South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Employment

1st Amendment Denny Sanford Premier Center Employee Free Choice Act Employment Event Center Sioux Falls Uncategorized Unemployment

A ‘Dumpling’ of a Deal

l3wis 2Comments

So this bank president wrote an editorial, that I won’t even link, because it read like an internal memo to the Chamber of Commerce, but he had to tell us how great it is for the state to be dumpling millions in taxdollars and rebates to the new dumpling factory being built in Sioux Falls. He also downplayed the conflicts of interest and scandals around the place because we are going to get 650 JOBS!

And that is the real reason we got this dumpling of a deal. Low wages, no corporate income taxes, TIFs, tax rebates, state backed low interest loans, direct handouts. Things couldn’t look better for the Koreans that will be making BANK from our cheap labor. There is even rumors they are going to build apartment complexes around the facility so the workers won’t have transportation costs. Kinda tells you what kind of labor demographic they are looking at (I bet they will build them a big community garden right next to the Data Center);

Ironically, looks like a line worker makes more then a teller at the bank the writer of the editorial runs;

I love it when these corporate rats climb out of their luxury suites at the Denty and decide to address the minions to tell us how good we have it.

Recently they have said that if the Federal Minimum Wage kept up with inflation, it would be at about $23 per hour in 2026. It is Not, it is about a third that.

I still think a living wage in Sioux Falls is $20 an hour if it comes with benefits and investment opportunities.

I guess low wage companies are going to come to our state whether we like it or not, but please, stop using my tax dollars to incentivize foreign investors. You clearly did NO research on Korean work ethic, but I have a feeling they will try to instill it here. Can’t wait to read those horror stories.

When fat ass bank presidents try to tell me about all the golden opportunities for the community because he gave away MY tax dollars to his rich buddies, it reminds of this story about a guy who wants an island, and he wants me to pay for it. I know. CRAZY! Besides, there is only one dumpling in this world worthy, the softball sized flour dumplings at Bohemian Cafe in Omaha (RIP). You put in a factory like that, and I will open a Kolache and Kuchen bakery next door.

1st Amendment Charter Revision Commission Downtown Sioux Falls Elections Employment SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Charter Revision Commission

UPDATE: Does the City Council see a raise in their future?

l3wis 5Comments

UPDATE: I just recommend you view the meeting. It got really complicated really fast. Basically the CRC approved a ballot measure that, if passed by the voters, it would give ‘permission’ to the Council to create a committee and wage study for mayor and councilors. Hey, CRC, you know, the council can pass a resolution ANY Tuesday to approve this study, and they should, so we can put this stupid raise BS to bed. Councilor Merkouris testified that he was against this, I can’t remember all he said, but he did recognize that the perception and trust right now between the council and the public is pretty low and that the council needed to work on that before asking for a raise. Yah Think?!

I also found it ironic, once again, that the only items approved for the ballot were presented by city staff and CRC members. Why are CRC members presenting anything? That is NOT your job. These folks are obviously tone deaf, but I’m starting to think more and more they are also brain dead. You should listen to their CEO corporate argument BS, classic Rush 1997.

I hope when the video is posted the ending isn’t edited. So at the end they adjourned, and someone in the crowd wanted to say something further, and the chair told them it was already adjourned. Which, was the correct answer. But this person kept bugging folks that he wanted to speak, so the clerk, I think Denise, whispers to the chair, ‘Quick, do a voice vote, do a voice vote.’ and then the video cuts. It was funny because watching how these meetings have been run lately is like watching amateur hour.

MAYOR TENFOLD HAS AN EXIT STRATEGY

It’s just to bad it doesn’t include him moving out of the state. Probably does.

It’s a fascinating article (not really).

Poops is going to be a C-Suite CEO Leadership Mentor, says we can solve homelessness by having churches adopt transients and his greatest achievement as mayor was the leadership team he compiled. Yeah, that one made me keel over in laughter. Is this the same leadership team you pretty much fired? Or at least half of them? Do I need to provide the list? It is FREAKY long . . . he even once went to the public works garage and fired a pothole crew worker. He did something naughty, but NOT fire worthy. It really was a misunderstanding and I think an apology would have sufficed to the VIP who complained to Poops. Did you know Paul got booted out of a major fitness center before he was mayor. I asked this person why and he said Paul was doing ‘proselytizing’ workouts and taking over rooms and the establishment said, good bye.

