Mayor Pants on Fire

Mayor justifies $25 million dollar admin building by overcharging us on water rates

Boy, the man can spin.

Recently the city re-financed the Lewis & Clark bonds with a supposed $25 million in interest savings. But how this was accomplished was under the guise we were paying higher water/sewer rates for infrastructure upgrades.

We have been told over the past 7-10 years that we had to increase these rates and turn them into their own fund (enterprise) so we could upgrade our aging water & sewer infrastructure.

Sounds reasonable . . . if the city was telling the truth.

They actually have been putting the money in a savings account, $25 million to be exact. In order to save the $25 million in interest for the L & C bonds we had to make a $25 million principal payment. That money came from the ‘savings’ account.

During the Listening and Learning session the mayor justifies the $25 million dollar admin building because we saved $25 million on the L & C bonds. What a stretch.

Okay, let’s break down his illogical argument;

• We never needed the $80 million dollar hookup to L & C. In fact we only get about 10% of our water from the pipe (contract requirement) while we continue to buy land for more wells. I believe all along that we bailed out L & C and if they would not have gotten the $80 million from us they would have struggled to stay afloat. How was that the responsibility of Sioux Falls taxpayers? Our genius DC reps should have stepped up, I guess they were busy trying to get $27 million for Warren Buffet.

• We were lied to about increasing water rates. We were told this was for fixing infrastructure. It was never mentioned to us at ANY TIME over past 7 years that this money was going into a savings account, let alone a savings account to pay for an administration building.

• We didn’t need an administration building. In fact it would be more fiscally responsible to continue to lease property instead of adding more capital that we have to pay off and maintain. We essentially traded a $100K a year lease payment for $1 million dollar a year mortgage payment. There is nothing in the charter that says the city needs to own it’s own office space for employees. Even our finance director said over 2 years ago it made more sense to lease. The city should also concentrate on using more technology to reduce the number of city employees. They should also work on home work spaces.

Like paying for the indoor pool with a Federal levee bond repayment the mayor has justified an unneeded city building by overcharging us on water rates.

Always on the spin cycle.

 

What’s going on with the Siding Inspection RFP?

Well that’s the Million dollar question isn’t it? Or is $444K, I get confused.

As I predicted, the only reason MMM rolled over like an old dog on agreeing to this inspection was if HE could control it. My Man Mikromanager wouldn’t have it any other way.

So has the RFP committee even been chosen yet? Who is on it if it has? If they have met already, what is the criteria of the inspection?

One councilor has asked these questions several times from leadership and the public works office. They have received NO answers.

So the public and the city council has asked for this inspection and the mayor agreed to it, so why isn’t the council being let in on the process?

As I said, if the mayor or anyone in his administration gets to see this report first, it negates the reason for the report to begin with. WE DON’T TRUST THE MAYOR WHEN IT COMES TO THE SIDING ON THE EVENTS CENTER. HE IS A LIAR.

The council must have have first dibs on this report and be the contact for the contractor. The mayor and his administration shouldn’t be able to see it until the council has fully reviewed the report, otherwise this process isn’t worth the toilet paper MMM wipes his butt with in his private morning parks bathroom.

Is it time for Mayor Huether to suffer the consequences of his lies?

Mark Twain once famously said, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” Mayor Huether must have one heckuva a memory.

Recently at an October city council informational meeting, Sioux Falls City Councilor Rex Rolfing asked why some people on the council mistrust the administration. Was this a trick question or one of his bad jokes?

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know mayor Huether lied to us about the siding settlement. Not only about the actual settlement amount, but many details of what the settlement was really about (a roof, not siding).

Transparency in government has become a hot topic in municipal government with a pending Spring election. The candidates are plastering their Facebook pages with catchy quotes and memes. But this shouldn’t be a fleeting affair.

The mayor and his directors claim that secrecy saves taxpayers money. Oh, really? In 2012 the New York Times reported that Federal Government secrecy costs national taxpayers $13 billion a year. I’m guessing with Trump in charge that has probably doubled.

Locally, we have no idea what it has been costing us, because they have been keeping that secret also. The city’s insurance provider, The South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance (funded by taxpayers across the state) paid the legal counsel defending the secret settlement in court. The amount they spent on that? Like I said, sorry, that’s a secret.

