Mayor TenHaken

It’s going to get a lot more expensive to run for local office

I didn’t say that, our mayor did. A few weeks back there was an article in one of the local circle jerk publications where they interviewed Curtis the Blurtist and Poops about the change in local elections (I support a November election though the council may be leaning towards June, which is bad because of the partisanship). Since most of the council is Republican I have no doubt that a majority including the mayor support a June election because it is mostly attended by Republicans so if they do just a little bit of research they will figure out who the conservative Republican is running for council and pick them based solely on that. If we move council elections to June, we will never have an indy or dem on the council again. And that was the ultimate goal of the legislature by doing this. Let’s just say they are gerrymandering using an election instead of a district.

But I want to talk about a quote in the article by Poops. He basically said that local elections will get more expensive when they have to compete with campaign advertising space with legislative candidates, etc. He isn’t wrong, it will get more expensive, but guess who started us down this ‘expensive’ road? TenHaken. This is a guy who handpicked council candidates then created his own PAC so he could funnel thousands of dollars towards his preferred puppet candidates and now he questions the cost of running in a local race. LMFAO! You are part of the problem PAUL! Not to mention this is a guy who attained a large part of his personal wealth designing websites for campaigns and getting his DSU ‘Doxxing Team’ on it. So now you are complaining about MONEY in politics?! Money is what got you and your puppet show elected, because it certainly wasn’t leadership skills.

So Erica Beck wants to run for mayor? LOL.

Not sure what is going on, but several months ago I was told she was running and had the endorsement of Poops. Then this Micah guy showed up and I thot the Beckster was done. Now she is resigning in June and said, “I want to hang with the grandkids.” Oldest excuse in the book. We know you are running. You have been running the city since you have been COS as one of the first thing’s Jumping Jack Flash did was give her the authority to sign mayoral documents when he is ‘absent’ and she has been running the city ever since.

What I find completely arrogant is as her tenure as our shadow mayor nothing has gotten accomplished except shipping dusty monkeys to the East Coast. So many failures under her leadership it is hard to keep track.

But this is what happens when you pull authoritarian leadership and the people (the council) tunes you out.

I have written in the past the former folks who worked with Beck at Lloyd Companies have told me the same thing, SHE IS NOT A CONSENSUS BUILDER. I have also heard from multiple current and past councilors that she is a brow beater when it comes to the mayor’s agenda proposals, and they ain’t happy about it.

The irony of all this is Erica reached out to me after she quit the city and we had coffee and a long chat (mostly her talking). She was a different person. She told me she quit the planning department after MMM forced her to write the Sanford TIF in which she said to me, “This TIF was precedent because this has never been done before for a recreational event center.” Oh, and she was completely opposed to it. She also tried to bring a casino to Sioux Falls (Flandreau Tribe) to use their revenues to pay for the event center in which they pledged $10 million a year towards the bond payments but Mike refused to meet with them because he didn’t want a ‘casino’ in town. LOL. The town is nothing but casinos, but I digress.

She had a good head on her shoulders, but after tasting the power of working for Lloyd she seems to think she has the Chutzpah to do the job. Not even F’ing close!

Besides the horrible management of the city, Beck embraces non-transparent government, which costs taxpayers $$$$. She can’t even say why she is quitting. So I guess your mayoral campaign strategy is to keep this secret as long as you can then surprise people? Weird. If you are running, you tell everyone and your sister, and you continue to let that steam out. Huether won because he was relentless and not mysterious (what a weird dude, and this is coming from a weird dude). The one thing I learned about running successful city campaigns is you come out early and you pound constituents with information about your candidacy. I guess Beck’s strategy is to keep it a secret until election day and hopefully peeps will be confused and vote for her. I can’t believe we are letting this putz run our city (into the ground).

My hope is that she will run for mayor, spend $500K and come in dead last. The chamber folks might think you are the best thing since sliced bread, but their 100 votes won’t get you past the finish line. Can’t wait for you to announce. Jim Entenman part II.

The City of Sioux Falls doesn’t understand transparency and open government

Here we go again, concocting some ‘solution’ for an issue in the city and not bringing the public along in that ‘solution’;

City officials say more information on a $150,000 marketing campaign aimed at addressing “nuisance behavior” and discouraging panhandling in downtown Sioux Falls is coming soon.

