A few weeks ago I asked the city council and mayor why CityLink doesn’t run a PSA about the city election? Or interview our City Clerk, Tom Greco for an Inside Town Hall about the election? There are many things to discuss, like time of the Election and Runoff, the Precincts, how many candidates, when you can absentee vote, etc, etc.
Funny how when we were trying to build an indoor pool there was all kinds of public meetings, yet with an election a little over a month away not a peep from CityLink.
Hey, but we have plenty of money to dress our mayor up like Elmer Fudd and drool on people at Pheasant Fest for over an hour.
UPDATE II: Bravo to Warren Phear for digging up this Argus Leader story from a year ago. Apparently they released the names of the interested parties back than.
So what really was the administration trying to keep from us? But what is even more ironic is that the AL had this information for almost a year and apparently didn’t check the archives
Asking why Huether is a closed government advocate is like asking why the sky is blue. We know the answer to the question, yet we still struggle with why it has to be that way;
Sioux Falls officials are refusing to provide the identities of developers in the running for the first phase of the rail yard redevelopment project downtown.
I’m getting to the point, that I don’t even want to talk about it anymore. It is what it is. Lies, schemes, scams, boondoggles, etc. etc.
I will bet you though that Legacy Development is on that list, and that is why Heather and the city are pulling excuses from their rear ends.
Isn’t it ironic that while Huether is setting up his ‘legacy’ he keeps promoting ‘Legacy’.
Of the six development firms who responded to the city’s request for qualifications for the rail yard redevelopment project, four are local to Sioux Falls: Lloyd Companies, Legacy Developments, Eighth and Railroad Center and Pender Cherapa. The other two submitters were Inland Development Partners of St. Louis Park, Minnesota, and Philadelphia-based development firm Smart Visions.
The funny part is that I have known for years Eighth and Railroad Center has been interested in developing this property since they border it. It’s not like Lloyd being interested in the property is some big secret either. Huether keeping the developers ‘secret’ is like saying he also knows Santa Claus isn’t real either, but isn’t going to tell anyone.
The absurd actions of Mikey the other night are great theater.
The wonderful things about moving the SIRE videos over to YouTube is our ability to catch action and text normally missed. I wasn’t able to be at the meeting but sure heard a lot about it so I went to the YouTube machine at www.siouxfall.org and pulled a transcript. Here are some morsels starting at the moment:
(1:13:01 – Scott Ehrisman) “This, I guess we’re just going to go all the way to the end – may 15th no transparency all the way to the end keep the game consistent” (1:13:02)
(Mike starts a 24 second staring contest with the audience)
(It appears Councilor Erickson tries to break the silence with a quiet) “Mr. Chair” (Mike does not acknowledge her)
(1:13:26 – Mike then continues:) “Tracy, I, ah know you’re chopping at the bit and so am I, is there anybody else in the audience who wanted to speak to this particular item before I turn it over to the council” (1:13:33)
Councilors Erickson, Stehly and Kiley speak and then this;
(1:22:59 – while Kiley is speaking) “push the whole transaction back by far and”
(Mike injects) “Council Chair, if you don’t… my apologies sir, my apologies to you sir you, Tracy if you would just repeat that one more time I, I, councilors if you would have, just beg you to listen to councilor, to Tracy, thank you is keep it simple as much as you can thank you”
(Tracy restarts his explanation…)
Notice Mike tells Tracy to take it real slow and easy on the ignorant councilors by making sure the message is in simple terms?
A couple of thoughts about this exchange:
1. Why did the mayor inject anything at all while he still held the gavel? If he is such a stickler for Robert’s Rules he should have given it up so he could speak out of term.
2. Are our councilors so dumb the mayor has to tell his Director to speak slowly and in simpler words to make it more understandable. How insulting.
3. Why did no one call a POINT OF ORDER to stop him?
My count as of today show we only have 9 more meetings with him in charge then its to let the door hit yah where the good Lord split yah.
Oh, and he wasn’t called it just once, but twice. The person also didn’t abbreviate like I did in the headline.
While it was good theatre while it lasted, I would agree it probably wasn’t good decorum from a long time public inputer. Sierra has commented several times on crime going on in town, especially sex trafficking. She has had a volatile relationship with the mayor for quite awhile.
So how did it happen.
Public input started and I went up to speak. I went to sit down, and the mayor pulls this trick where he says quickly, “Anybody else, okay.” then quickly signals to the clerk to read the alcohol permits.
David Zokaites who had a PP presentation ready went up to the podium to speak but the city clerk had already started reading. So David stood there until she finished. Sierra stands and yells, “Let him speak, public input isn’t done.” and Mike asked Jamie, the alcohol licensing agent with the city to continue. Sierra lost it, walked toward the podium and told the mayor he was a stupid son-of-a-b*tch, and as she walked for the exit she called him that again.
Then David, who was still standing there asked if he could speak, and the mayor skirting his duties as usual, asked council chair Kiley if David could speak, and Kiley said NO. David apologized for not getting up there in time.
I think the whole incident is unfortunate because they are going to use it to change public input once and for all instead of just banning the bad apple.
But I will say, while I don’t approve of Sierra calling the mayor names (though I did laugh) it really comes to his continual effort to stifle public input by cutting people off before they even have a chance to standup. He has said in the past he wants people to stand in line and ‘be ready’. Sorry, if the mayor gets to sit during the meeting, we should to until it is our turn to go up. Some people are also disabled so it takes them a little time to get up there.
The mayor played more games tonight, and he may finally win, but trust me, not without a fight.
• There is already a time limit of 5 minutes. (Minnehaha County has NO time limit on their public input and I have seen people talk for over 20 minutes, in fact the mayor himself talked for over 11 minutes one time asking for a government handout for a drainage issue on his private lake home). I would be okay with changing it to 3 minutes.
• It was suggested that maybe it should be like the SF school board where you have to sign in to talk at public input and write down your item. I don’t agree with that. Freedom of speech is exactly what it is supposed to be FREEDOM to speak about whatever.
• It is often discussed that this is an inconvenience for the council and mayor. Excuse me? If anything it is an inconvenience for the public to show up on their own time to plead their grievances, this is the only opportunity they can. The mayor and council get paid to sit up there. They chose to run for office and serve after being elected. We pay their wages, it is the citizens TIME and MONEY being expended at the meetings. There is also NOTHING in the charter that says the meetings must be limited to a certain time frame. In fact there are provisions in the charter that allow for recesses or deferring to the next day if a meeting is going to long.
• Same people different topics. Many complained on the show that it is the same people that show up. Well guess what, I try to share something different every time I speak, I am NOT redundant, unless of course it has to do with the trains I will NOT apologize for being passionate about our city government, I am very proud of the fact that I speak out against government corruption in this community. If not me, who? I also found it ironic that several veterans showed up last night asking for a land donation from the city and I overheard one of them say they were not registered to vote after refusing to sign a municipal candidates petition. So you served our country bravely as a soldier but once you got home you didn’t participate in something truly patriotic? Hmmm.
• The 1st amendment is very clear, it is a protection for all citizens to tell their government what they think of it. Sometimes it gets a little messy, oh well, you deal with it and move on. Let’s talk about who is being a snowflake. Like I said above, it is unfortunate that Sierra said what she did (in public) but I have heard much worse name calling of the mayor from prominent businessmen, politicians and current and former city council members. His attitude that the public serves him and not the other way around is complete BS, and it finally boiled to the top last night.
l3wis 
