Neitzert’s political heros? TenHaken and Noem. Hilarious. He also said that he looked up to Paul’s leadership because he has the ability to admit when he is wrong. Gee, Greg, when are you going to apologize for your votes on the auditor, the admin building and bunker ramp? Oh, that’s right, you are a hypocrite. Nevermind.
Obviously the virus and info about it is the big story.
Like after 9/11, we are entering a new normal.
As you know I’m a local government guy. That’s where the rest of this post is going.
City Council Election Day is April 14th. No provision in State Law to postpone it.
Local government has a profound impact on the quality of your life.
Streets, the quality and quantity of your drinking water, police, fire, public health(including the Covid 19 virus) are responsibilities of local government.
The people elected to the City Council need to be visionary, intelligent, articulate, independent thinkers, and when needed leaders, which may mean disagreeing with the “pack. “
I know the two incumbents and one of the challengers.
Since we are entering a new normal I want the voice of Julian Beaudion to be on the City Council. The qualities and resume of Julian Beaudion impress me. He’s in the trenches being a state law enforcement officer and also with his family running an Independent restaurant in downtown Sioux Falls. His campaign is about diversity and inclusion. We need that on the Council. He has my vote and yes, I gave him a modest donation. The incumbent is a decent man. He has a loving family. I like him. However voting isn’t about liking someone.
It’s about putting people in a responsible position who can represent ALL of us and has the ability to deal with the complex issues facing us. To me that’s Julian Beaudion.
The At Large seat has the outspoken incumbent, Theresa Stehly being challenged by an unknown challenger. I haven’t met him. His donors have given BIG money, including $10,000 from our former Governor. The list includes the moneyed folks in town.
None of that is evil, but to me it is a sign. The power people usually don’t like outspoken people. They want somebody they can manage/handle/ control.
The incumbent, Theresa Stehly, is not automatically against the moneyed people, but she is not afraid to disagree when she thinks they are wrong.
I like that quality in an elected official.
I want, and the City Council needs, alternative ideas. Ideas and suggestions different from the administration and moneyed folks.
The challenger to Theresa Stehly has chosen to go negative in his first two presentations. First, a public challenge to Stehly’s privately funded Stehly Report, and second, a negative postcard.
I want people in office with ideas to make Sioux Falls better. So far, the challenger, and his handlers, have gone negative. Not a good sign.
He might be a nice fellow. But so far his actions are those of a negative thinker. We don’t need that.
Finally, Theresa Stehly has been right on the big issues. She has fought for, and won, more transparency from the city administration.
She was right about concerns over the now defunct hotel and parking ramp project, now in litigation.
She was right in her attempt to collect law enforcement and other expenses, from the PRIVATE fundraiser held by then governor candidate Kristi Noem, which featured President Trump.
I know she has been an irritant to some. But, I think we need people to challenge our thinking and our habits.
Theresa Stehly has my vote and will get a modest check to support her campaign.
That’s it from me.
Early voting starts March 30th.
This isn’t an endorsement of his opponent Julian Beaudion (though it kind of is). While I don’t know much about Julian, I do know one thing, as a SD Highway Patrol officer, he must conduct himself with the highest degree of integrity, especially while serving the public, it is essential in performing his job. While Julian has no governing experience, he certainly has public service experience and I think he would make a great asset to the city council.
This is more about the complete failure of Councilor Greg Neitzert. I won’t lie to you, I helped Greg run for office 4 years ago, I helped him with a strategy, I helped write a lot of his campaign materials and did most of his graphic design. He was a good student who listened and did what was asked of him, and he won. In less than a year into his term I noticed that he was more interested in rubbing elbows with the mucky mucks of Sioux Falls than getting in the ditches with the common folks. He started to hint to me that many of the things I believed about city government were really not true and it was just a bunch of conspiracy theories. Yeah, because you know, I was wrong about the EC siding and bunker ramp. I knew where this was headed. Soon after, Greg and I stopped communicating all together. He sold his soul to the special interests of Sioux Falls, and as someone commented the other day, “Greg first finds out from his masters how he should vote, than researches how he can best sell that vote to the public.†Bingo! But the citizens are not buying it. Greg has become a complete sellout rubber stamping puppet tool who will kiss the ring of anyone who wants a favor. He has lied during meetings, lied to constituents and stabbed many of his colleagues and the people who helped him get elected in the back – numerous times. There are many other things Greg has done behind the scenes that I can’t even mention here. He certainly doesn’t deserve 4 more years, but it seems as the incumbent in a small district, he will probably be re-elected. If that happens, and fellow incumbent Stehly gets re-elected also, it is going to be a rough ride for him.
So now that the ethics debacle has taken place, will this now give Paul and Christine the green light to publicly endorse (not just give money) Neitzert and Jensen, essentially saying that Julian and Stehly are not fit for office? And if so will Brekke and Starr follow suit and publicly endorse Stehly?
Neitzert said this on FB about the decision;
Yesterday the board of ethics ruled it was not only legal but ethical for Councilors to donate, endorse, and host fundraisers for other Council candidates. Same goes for the Mayor. And thus common sense and free speech won. And those using the board of ethics as a weapon during the campaign season to try to malign good people and attack their political opponents failed miserably.
I know, it reads like a line from a Shakespearean tragedy.
The issue with this kind of endorsement is the reason Brekke asked the question. Why? They are not really endorsing anyone, they are just saying that Theresa and Julian are not fit for office, so she needs to be replaced and Julian shouldn’t be able to serve.
It’s a different situation with Julian because he isn’t the incumbent, but with Stehly, she has a record. All we have from Jensen is a short rubberstamp legislative career chocked full of discrimination and higher tax votes. They are certainly not going to endorse Jensen based on his record, all they are saying is we need a rubber stamping seat warmer to replace Stehly.
This has been my biggest frustration with the race so far. We know Stehly and Neitzert’s record, we also know that Julian has had several public events saying what he stands for, he even helped with Jolene’s campaign. But with Jensen we have heard virtually nothing. NOTHING.
How can you say he would be better than Stehly when we don’t even know what that ‘better’ means? It is pretty clear to me that an endorsement of Jensen isn’t an endorsement at all, it’s just a dig on Stehly, and it’s extremely unethical, and any logical adult can see right thru the charade.
Here is what we know as of 5 PM.
• Cynthia Mickelson seems to have a challenger, Sarah Stokke is a nursing instructor at the University of South Dakota. I am not familiar with Sarah, but I have heard her name before in certain circles. This will make two races for the citywide ballot, but the interesting twist is that NOT everyone voting for this race can vote in the city election because the boundaries are different. In other words there will be people who can ONLY vote for school board or ONLY vote for At-Large council. I know, complicated.
• Marshall Selberg (SW District) and Pat Starr (NE District) do not have challengers, so they will get 4 more years.
• Greg Neitzert has a challenger, Julian Beaudion (NW District). This is a district seat only and not city wide.
• Theresa Stehly and Alex Jensen will challenge each other for the At-Large position. Since there are only two, their will be no run-off election (The ‘Stehly Rule’ won’t be used again). This will be the ONLY city-wide position on the ballot besides the Charter Amendments (and those living in the SFSD who can vote for school board).
I suspect a very low voter turnout of about 5%. The interesting part is this will be one of the most expensive elections in city history for only having two horse race. All precincts will be used, and the money Jensen plans on spending will probably be a record for a council race (the rumors going around are $200-250K). I’m not even sure how you can spend all that?
But this will be fun to watch, because all the attention will be on the At-Large race. This will give Stehly the advantage, besides her incumbency.
Let the Games Begin!