Recently the city used another secret RFP (Request for Proposal) Committee to pick the new golf management contract. The administration has argued if the process would have been opened to the public nothing would have gotten accomplished. We will never know, because the process was secret.

Are you detecting a trend here?

Many of us in the community have been speaking out against closed government and head way has been slow going. I have argued it is because elected officials who used secrecy and lies against us are rarely or ever punished. EB-5 & Gear Up are great examples of this. In fact one of the main players in the EB-5 scandal was rewarded with a US Senate seat.

So what about our Mayor lying to us? Should there be repercussions? Definitely. I have suggested to several councilors that he should be AT least censured by them. I could care less if he has 7 months, 7 days or 7 hours left in his term. He lied to the public, it cost us money, and he should expect the consequences. Why is this such a difficult hurdle to jump over?

Many have defended the mayor and his lies because he ‘got things done’. Yes, by lying to us, using secret negotiations and incurring enormous debt while raising fees at a record rate. Even Larry the Cable Guy would say this ain’t right.

I call this the ‘Janklow Mentality’ someone Huether has compared himself to. The ‘Janklow Mentality’ is it’s okay to do bad things to some of the people, some of the time, as long as you do good things for most of the people, most of the time. Did I mention I really don’t miss Bill’s leadership(?). Elected officials should always try doing what’s best for 100% the people 100% of the time. Citizens are not winners and losers in some kind of perverted game cooked up in Pierre or at Sioux Falls city hall. We fund this government, we own it, it’s ours and we demand you hand the keys to the castle over and all of it’s secrets.

The worst part about this is that the mayor has never apologized for his lies, in fact he denies he even lied, on a multitude of policy decisions. I will refrain giving my analysis of that, this rant is getting long enough.

So will the secrecy ever end in city government? Only if the public and the mayor’s elected peers are willing to make him pay for his misdeeds. I fear we lack the courage to do that though.

UPDATE: Property values affected by new Aquatic Center?

UPDATE: I spoke with a local realtor in SF who specializes in home sales. They told me that overall average in home values in Sioux Falls has risen 7-10% over the past year, but neighborhoods in individual homes obviously vary. I asked specifically about Spellerberg Park area, and they said that the mayor would have had to really dig into stats to back up that claim and that would have taken a realtor with that kind of expertise. In other words, once again, he was blowing smoke.

During the press conference for the 1st Anniversary of the Aquatic Center, mayor Huether claims this (FF: 2:20);

‘Property values around this aquatic center have gone up.’

He of course doesn’t reference any real estate study or statistics, he just lets the BS spew standing at the microphone. While, you could argue he is correct, because property values ACROSS the city have gone up over the past year, I find it hard to be able to measure property value increasing dramatically since the pool was built only a year ago.

Any realtors want to challenge me or the mayor on this? Can anyone show me that property values have increased MORE around Spellerberg Park than the normal rate across the city or a comparable central/proper neighborhood.

Would love to see the actual numbers since Mike couldn’t produce his sources.

Just imagine, it was only a year ago when the mayor filled the pool with his tears.

The City of Sioux Falls Million Dollar Crack Legal team can’t figure out how to make a phone call

How much does the city spend on stupid stuff? The world may never know.

This is the kind of government waste that goes on behind the scenes of the Huether administration;

Meanwhile, offline, City Hall hired an attorney for work related to the Twitter account at a cost of $483.58 to taxpayers, according to an invoice obtained by Argus Leader Media in an open records request for attorney billings after the event center settlement.

An invoice from Woods, Fuller, Shultz & Smith, P.C. shows the city was billed for 3.1 hours of work related to the Twitter prank at $150 an hour.

It looks like to me the only thing outside counsel did was research Westlaw and put in a phone call to Twitter. Nobody on the city’s legal team could figure this out? It reminds me of when the mayor gifted the council each a copy of his favorite book then billed the city for it. The mayor cries about prudence when it comes to homeless shelters, prisoner rehab centers, and free bus rides for youth than blows money on something his internal team could have handled.

I wonder how much money the city has spent on researching DaCola?

BTW, I have never figured out who the fake mayor was, but he/she certainly didn’t harm the mayor’s reputation. Mike takes care of that all on his own.