The very curious city councilor Michelle Erpenbach

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To say I follow city government like an uber-nerd is not a stretch, but I must also remind my readers I consider it a fun hobby. I love talking to our local elected officials, and have many great engaging convos about policy. Some times they even run with my stupid ideas. I am flattered. Michelle on the other hand could be living on another planet as far as I am concerned. I did reach out to her once for a podcast, but Hudson was having equipment issues so the interview never happened, but she did agree to an email interview. Honestly, I think that is the last contact I had with her (3 or 4 years ago?)

One of the most interesting things about following our local elected officials is the ‘personal’ relationships they have and how those relationships overlap in the work they do in their elected positions.

While I could go on and on about most of the city elected officials and their personal relationships, most of them are pretty milk toast. Even our fine mayor.

But Michelle Erpenbach is an interesting study and one sharp cookie (fox).

At first glance you may say that it is fantastic that her tentacles reach far and wide, and I would agree 100%. She has built great business, political and charitable relationships, and I applaud her and any elected official for doing this, you have to. I also agree with Michelle on many social issues and challenges in our city. But what are the objectives behind these relationships and her positions?

Michelle is interesting when it comes to these political objectives. Take these things into account;

• She is considering, and has told close friends she is running for mayor in 2018

• Steve Hildebrand and his partner are God parents of Michelle’s children

• Michelle’s husband, Steve, is a former Daschle staffer and now runs the SDSU alumni foundation

• Michelle has taken many political donations in the past from major developers in Sioux Falls, and considers many of them as close friends

Okay, not a big deal. It’s a small town and state.

But let’s consider a few things Michelle has done over the past year and her tenure as a city councilor;

• Recently pushing for a total cell phone ban in Sioux Falls. The list of people supporting this ban are the who’s who of this town (I’ve seen the list). Doctors, Judges, Lawyers, etc, etc. Big time players in the city. If she leads this charge and pulls it off, the accolades for Michelle will be great.

• A big proponent of Shape Places. In the last city council meeting she voiced her concern about people calling it the bogey man. Shape Places is very PRO developer, but not a monster. The massive document was approved with one short vote by the city council with little review. Many councilors admitted to me that they didn’t read much of the document before approving it.

• She defended Billion Auto saying in the last city council meeting she was upset that people were treating them like ‘The Evil Empire’. What she failed to mention is that the fine citizens of this city GAVE Billion a street (property), at no charge. It is not a stretch to expect them to go above and beyond building a fair buffer. They got property for FREE that is probably worth close to a million dollars. They can at least be gracious in citizens requests for reasonable buffers. I personally don’t think Billion is Evil, but I do expect them to go above and beyond in receiving this great gift from the city and taxpayers.

• During the budget approval she poo-poo’d the way the proposed administration building was budgeted but voted for it anyway. She has done this countless times, saying she doesn’t like the way the administration handled something then voted for it anyway. She pulled this with the free bus passes, supporting the administration on being opposed to it, but once she figured out she would be the only one voting NO, she had a change of heart. Michelle frequently does this, she may act like she is no friend of Mike’s but often does exactly what he wants done. The termination of former city clerk Debra Owen comes to mind. Mayor wanted her gone, and Erpenbach helped lead the way to get her axed. Which leads me to Michelle never mentioning that she supports more openness and transparency in city government (the city was reprimanded by the open meetings commission for how Owen’s termination was handled). In fact, she sat on the Parks Board before becoming a city councilor, one of the most secretive city boards. In fact, of all the city councilors, Erpenbach’s name comes up the most when constituents tell me she doesn’t respond to calls or emails. Even more then Rolfing!

Michelle’s ‘I know better’ attitude overflows into the discussion at city council meetings. She is often heard telling them ‘Need I remind the council’ as if she is the ultimate historian of all things Sioux Falls city council. Many constituents have coined her as the city council’s ‘school marm’.

The perceived close relationships between Erpenbach, Hildebrand, developers and Huether are too close for comfort. She will be one to watch in the next mayoral race, don’t underestimate her, we did that Huether’s first time around (a campaign ran my Michelle’s close friend Steve Hildebrand). We could just have a mayor Erpenbach in 2018, and if you think she plays word games on the council, wait until she is running our city. I’m sure she will be constantly ‘reminding’ us of how lucky we are to have her as mayor.

Scary stuff, and it’s not even Halloween yet.

Mayor Huether really doesn’t understand the city’s relationship with the two sharing counties

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“I only attend the important meetings. Now who wants a banana?”

Well you have to laugh when Minnehaha County Commissioner, Jeff Barth says this;

A few of the county commissioners say they cannot remember the last time a sitting mayor spoke at one of their meetings.

He actually went on to say it has been NINE years since they have seen a sitting mayor of Sioux Falls at their meeting.

Commissioner Barth also asked the mayor about the growing crime rate in the city.

