South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Mike Huether

Mike Huether USD Vermillion

UPDATE: Could Mike Huether be the next president of USD?

l3wis 7Comments

UPDATE: I’ve been told from a USD alum that there are possibly two requirements Huether does not have to be the president of USD. You have to be alumni and you have to have a post graduate degree. So I guess he’s out.

Many have been ‘speculating’ for awhile what Huether’s next political move could be, with the recent kerfuffle over transparency and the secret siding settlement, Mike may have to sit out 2018.

But what if he wants to run in the future, what could he do while he waits? Someone suggested to me he could be seeking the Presidential position at USD. Jim Abbot will be retiring the same time Mike walks out of city hall, so the timing makes sense. It’s also an executive position, something Huether would desire. There is also the Sanford connection and a possibility that he would be allowed to commute from Sioux Falls.

The only thing that I think might hold him back is the fact he is a SDSU alum. Not sure if this matters in the selection process, heck it might even help his cause.

Something to ponder.

Mike Huether SF City Council Sioux Falls

Kudos to 1/2 the council and mayor for voting down casino loophole

l3wis 7Comments

Sioux Falls City council meeting, 10/10/17 (FF: 45:00)

Bravo to councilors Erpenbach (who led the charge), Starr, Rolfing, Stehly and Mayor Huether (breaking tie) for voting NO on the casino common space ordinance.

I was actually surprised it tied, but wasn’t surprised Mike voted NO. It is well known in certain circles he doesn’t like VL casinos. I think he called them once ‘junky’ looking.

It was a stupid ordinance for a couple of reasons. While it probably makes sense to have adjoining casinos who have the same owner sharing a beer cooler, that really was only the minor intent. While the separate casinos would have their own set of machines, name, signage and their own entrances and bathrooms, the casino owners wanted them to ‘share’ ONE employee. Besides the fact that the casino owner is being a tight wad when it comes to labor, he is actually endangering his ONE employee more and making BOTH sides of the casino more vulnerable to robberies. Stand alone VL casinos are already burglar magnets, how does this make them anymore safe? Fortunately at least half of them saw that this was very bad idea when it comes to crime and safety. What was strange was that Kiley said he agreed with the NO voters, but voted for it anyway. Now that’s leadership Rick.

Mayor High Crimes Mayor Hubris Mayor Pants on Fire Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether Sioux Falls

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

l3wis 5Comments

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.

Denny Sanford Premier Center Event Center Mayor High Crimes Mayor Hubris Mayor Pants on Fire Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether Sioux Falls

Ask the Mayor . . . What is wrong with the Siding

l3wis 1Comments

During the latest episode of ‘Watch the Mayor Lie’ (notice all the flies around him. What are flies attracted to?) he gave his newest version of the siding settlement. While discussing the issue the video flips to shots of the events center siding (I assumed shot by citylink) (see below).

Notice the water stains already starting to accumulate under the siding. Not sure if this is from water flowing over the top of it, or seeping out of the bottom. I just found it interesting that these are the (unflattering) shots they decided to show of the siding.

Denny Sanford Premier Center Event Center Greg Belfrage Mayor High Crimes Mayor Hubris Mayor Pants on Fire Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Media Mike Huether SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Greg Belfrage Nails it!

l3wis 11Comments

The Great Oz of Sioux Falls?

While Greg and I don’t see eye to eye on a myriad of topics, I feel sometimes Greg and I share a common belief; if you lie to me, and I catch you, there will be Hell to pay.

Greg discovered something (finally) that I have known about the mayor before he was even elected; he’s a carnival barker snakeoil salesman. He proved this with his time as VP of Marketing for one of the most infamous subprime credit cards in the world. So horrible was their marketing scams the FEDS changed credit card laws to reign them in. THE FEDS! I mean wow! When DC thinks you are corrupt, that is a whole new level. And make no mistake, while Mike likes to call himself a ‘banker’ he was really just the chief huckster. He took his experience (business acumen) straight with him to city hall.

I’m glad Greg has finally seen the light;

The big lie was actually a lie of omission. Not once did the mayor make it clear that the one million dollars was in VALUE. He never even hinted at it.

And that’s the game he has always played. You wait, on Tuesday, you will probably see him in the wings at Carnegie (if he even has the balls to show up) watching his pitiful administration team fall on the sword for this guy. I just hope at least one of them has the integrity to point the finger at the man behind the curtain.

The Argus Leader also weighs in on the matter;

According to the Supreme Court’s ruling, such negotiated government secrecy violates state open record laws. That’s a huge victory for the citizens of Sioux Falls, whose tax dollars underwrote the most expensive project in city history.

I know it has been easy over the past week to get in the weeds on this, especially with all the confusing numbers. But remember, most importantly this is about transparency, and can be summed up with one sentence; The mayor lied to us about the settlement amount.

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