former councilor Tex Golfing (Rex Rolfing) will be returning to Carnegie to defend his stupid runoff rule. I wonder if he will bring his T-Bone gavel and hammer the gavel puck until it flys thru the air again? What a guy. I encourage anyone testifying to change the rule back to 34% plurality to wear an outrageous, loud, large hats, Rolfing loves hats at public input!
You know where I stand, simple plurality should be enough, and 34% is fine with me. There are some other points;
• While in a general election where no candidate in a particular race gets 50+1 normally the candidate who gets the most votes in the general gets fewer votes in the runoff because the turnout is lower. So how is getting a lower percentage of votes but a higher number of votes in the general any different then getting fewer votes in the runoff but a higher percentage? It’s an exercise in insanity, and it costs us (even though I never have liked the argument of cost savings when it comes to elections, doesn’t matter).
• Councilors Spellerberg and Sigette got ZERO votes (0%) and they are sitting on the dais. Why? Because they filled out the paperwork and followed the rules and protocol. So are they unqualified since NO ONE voted for them? Not at all. They did the work, doesn’t matter how many people voted for them.
• Also, if the runoff rule applied to the presidential election, Harris and Trump would have been in a runoff (Trump got 49.8% of the popular vote). So is Trump illegitimate (sure for other reasons) but he followed the election rules and he won, and just because he didn’t get 50+1 doesn’t persuade me he didn’t win fairly.
• It also edges out the grassroots candidates because of fund raising, or as Tim Stanga said last night during public input, “It gives us well funded deer in headlight candidates.” I think I know who he was referring to, but I won’t beat that dead horse, I mean deer.
The rule has only been used once since it was implemented 8 years ago and it was in the recent election. I disagree with Jordan Deffenbaugh’s testimony that runoffs help grassroots candidates, they do NOT. As a grassroots candidate you have to hit it hard and early, that is the secret, the longer the campaign the more you will be outspent.
They need to ditch this asinine rule it get us back to sanity with our elections.
I think only 3 councilors support changing it back, but it will take 6 votes to protect it from a mayoral veto, don’t see that happening.
UPDATE ON $100 MILLION IN PROFESSIONAL CONTRACTS WITHOUT RFP’S
My city hall moles have been telling me it is much worse then just leaving out the RFPs, one of the main reasons these contractors are being picked without RFPs because over 50% of them are out of state companies that have direct competition in Sioux Falls (in other words we have the local contractors to do the work). So why is hiring a local professional contractor better then out of state? First off, if something goes haywire, easier to sue. Secondly, local contractors hire local people and that profit is recirculated in the community. In other words when your taxdollars pay for a service, that money paid to the provider gets recirculated in the town. When you use an out of state contractor, that goes straight out the door. That’s why the Denty is a money vaccum. Another reason to use non-RFP out-of-state contractors is to cover up work the city may be doing that they don’t want the constituents to know about. When you put out an RFP for a repair job, people start asking questions, you know like damaged roofs on city owned buildings. The audit committee needs to do a full audit of all out-of-state, non-RFP, professional contracts that have been granted over the past 7 years.
Mayor TenHaken has approved $100 million in professional contracts w/o an RFP (request for proposal)
So amazing when you hear a councilor spout off about something NO ONE in the public was aware of. So Curtis the Blurtist decided to go off about how the council was left out of negotiations on the ambulance service, and to be quite honest, this is a bad path, and I 100% agree with him. We need to implement a municipal ambulance service. We are already doing it (SFFD) and we are getting F’ing zero ROI of assisted calls. This isn’t rocket science. You equip all the fire stations with ambulances and EMT’s. You give them union benefits and pay, and you hire a 3rd party insurance collector for revenue. It baffles me we have a contract with a company that literally relies on taxpayer funded EMT services to assist them and we get ZERO in return. Even councilor Soehl brought up that we should explore this, because the current setup with the fire department is f’d (because they are the first responders to calls, and basically hand off the patient to a taxi service. Oh, and I have witnessed it. Rode past emergency situations and the only EMT’s on scene are SFFD. And they literally prepare the patient for transfer and the ambulance shows up, and the SFFD puts the patient in the ambulance. It is a f’ing joke.)
But back to the RFP’s. Tonight while Soehl was ranting about RFP’s and other contracts he said this;
“Mayor TenHaken has approved $100 Million in NON RFP contracts since he has been mayor.”
WOW! And you waited seven years to tell us this!!!!!!???
First, some clarity. RFP’s are proposals sent out to potential professional contractors, they submit their bids and low (but qualified) usually wins. But in a weird rule in the charter (Munson was guilty of this a lot) the mayor can override any RFP and pick the contractor of their choice. I’m ok with this rule, BUT, you must first put out a bid for qualified contractors.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about city government is NOT corrupt. But when our mayor hands out millions to his buddies without constituent knowledge, there is only one word for it; CORRUPTION! and maybe a couple more like integrity and ethics?
Poops, I have always known you were corrupt, but this puts the nail in the coffin. WOW!
And Curt, thanks for the Rex Rolfing dented siding moment. And if you knew the mayor was this corrupt, what did you do about it? Chirp. Chirp.
Also, there was a city council joint meeting with the Laughing Waters County Commission. Doesn’t matter what happened, but this hot mic from a commissioner made me laugh after the commission approved the denial and awaiting the council to do the same. Well apparently the discussion irked a county commissioner as you could here her say into a hot mic, “If the council votes against this I am going to lose it.” (or something like that, it was fuzzy, but understandable.)
And folks, these are the Clems ruling us. They make Trump look like Ghandi.
Speaking of poor folks getting screwed, my favorite Steve Earle Song (it’s my life story);