Mayor Hubris

Mayor Huether’s ‘tangled web’ events center plan

According to my sources today, Mike has been holding private meetings with councilors this week about his EC plan. He has been doing it in small groups, I am assuming to trump SD open meeting laws. There is a public meeting tonight (budget working session) and as I understand it, some councilors are going to question him about the plan, and want answers before a (expected) Friday press conference on the plan. Mainly they want to know how are we gonna pay for it.

Secrecy and government don’t work together well. Spill the beans already Mike, at least to our elected officials.

Events Center plan will be dumped into our laps this week

“Yeah, because, I want to take your attention away from turds in our streets and budget cuts to essential services.” – Mayor Hubris (Republican sidenote; this is meant to be satire. Mike Huether is not a staffer of a US Senator. He did not ‘really’ say this, but it would be ‘funny’ if he did).

Huether is going to present us with another (failing) Events Center plan this week. Chalk it up;

Sioux Falls city councilors will get the specifics of Mayor Mike Huether’s plan for a new events center this week, including what it will look like, where it will go, its size and how the city will pay for it.

Speaking Saturday at his weekly listening and learning session at the Whisk & Chop Cafe, Huether called his plan “a prudent proposal that will make us proud for generations to come.”

So, in other words, you found a donor and you are going to build it downtown without raising taxes? Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!

The Gargoyle Leader’s ED board supports city dictatorship

No surprise that the ED board supports Home Rule and the dictatorship of the mayor when it comes to money transfers;

The fiscal committee plans to bring a recommendation about a proposed ordinance revision to the full council after its September meeting. We’d urge the council to exercise some restraint. It’s simply too early in Huether’s administration to determine whether there’s a legitimate concern about money transfers.

This isn’t about the relationship between Huether and the current council, this is about future mayors and councils. Did we learn anything from the Munson administration? The council should be a check against the mayor’s spending. One person shouldn’t have that kind of power.

Mayor Huether did something Munson rarely attempted. He informed the public.

Mark Cotter and Mayor Huether spreading the word (Image; KDLT)

Holy Moly! You mean when you are transparent with the public you get results and cooperation?! Who knew? Instead of trying to sweep the shit (literally) under the rug, Huether chose to inform the public and ask for their help, and in return offers city assistance to the affected. If there was one thing that stuck in my craw about Munson, he was a ‘secrets’ man. I know I rarely hand out kudos to Mayor Hubris, but this time he deserves them (KDLT);

Mayor Mike Huether is still asking residents on the west side of Sioux Falls to limit their use of water Thursday morning, however, the city averted in his words “a major crisis” Up to a million gallons of wastewater had backed up beneath the city of Sioux Falls. Eventually it would have made it’s way back into homes. However city crews were able to find the blockage. They relieved the pressure on the sanitary sewer system and began pumping the wastewater into the storm sewer system. Mayor Mike Huether says, “when this started, we had projected thousands and thousands of homes in Sioux Falls were going to have sewage back up in their basements, right now we’ve got less than 10 that have been reported.” Public Works Director, Mark Cotter says the blockage occurred in a 36-inch sewer line near the South Dakota State Penitentiary. This line serves the west side of Sioux Falls, and that’s why residents are still being urged to limit their use of water this morning. Mark Cotter public works director says- “our next steps, we are mobilizing a professional bypass company. They will physically bypass the wastewater around this segment of pipe between two manholes, once the bypass is done we’ll be able to look inside the pipe, see what’s caused this and then design the right improvements.” City officials say wastewater is going directly to the Big Sioux River, so they are warning people to stay out of the water until further notice.