After Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken chides media about coverage on Zoo Mounts, silence

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Maybe if the zoo mounts were part of a food truck they would continue to cover it?

After this last week’s presser on the zoo mounts in which Paul chided the media about all the coverage, the media has been strangely quiet since.

I know, I know, there wasn’t a donation from Sanford or rejected mural designs this week, so it has been slow, but why not some followup stories;

• Speak with National and International Natural History Experts

• Talk with legislators about changing state law

• Interview ALL city councilors about their feelings on it

• When is it appropriate to have Executive Sessions? And what can be discussed?

• Elected leaders control of the media (this would be the best story).

• If not being disposed of in the landfill, where? (I think they will be cremated, which is really no different then throwing them in the dump).

It amazes me, that ONE elected official (out of 9) can just smack the media around for a couple of seconds at a press conference and the story runs cold. You could do HUNDREDS of stories about taxidermy, natural history, city history, open government, and the list goes on.

CITY OF SIOUX FALLS & DOWNTOWN SIOUX FALLS MISSED AN OPPORTUNITY WITH BUNKER RAMP MURAL

Every time I hear anything about the Bunker Ramp and Mural, I just shake my head because of a missed opportunity. I have been stating for a couple of years that you could put a BUILDING WRAP on the ramp that would advertise all the DTSF businesses. The best part is you could pay for the wrap with ad revenue and when the building is leased or sold, you simply roll it up and dispose of it.

NO RUINED ART! NO DRAMA!

While I haven’t priced one of these in a long time, my guess is it would be cheaper then the $30K it is taking to put up a mural (original art that will be destroyed). You could also incorporate images of DTSF intertwined into the piece.

With all the people working at city hall from media and marketing you would think at least one of them would have raised their hands and said, “Why not a building wrap?”

Oh that’s right, the ONE in ONE Sioux Falls stands for the only person making decisions in this city. No wonder he is stressed!

UPDATE: Forget about the dead animals, Mayor TenHaken threw open government in the dump years ago

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UPDATE: Paul is trying to make up for lost time in this interview with Belfrage. Sorry, too little, too late.

During the presser yesterday, PTH brought up he didn’t want to tell the council in executive session about this because information from those sessions tends to get leaked out. Anything within the laws governing executive sessions cannot be discussed. But any hypothetical legal discussions or policy discussions need to be in the public. Councilors CAN talk about policy and hypotheticals with the public, and he seems to be confused about what an executive session is for.

I also have heard several Sioux Falls area legislators reached out to the City Hall saying they would assist in changing the state law, they are awaiting a response.

In defense of PTH, maybe he is correct, maybe the only option we have TODAY is to dispose of the animals . . .

But, state law and city ordinances COULD be changed that could possibly save them.

That is what ‘leaders’ do. They work with the public and the stakeholders to come up with a compromise that everyone can be comfortable with instead of a poutfest presser after 11 days of dead silence.

*Note to MisTaken’s communications staff; milk, cookies and a brief nap before the next presser will work wonders, and remember to wipe those eye boogers away before the cameras are rolling!

It starts with bringing the public along in these discussions. When you look at the poison report (the only document they provide with NO recommendation) it was presented on July 21 and official on August 1. The city did not make an announcement for another 18 days. Wouldn’t the smart thing to do is hold a press conference about what options the city may have before we throw it in the council’s lap?

I would also agree with PTH that is is his responsibility to work thru the minutiae of this deal with the Zoo, but he should bring the city’s policy body along in the process instead of hurling spitballs at them at a press conference.

I could rant for days about all the crap said at this presser today (like when he kicked someone from the public out of the presser and said it was only open to the media) but at the end of the day, you can’t get all poopy pants about your laxity, have the CEO of the Zoo in almost tears, and claim others are spreading misinformation.

When you keep the public and the council in the dark, that is when rumors and speculation begin to grow, and PTH gave them 432 hours to grow that mushroom, so don’t be surprised the public is trippin’ ba!!s over this.

I don’t give two rips about who the mayor ‘thinks’ is causing issues for him, if he wants to find the real culprit, he can just look in the mirror.

Mayor TenHaken to hold presser about Zoo Bunker Mounts

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The media was informed today that the administration will be holding a presser Tuesday morning at 9:30 AM to put a hold on the timeline for the Delbridge Museum Mounts disposal.

