Former Mayor

We are fortunate to have good choices in the upcoming city election

These were my final words to a mayoral candidate today after we had coffee. I really believe that. While this candidate wanted me to be on their team, I told them my mind is not made up yet, and I am going to weigh all of them equally. This wasn’t an interview for the blog, we were just touching base and talking issues. Let’s just say a municipal ambulance is in our near future and Erica Beck ain’t running for mayor (she’s a bit busy running from her past command post).

They also asked me what I would like to see in my city, knowing that I was a biking advocate. I said I had to think about it;

ITS TIME SIOUX FALLS SUPPORTED AN ARTIST COOPERATIVE

There is an artist cooperative in Downtown Omaha that is really cool, and I always thought we could have one here with the help of the taxpayers. We used to have such a space at Falls Park, the Horsebarn Art Center, but the city kicked them out because they needed the barn for lawn mower storage (no f’ing lie). The reason I started thinking about this is because I have been watching our fine stewards πŸ™ on the council give away $1 a year leases for city property to for profit businesses. There is tons of space downtown the city owns that they could lease for a $1 a year. The bus barn would work perfectly (if they build a replacement). The location is awesome, plenty of parking in the back and enough space for an amphitheater, gallery space and workshops and studios. The best part is on nice days you can open the garage doors! You could also set it up as a non-profit with a partnership with the city (they would do all maintenance to the facility (externally) and cover utilities and provide a used city van for facility transport. While we are at it, put the Arts Coordinator’s office in the building. We can do good artsy things in this community without kissing the ring at the Bazillion (Wash Pav). I think the city is considering cutting their subsidy substantially which is way over due.

What Hubris! I heard that Selberg was seriously still considering a run for mayor. A word of advice, Marsh, probably need to move back to Sux from Hartford πŸ™‚ you know, that whole district thingy.

OH, and still not sure where MMM stands on the election. I guess the bride isn’t too keen on it (like the rest of the city) but peeps have been seeing him appear in public like those parasites on that new Alien TV series. I saw him on the bike trail the other day with his grandkids(?) it was quite the scene πŸ™‚

UPDATE: A sigh of relief

UPDATE: Well, I guess the cat is out of the bag, or should we say, Greg Jamison. Yesterday on the Belfrage show, they mentioned that Jamison is considering a run for Mayor. This is true. I also heard another mayoral candidate will announce either this week or next, he has already been mentioned in the past.

I was in a pretty good mood yesterday, even as I was sweating my ass off on the pedi-cab. After Erickson’s announcement last week, I was feeling a bit bummed. The run-up to this year’s mayor’s election was going to be boring as Heck, even though I do think the council races will be fun to watch. It seemed to me Erickson has it in the bag so what’s the point of even following it. I know I have held out hope of a Darkhorse candidate coming forward, I am sorry to report, there isn’t one. But there may just be a more Salted Caramel Horse candidate coming forward. I am excited to hear about these new prospects and look forward to their announcement. (no timeline has been set) Let’s just say in certain circles, we are thinking we have hope in installing a mayor who truly wants to help the people instead of the chamber. Let’s keep our fingers crossed on this one, if all else fails depend on superstition, or prayer, whichever you prefer πŸ™‚

And Woodstock says, “Aren’t they one in the same?”

So Erica Beck wants to run for mayor? LOL.

Not sure what is going on, but several months ago I was told she was running and had the endorsement of Poops. Then this Micah guy showed up and I thot the Beckster was done. Now she is resigning in June and said, “I want to hang with the grandkids.” Oldest excuse in the book. We know you are running. You have been running the city since you have been COS as one of the first thing’s Jumping Jack Flash did was give her the authority to sign mayoral documents when he is ‘absent’ and she has been running the city ever since.

What I find completely arrogant is as her tenure as our shadow mayor nothing has gotten accomplished except shipping dusty monkeys to the East Coast. So many failures under her leadership it is hard to keep track.

But this is what happens when you pull authoritarian leadership and the people (the council) tunes you out.

I have written in the past the former folks who worked with Beck at Lloyd Companies have told me the same thing, SHE IS NOT A CONSENSUS BUILDER. I have also heard from multiple current and past councilors that she is a brow beater when it comes to the mayor’s agenda proposals, and they ain’t happy about it.

