UPDATE: Belfrage’s studio turns into a septic tank this morning

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UPDATE II: You will have to watch the open discussion of the Sioux Falls city council today during the INFORMATIONAL meeting. They were all in agreement (Kiley & Rolfing were absent) that there needs to be a presentation about the settlement from the administration. Council Co-chair Erickson said that she already had one in the works. Councilor Starr requested to see the consultant’s report about the stability of the siding. He also requested that a forensic audit be done on the EC’s construction costs. Stehly talked about moving forward that all the RFP’s need to be shared with the council, even if that was in executive session. She felt the city was moving in the wrong direction by keeping RFPs secret from the public and legislative branch.

Mayor Huether was on Greg Belfrage this morning telling more lies (ARTICLE) (PODCAST) to cover up his already mountain of lies from the siding settlement. He takes the opportunity to rip the messengers to pieces, the Argus is liars, Bruce is a liar (doesn’t use his name), etc. etc. The same old typical game Mike plays when he gets caught lying, “Everyone else is lying besides me.”

UPDATE: City Councilors Pat Starr & Theresa Stehly are going to be on Belfrage, Wednesday at 8 AM.

He even tries to ignore the elephant in the room by doing this ‘Shut Up and Listen’ show a day after the settlement is revealed. He doesn’t realize this is about the ‘LIE’ not about the siding or the Events Center itself. The lie about the settlement has absolutely NOTHING to do with the 9 sold out Garth shows. It is about an elected official LYING to the public, doesn’t matter if this was about siding on a building or misappropriated funds for a snow plow. It is about the LIE.

Oh, but it gets better. Watch this city council informational meeting from July 22, 2014 (FF 25:30);

Notice that they promised to hire a private forensic consultant that got ‘highly recomended’ to them and is ‘independent’ from all the parties involved. In fact, that couldn’t be further from the truth, the consultant is an ex-employee of Mortenson, and probably recommended by Mortenson. Ironically, it doesn’t matter, because everything that was promised in this meeting was a LIE. No report was ever made public, in fact the council never even got to see it. We are not even sure if it was finished. No mockups were ever made, and ultimately the siding was never fixed or replaced. It all got swept under the rug to receive a secret settlement of about $444K.

Graphic from meeting.

Stormland-TV asked the city attorney some questions about the matter;

KELOLAND News reached out to the mayor to get some answers.  His office directed us to the City Attorney’s office.  You can read the responses below.

1)      How much money did the city actually clear in the PREMIER settlement once the bills were all paid?

“The city received $1 million. That amount consisted of cash, forgiveness of debt, and a transfer of contingency dollars contained within the Mortenson contract (established for the benefit of Mortenson and within the Mortenson contract price) back to the City, which in turn resulted in a reduction of the Guaranteed Maximum Price set forth in Mortenson’s contract.   Note that if the City had demanded replacement of the wall system, Mortenson would have had the right to expend the first $514,996 out of its construction manager’s contingency fund that was within its Guaranteed Maximum Price. Pursuant to this Settlement Agreement, that amount was released back to the City, and the city’s total financial obligation to Mortenson as set forth in the guaranteed maximum price was reduced by $514,996,”  Karen Leonard, Deputy City Attorney said.

“The city paid out no “new money” pursuant to the Settlement Agreement. The City previously withheld certain funds that were due and owing to Dalsin for the Premier Center and Convention Center projects pending resolution of the Metal Wall Panel Issues, and release of liens placed on those projects by Dalsin. With the resolution of this dispute, the city released those funds that were due and owing to Dalsin pursuant to its contracts on those two projects. The amounts paid out were actually less than the amounts claimed to be due and owing by Dalsin for those projects.”

2)      Why did the city not want to disclose the details of the settlement?

“There are times, during settlement negotiations, where a settlement can only be achieved through a confidentiality provision,” Leonard said.

3)      Will the siding ever get fixed?

“The exterior metal siding is functionally and structurally sound with no need of replacement. The exterior metal siding is doing what it was designed to do, act as the weather barrier. The water-tight materials are installed behind the siding.  Its appearance, while questioned, is not inconsistent with the features of other commercial buildings across the U.S.  The 20-year finish warranty on the siding remains in effect,” Leonard said.

4)      If the city actually cleared any money from the settlement, where will that be spent?

“As of August 31, 2017, the cash balance in the Events Center Construction Fund was $2,918,799.  This amount includes funds that remain from bond proceeds, interest earnings, other project contributions and cash received as part of the settlement.  Once deposited into the Events Center Construction Fund, the dollars that originated from these various sources are not individually tracked.  All dollars in the Events Center Construction Fund are considered project funds and are fungible.  Since September of 2015, many expenditures have been made from the Events Center Construction Fund on improvements to the Events Center.  Some of the improvements have been completed, some are in progress and others are just getting underway.  Some of the larger ticket items include the addition of a cooler and expanded storage space on the concourse level, kitchen expansion and improvements, security system improvements, parking lot lighting improvements, and the addition of more premium seating,” Leonard said.

“The 2018 City Budget adopted last week by the City Council provides for any unspent dollars remaining in the Events Center Construction Fund upon project close-out to be transferred to the City’s Sales Tax Fund to be used for the ensuing debt service payment on the Events Center sales tax bonds.”

Yet the mayor doesn’t think he has ‘mis-led’ anyone. What a loser.

My REAL feelings on the Siding Settlement? A SAD EVENT.

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You would think with all the contradictions in the contract and what we were told, Mayor Huether would have had better things to do yesterday besides dressing like Howdy Doody.