There have been several ‘rumored’ ordinances that are awaiting the council’s approval including making it illegal (trespassing/camping) in our parks. But why not have a public discussion where the citizens can offer solutions?

Asked for an update this week, TenHaken’s communications officer Vanessa Gomez said, “I would expect us to be able to share more in the next month or so.”

So what’s the big secret? If you are instituting new laws shouldn’t you tell the public in advance? My guess is that they are going to be very controversial and I wouldn’t doubt the ACLU gets involved. Just like the Brockhouse animals you are going to drop this in our laps at the last minute.

I told a city official last week that every country and community that has either solved homelessness or made virtually invisible did it one way; Transitional housing. I suggested the city buy four Tzadik properties on bank foreclosure, remodel them to be 1 bedroom and studios and gift them to the St. Francis house and offer them a yearly subsidy for handling the transitional housing. We seem to be throwing money at ad agencies to educate the public, but we are doing very little to actually help these folks. For $150K you could house 25 people for a year!

I suggest that moving forward, the council tells us what they are planning, and NOT next month, TODAY!

We may have the ‘Trots’ for another few months

It seems Poops and Curtis the Blurtist are in a tizzy over moving our city Spring elections. The state legislature, in all their insanity, changed state law so the city election has to be in June (during primaries) or in November (general). I’m okay with that, but I would support the election in November instead of June. Primaries are partisan and would only confuse voters to see a mayoral and council candidate with NO party affiliation on a ballot with legislators that are partisan. I do believe it will help voter turnout, but I will be curious as to how many undervotes (non-votes) are recorded in the city races if we move the election. Of course the city may have to call a special election asking voters to choose either June or November for the election. I think Curtis and Poops will support a June election. It will be interesting to see if Sioux Falls voters get to choose the date or if we are just approving what these two clowns want. I think the Charter Revision Commission will have to weigh in on this. Like I said, I support moving the election to November, but I am not looking forward to 5 more months of the ‘Trots’.

DID THE CONVENTION CENTER GET KILLED BECAUSE IT’S MAIN CHEERLEADER IS NO LONGER WITH US?

A reader pointed out to me that the CC at the Riversh!t Pisstrict was probably dropped from the Mayor’s agenda because it’s main cheerleader (not Paul) has died, Craig Lloyd. I kind of agree and never really thought about it, but Lloyd had a lot of weight behind the project, and I have a feeling after his passing, the leadership team at Lloyd said we got enough irons in the fire we don’t need to fart around with this. The company is also rumored to be under ‘reorganization’ which started last summer (this has been confirmed to me by several sub-contractors to Lloyd). I’m glad it’s dead, for now, but we will have to watch this. I’m sure future council and mayoral candidates won’t touch this topic with a ten foot pole. I think major discussions will be had about property taxes and the homeless in the next city campaign. I would love it if at least one council candidate and one mayoral candidate (I’m talking to you Christine) bring up transparency in city government and especially the information coming from the SFPD. A closed government doesn’t function properly, and until we fix that, we won’t accomplish anything in city government.

Is Mayor TenHaken becoming a lame duck on purpose?

Ever since Poops made the comment about ‘Turd Alley’ (this guy seems to be obsessed with crap) some are wondering why Paul may be petering out with more then a year left in his term. Here is my theory. With a only a year left in a 8 year term, he may be ready not to start any new projects, that would NOT be unusual for a lame duck mayor, but you would think he would try to at least make a dent in some big issues he hasn’t been able to solve; affordable housing, homelessness and child care needs (which could all be solved, ironically, by paying higher wages). I think there is another reason.

DID TENHAKEN RECRUIT A REPLACEMENT CANDIDATE?

All roads are leading to MAYBE. While I have mentioned this before, I did get a solid name (but still a rumor at this point) and I believe they are going to announce very soon and Paul will be helping them run for the position with a possible endorsement. So who is this candidate? They are a white, middle-aged professional male who got their start in Marketing (sound familiar?) then worked for a major healthcare provider and now works for a large national out-of-state developer/contractor. If I were to mention his name, it may not ring a bell, but if you worked in marketing or healthcare in this community you would certainly know who they are. Let’s just say he is just a clone of MMM and PTH and won’t offer much but a great smile. But I am sure the churches, the chamber and the Sanford’s of the world will think he is just AWESOME. As I said in an earlier post, we don’t need another salesman in city hall, we need a city administrator who is willing to do the work for the city employees and the citizens.