But that isn’t the only meetings the mayor has been missing out on. During the Sioux Falls city council informational councilors hammered the mayor about his absence at the county/city coffees the city council has each month with Lincoln and Minnehaha county commissioners and Erpenbach asked why the mayor hasn’t attended the joint meetings lately at Carnegie. After he danced around the question for about 2 minutes he told Erpenbach he has a “Busy Schedule”. You know, it’s hard to pencil in a meeting when you are flying all over the state campaigning(?) for governor. Funny how he has time to go to Yankton, the Black Hills and next week to Brookings, but he can’t drive 10 minutes across town to attend an EVENING meeting at Carnegie. Councilor Erickson also reiterated that the mayor needs to attend the meetings and that they have been very productive. Councilor Jamison went as far to tell the mayor he is a “year behind” when it comes to negotiations with the counties about partnerships because he doesn’t attend the meetings. Huether said he has “got his staff on it.” So now the taxpayers are paying staffers to do the Mayor’s job so he can hop scotch around the state. Nice. Maybe if the mayor wants to spend more time campaigning then actually doing his job, someone can teach him how to teleconference using Skype. Let’s face it, he doesn’t attend these meetings because he is not in charge.

The Minnehaha County Commission also wondered if there could be any (financial) partnerships with the city;

Commissioner Jeff Barth hopes the county sees more benefits from whatever partnerships are in the future.

“The fact is that our revenues are growing at 30-percent of the revenues of the city and the state, and yet our responsibilities are increasing at a greater level,” Barth said.

Ironically, Huether talks the talk, but doesn’t walk the walk. The city could easily give the county a lot more of the kitty by simply cutting them a check for ‘services rendered’. I would much more prefer $24 million dollars of my tax money going to the county for services then purchasing an indoor pool that will only cost us millions each year in operations and maintenance.

Dick Kelly also scrutinizes the city’s use of TIF’s;

Development in the city continues to grow every year, with Huether saying Sioux Falls has doubled its number of TIFs in the last five and a half years. Commissioner Dick Kelly says those impact the county city immediately with sales and property tax dollars.

“We don’t see anything for generally 20 years when that property tax growth comes.  Yet our expenses continue to rise and rise and rise.  I just ask you continue to be very selective in what you do with the TIF programs,” Kelly said.

“You should demand that we scrutinize these TIFs and I will assure you we are,” Huether said.

LOL! We are already past the $500 million mark on building permits for the year and we are setting up to be another record year for them, yet somehow we need TIF’s? Boloney. Developers ask for TIF’s because they can. A great example is when the Lloyd companies asked for a TIF on the School for the Deaf property, then bailed on it when they couldn’t get one, yet another investor came in, didn’t ask for a TIF and has tons of interest in the property from other investors And it’s not like this guy is the wealthiest developer in town, it’s ‘Uncle Bruce’ who owns used car lots. TIF’s are not needed in Sioux Falls, they only have an adverse effect on county and school funding, they need to be eliminated.

Maybe our Mayor would understand the county relationship better if he attended a lot more government meetings instead jumping out of helicopters like he is a monkey.

One more reason the SF Parks Board should be more transparent

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As I have been reviewing salary changes since 2011-2015 (post to come soon) I came across a ‘little’ nepotism. Seems former Parks Board member and City Councilor, Erpenbach was able to get her son a part-time job in 2011.

ERPENBACH   I   MAXWELL   I   2011   I   PARK & RECREATION   I   TEMPORARY ‐ SERVICE

That’s our tax dollars hard at work, paying city councilor’s kids to mow grass.

Events Center receives permanent occupancy permit last week, and more pointless ordinances

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The man in charge of building permits for Sioux Falls announced yesterday at the Public Services meeting that the EC got its permit (starts in the middle of the meeting). Councilor Staggers questioned the siding issue. Bell told him that even though it may not be asthetically correct he said it is structurally sound. Kermit questioned the gaps and holes in the siding, and Bell said the insulation was also sound and would prevent any issues.

What does this mean? My guess is it will probably never be fixed, and if it is, it will just be a quick patch job. My assumption all along is that someone signed off on the cheaper method to apply the siding and that person/entity (I have no clue who it is) is covering their tracks. Once again, it seems the public will be left in the dark.

At the beginning of the meeting, councilor Erpenbach seemed to want to have more control over what food vendor trucks are doing in our city (they are mostly monitored by the state). I found her statements ironic and hypocritical after she just recently scolded the rest of the council about micro-managing the Events Center when it comes to ticket sales. She doesn’t seem to be concerned about citizens getting ripped off at a building that they are paying the mortgage on, but seems to be concerned about people dropping napkins around food trucks and being able to eat at 3 AM. Go figure.

I find her arguments about limiting the food trucks hours of operation completely ignorant. The whole point of being open at 3 AM is so they can serve food to people leaving the bar. If you limit their hours of operation, they just won’t be operating at all.

SF City Councilor Erpenbach feels citizens who want transparency are ‘picky’

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It’s only an extra $4 million, why is everyone being so picky about it?

Well, I have came to expect these kind of comments from Michelle;

“The whole idea that everything is already set over there is so wrong,” she (Erpenbach) said. “I don’t even like to give it any credence. It just comes from folks who look for something to pick at.”

Yeah how dare several citizens and councilors have questioned the transparency and funding of this project! I often wonder what closed government Lah-Lah land Michelle lives in.