I have to be honest with you, when the city released the settlement yesterday, I was a little surprised. I was also surprised by how bad it was.

When I present my theories I usually give ‘worst case’ scenario. So when the truth comes out and it is worse, I’m not sure what to think. I’m still in shock.

Bruce and I have been pursuing this for over two years, and quite honestly I never expected the AL to win their case in the SD Supreme court. But I still wasn’t going to give up. Over a month ago, I reminded Bruce we need to do some more siding videos (we have lots of footage that has never been published).

I still think someday it will need to be repaired, sooner rather than later.

But in some ways, this wasn’t about the siding (or the roof) it was about the administration, lying again. I have been pointing out for over seven years the lies that come from the administration, so when you have vindication like this, it’s shocking, like I have already mentioned.

But I still am not in ‘celebration’ mode. Even when Bruce shook my hand last night congratulating us on this, I still have a lump in my stomach over it. Over the past three days I have had a sense of sadness. Pity not only for the taxpayers of Sioux Falls, the Media and the Council, but for the mayor. I don’t take much joy in this. I just wish at least our local elected officials and the public employees who work for them would use a little integrity, honesty and common sense. This did not take place. It is a very low point in Sioux Falls city government, and I’m sure once the contractors start talking, this is going to get a whole lot messier.

So what do I think should happen? Well barring the mayor is not willing to admit guilt and apologize, I think he should resign and take any public employee involved with this with him. As we know, his head is so large, it probably won’t happen.

But that won’t stop ethics complaints. Either way, any political capital the Mayor thinks he might have all got flushed down the toilet on Thursday. It’s probably best if he just holed himself up at his swamp cabin until May.

Mayor Mike is NOW giving out parenting advice

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When I first saw Mike’s press conference I just laughed and said, typical Mike, armchair expert on everything. Than I started getting texts and emails from friends who are ‘Parents’ questioning his intentions.

I will say this, after watching the spectacle, I really think Mike was sincere, I also think he was spot on with a lot of his advice. Parents need to know where their kids are. Kids need to follow curfew and listen to what their parents tell them. All golly gee, gosh darn it, good advice.

But some in the media were not buying it.

Todd Epp from KELO AM asked if this advice would do much good for parents who are meth heads?

On a similar note, would this advice do much good for parents who have 2-3 jobs?

There is also a little hypocrisy with this message of good parenting coming from Mike. This is a mayor that was opposed to free youth bus rides & swimming. He also tried to cut YMCA after school program funding in next year’s budget (the council restored it). All programs that help keep latch key kids out of trouble when their parents are working.

And it really comes down to that. A lot of kids in our community are living in poverty. Ironically the mayor and the city council have the power to change that. They could require new employers coming to SF to pay living wages. They could implement a city minimum wage of $10-11 an hour. They could implement a city wide job training program. And lastly the health department clinic could supply FREE birth control to women (not just condoms) and make LSS aware of the program.

The mayor can blame ‘bad parents’ until the cows come home, but some of these parents aren’t bad, they just are too busy working to pay much attention to their kids.

As I have said in the past, we don’t have an affordable housing or food supply problem in Sioux Falls, we have a wage problem. Poverty breeds crime that trickles down to the kids.

Mayor’s Lack of Transparency is Astounding

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As you can see, the council meeting was almost 3-1/2 hours long. You can watch the 3-Ring circus yourself,  it was a doozy.

I find it ironic the mayor likes to whine about how long the meetings are and tries to limit public input, even taunting us and making off-hand remarks after we testify. But guess who comes up with the agenda? Yup, the mayor’s office. The meeting could have been shorter.

Throughout the meeting, all the agenda items I commented on encompassed the same message, transparency, anti-corruption, working openly with the council and keeping taxes and fees low.

The mayor just doesn’t get it. I have often wondered if in his early professional career he was very truthful and open with his superior and that superior used his honesty and transparency against him. It only takes ONE good burn to have lifelong scars.

Transparency and Openness is the Hallmark of Good Government and a Healthy Democracy. Mike doesn’t get, he still thinks he works in the very dark world of schlumping subprime credit cards.

UPDATE: It’s going to get worse before it gets better

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I was just thinking about this after the vote on Tuesday night;

It took Mayor Mike Huether’s tie-breaking vote this week to make it harder to win City Council elections.

The city’s top executive rarely casts votes on City Council matters, but it’s been happening at a greater clip since four new members were voted onto the 8-member legislative body last year.

And I guarantee you are going to see more of it. I suspect that since Mike, Michelle and Rex are lame ducks* they are going to be proposing ‘wish-list’ legislation all the way until the end of their terms, especially with Rex’s  success on Tuesday night, it will only embolden them. They have been salivating for awhile to get rid of public input and I also know that they are not fans of transparency. It will be interesting to watch what other crazy ordinances they propose, or what crazy ones pass. I suspect that many of them would be overturned by the next council, like the recent election threshold.

I told several councilors to prepare themselves for the onslaught.

UPDATE: It’s interesting Munson used his ties on budget or procedural issues primarily. Huether has used his in retribution, anti-citizen or plaything spending. Spreadsheet from 2006; Mayoral-tie-2006

*While Rex and Michelle have probably put death nails in their future plans for elected office, there is still a scenario for Huether. While I strongly feel that Huether really needed to announce his candidacy for governor last month, he may be looking at another approach. The primary isn’t until June. Could Huether think he really doesn’t need to officially jump into this until he absolutely has to? You never know.