It all makes sense NOW! This is why he likes to do jumping jacks with kids at the private Christian schools, he can only get a good workout if the good lord is watching over it. The other day I cramped up after a long bike ride, and I did quite a bit of ‘proselytizing’ 🙂

———————-

We saw the tone deafness of the city council on full display Tuesday night, but proposing a ballot question that gives themselves raises in this economy and their piss poor performance is the epitome of TONE DEAF. Hey, it may not pass the muster of the Charter Revision Commission. They have two proposals on the table;

A one time bump or course correction and changing the percentage of mayoral pay that is afforded to the city council. Currently the council gets 15% of mayor’s salary, they want to bump it to 25%. I actually think it should be 10% and we should have at least 4-5 more councilors instead of paying more for less representation, it’s idiotic. But they are so tone deaf the CRC will pass this, the Council will review the ballot question and approve it for the June election. This will fail soooooo hard it is not even funny. They already tried this 2 years ago and we voted it down. They don’t get it. Seriously!!!

1st Amendment Employment South Dakotans State Funding State Legislature

State Government is corrupt? Get out!

l3wis 1Comments

Found this post below on Reddit, NONE of it surprised me. I knew an associate who used to work for Governor Daugaard in HR and the stories they would tell me about state employees and the certain ‘clubs’ that existed in Pierre. They told the governor at one point that it was a serious problem and needed to be handled. Of course nothing happened. I think the thing that stuck with me the most, that several state reps have confirmed to me, ‘NOBODY IN STATE GOVERNMENT WORKS ON FRIDAYS. NOBODY.’;

I am posting this on my burner account to avoid being recognized, and I will not be saying which department I worked in to protect the people who actually do their jobs.

A little less than a year ago, I moved to South Dakota to take a government position. The pay was $61,000 a year, which is more than enough to live on in Pierre. During my time working for the state, I have been horrified by the level of abuse that takes place within our government.

To start, there was literally nothing for me to do. At first, I thought this was just because I was new, but after about a month I quickly realized that this is simply how it is—everyone just pretends to be busy. I maybe had eight hours of actual work to do in an entire week, and that was it. It’s a free-for-all. Nobody does anything, and everyone seems to be okay with that.

Something really needs to be done about this. We have three people doing a job that one part-time employee could handle. It is incredibly wasteful and frustrating to see people watching Netflix or doomscrolling at work instead of doing their jobs. You could cut my department’s workforce by 75% and no one would even notice a difference.

Additionally, the cliques that exist among government workers in Pierre are ridiculous. The gossip is out of control, and if you are not from here—especially if you didn’t grow up here—they will make you feel unwanted very quickly.

I strongly encourage you to reach out to your local representatives and demand action. We are quite literally burning taxpayer money while paying out ridiculous benefits to people who couldn’t care less about being public servants.

There are much better things we should be spending tax payer money on!

Employment Erica Beck Sioux Falls Unemployment

Another Symptom of Closed Government in Sioux Falls; Nepotism

l3wis 9Comments

But this isn’t your average case. I guess the son of COS, Erica Beck, our part-time mayor, has been working in HR since at least 2022-2023, and is the recruiter for the SFPD (these are the salary listings for 2023-25);

Besides being blatant nepotism and a massive conflict of interest what makes it even more troubling is that he is management in the HR department. Who is Ethan’s supervisor? Mommy dearest? And look at those raises, almost 10K each year! Must be doing a bang up job!

So let’s review;

• Knowingly hiring your son to work in management in city government: NEPOTISM

• Putting him in a supervisor role in HR to monitor the HR department: NEPOTISM

• Massive raises without a promotion or increased job duties (this is a trick to bump up pension and benefits): NEPOTISM

This is the kind of crap you see in the private sector, but NOT on the taxpayer’s dime. Apparently Poops and Beck think the City of Sioux Falls is their private corporation to run. And we used to think Councilor Erpenbach’s kids mowing the parks was a big deal.

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