It seems somebody has been listening. Councilor Neitzert did an interview on Belfrage this morning, and it was NOT a glowing review of city hall.

They CAN be saved, but where will the money come from?

I think we should do something like this to make them more interesting 🙂

Maybe instead of a mural on the Bunker Ramp, they could project a giant fireplace on it at night with all the mounts reduced to just head mounts surrounding it. We need to get creative, but don’t ask any experts outside of Sioux Falls, because they make us look like a bunch of rubes, oh that’s right, because we are.

I’ve been telling people recently if there was something I could change about the demographics in this community it would be making people more culturally aware. I can almost guarantee most people don’t know or don’t care about those mounts, which is unfortunate.

Trying to come up with a reasonable solution to this problem will be difficult enough, but when you are dealing with people who don’t want to have a cultural understanding of the significance of these mounts, it makes the lift even harder.

*Rumor was the mayor tried to get the Parks Board to have a special September meeting this week (they only meet once a month) to approve the destruction and disposal of the mounts. Oh the irony, we have an E2 ordinance on the books for 5 years that isn’t enforced and when faced with making a decision they plead ignorance, but somehow they have the expertise to approve disposing of invaluable mounts when the mayor snaps his fingers.

Place hand on face, shake head from left to right.

Mayor MisTaken, How we serve

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Besides my gut hurting for the last 48 hours from laughing at this anticipated video, I got a double hernia from all the claims made;

• Expansion of the bike trail and skate park. The expansion of the bike trail has been in long term plans years before Poops rolled in, and Councilor Neitzert is actually the one who pushed for more expansion. The Skate Park Association has been beating the pavement for almost 7 years, I’m not sure how your 2 second signature on a city expenditure line qualifies you as a contributor?

• Increase Affordable Housing and Workforce Development. Both have suffered during his administration, with NO long term solutions being offered.

• Sioux 52. While PTH did implement this program, he quickly handed it off to the Help Line Center with a taxpayer line item.

• Mayor’s Youth Council. While it WAS the first one that the mayor’s office sponsored, his opponent in the last mayoral race actually implemented one of the first community youth councils years ago.

• Report to work stations are precincts. He continues to play this word game, and everytime he does I roll over laughing.

• 100 Day Challenge! I will give him two thumbs up for this. I rocked it this year and it was fun reading other fat butts like myself getting out and busting it.

What really is a Special Interest?

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Recently I mentioned what the business elite call pro-democracy, politically involved, regular middle class folks; special interests. It was startling because the mayor recently used the term to describe certain folks who were promoting the original sustainability program. There have been other regular folks who have individually advocated for changes to 14th street, public art, and even riding E2s on the bike trail. While I have no problem with being called a special interest (I have always thought I was special 🙂 I am only an individual looking out for my personal interest, so am I really a special interest?;

What are considered special interest groups?

A special interest group (SIG) is a community within a larger organization with a shared interest in advancing a specific area of knowledge, learning or technology where members cooperate to affect or to produce solutions within their particular field, and may communicate, meet, and organize conferences.

There are broader explanations of the specific groups, but nowhere does it say an individual who walks to the podium at a council meeting an airs their views about a city issue makes them a special interest.

A better term would be citizen advocate;

Citizen advocacy is when you work with a member of the community who volunteers their time to advocate for local people. Citizen advocates usually work with those who would otherwise find it challenging to speak up for their own rights, views and wishes. Your relationship with a citizen advocate can be long-term.

So why is this important? Many times elected leaders put labels on people who just want the city to be better. They don’t belong to some group that is trying to undermine the government of Sioux Falls, the politicians are already doing a fine job of that themselves. They are just practicing their 1st Amendment Rights of dissenting the government.

So do we have a special interest problem in Sioux Falls? We do. But it has nothing to do with Gladys complaining about loud music at the park, they have specific names like the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce, Sanford Hospital, Development Foundation, Housing Association, Retailers Association, etc.

The mayor is calling Gladys a special interest because he is trying to deflect the REAL issue with REAL special interests in our community, like developers giving thousands of dollars to PACS which get funneled to the special candidates (rubber stampers).

So in conclusion, Gladys is a citizen advocate, banking executives and development company owners are special interests. Don’t believe what the Dutch Mafia tells you.