The irony of all this is Erica reached out to me after she quit the city and we had coffee and a long chat (mostly her talking). She was a different person. She told me she quit the planning department after MMM forced her to write the Sanford TIF in which she said to me, “This TIF was precedent because this has never been done before for a recreational event center.” Oh, and she was completely opposed to it. She also tried to bring a casino to Sioux Falls (Flandreau Tribe) to use their revenues to pay for the event center in which they pledged $10 million a year towards the bond payments but Mike refused to meet with them because he didn’t want a ‘casino’ in town. LOL. The town is nothing but casinos, but I digress.

She had a good head on her shoulders, but after tasting the power of working for Lloyd she seems to think she has the Chutzpah to do the job. Not even F’ing close!

Besides the horrible management of the city, Beck embraces non-transparent government, which costs taxpayers $$$$. She can’t even say why she is quitting. So I guess your mayoral campaign strategy is to keep this secret as long as you can then surprise people? Weird. If you are running, you tell everyone and your sister, and you continue to let that steam out. Huether won because he was relentless and not mysterious (what a weird dude, and this is coming from a weird dude). The one thing I learned about running successful city campaigns is you come out early and you pound constituents with information about your candidacy. I guess Beck’s strategy is to keep it a secret until election day and hopefully peeps will be confused and vote for her. I can’t believe we are letting this putz run our city (into the ground).

My hope is that she will run for mayor, spend $500K and come in dead last. The chamber folks might think you are the best thing since sliced bread, but their 100 votes won’t get you past the finish line. Can’t wait for you to announce. Jim Entenman part II.

Mayoral Race shakeup?

Since we last discussed this here was the short list of potential or rumored candidates running for mayor;

Mike Huether

Curt Soehl

Rich Merkouris

Alex Jensen

David Z

Erica Beck

Christine Erickson

Marshall (Mr. Illegally living out of his district) Selberg

Well, the shakeup is interesting. I guess Beck has decided to NOT run which put Mastor Poops in a tizzy to find a NEW recruit, apparently he must make sure his horrible policy decisions continue in a good prosperity gospel candidate. He found someone, and they are a nobody, well in the public square sense. They are the president of a local company I have never heard of. Of course, I will not share his name yet, because we truly don’t know until they announce and I will do some digging to find out more about this white, christian, male in his late 40’s. Sound familiar? I hope in next year’s city election folks wake up and realize this current mayor sucks dog do do and anyone he would recruit or endorse will likely go down in flames. Maybe Beck realized this, or maybe she wants to keep her very lucrative job? (Her pay and benefits would be cut in HALF if she became mayor).

Who is running for Mayor of Sioux Falls?

The guy who runs Dakota Wuss College thinks he knows who is running for mayor. He basically lifted my predictions that I have had since this summer. You are welcome. But Pitty brings up 3 new names that made me laugh so hard I just about passed out. While we know Erickson, Beck, and Huether will probably run, Pitty says that Councilors Jensen, Merkouris and Selberg are also considering. Pitty says they will have trouble raising money, but it’s NOT money they need to worry about, it is their reputations;

β€’ While Alex was city councilor he gutted the internal audit department to one auditor that basically sends emails to an outside firm. This all came about because he couldn’t properly discipline a city council employee for poor attendance and she ran off to the finance department escaping punishment and got a raise from the mayor to boot. If this guy can’t manage ONE employee, he certainly can’t manage a city. If he announces I will probably piss my pants laughing.

β€’ Oh Marshall. This guy ILLEGALLY lived out of his district for a year (verified by one of his friends) and lied on campaign finance forms. He doesn’t belong in the Mayor’s office, he belongs in a jail cell.

β€’ Rich Merkouris has a pretty clean record, but if you dig, just a little, into his past, you will see he isn’t really respected in the clergy community because of past grifting of a church. It’s a long complicated story that happened several years ago, but the wounds are still fresh, and if you ask the right people, you will get the story.

While I think none of these people are dumb enough to run for mayor, they might. And trust me, I have years and years of proof and data on ALL of the candidates and none of it is good. I think Erickson will rise to the top quickly and will be in the runoff, but who is the darkhorse? Huether may run on the great Trump comeback. Which I find funny, he got the same number of votes in 2020 and 2016.

Greg Jamison told me this summer he would likely not run, and it’s not for the reasons you may think. Greg told me he just wants to spend more time with his family and grandkids, and who can blame him?

I told someone recently that I hope a well intentioned rich person runs for mayor with a good record of community engagement and charity and they will run away with the mayorship. Populism is where it is at these days and no one is interested in electing old (corrupt) hats.

I have a feeling our next mayor will be someone no one has heard of.