Munson

Munson’s Legacy

l3wis March 28, 2010 22Comments

I will update this story later tonight, but I thought this comment by Kevin Kavanaugh was dead on, and it has verified all my suspicions I have had of Munson;

Kavanaugh said Munson’s difficulties became a hindrance. “To me, his relationship with the council was always a strained one. I attribute that to either not having the leadership skills or not wanting to deal with it. He’s a nice guy, but he never took the time or invested in making sure people were on board. When you don’t do that, you’ve got people questioning you all the time and fighting you.”

This also has chapped my hide for a long time;

In February 2006, the council chairman asked for a legal opinion on whether Munson had violated the law (Phillips to the Falls). The next day, Munson stunned the city, saying he had become a distraction and would not run again. With Munson a lame duck, councilors dropped their pursuit of a legal opinion and the field for mayor swelled to 10 candidates.

Gerald Beninga, another councilor, saw it otherwise. There was no majority for an investigation, he said last week. “I don’t know that we even considered a vote on that.”

Of course you didn’t, because you are a bunch of gutless weasels who look out for each other. Birds of a feather. Boy, if Munson would have gotten investigated, then, just maybe, the rest of us will. The rubberstamp council prevails again.

Some final thoughts on the Munson administration

l3wis March 26, 2010 11Comments

While I could go on and on about some of the things Munson did (pulled) during his administration, I will leave that for another day.

One of my biggest disappointments had nothing to do with taxation, overspending, reckless growth and development (which ironically grew our city’s boundaries, population and it’s property tax coffers but has had a stagnant effect on our working class citizens).

His lack of transparency and being able to take criticism really has troubled me the most. It seems Munson believed that after being elected that he was immune to dissent. That is silly on so many levels. That is when the REAL criticism begins, on your inauguration day. I can’t count the number of times he has gaveled me and other citizens at public meetings and threatened arrest for practicing our free speech rights. It’s sad really, that after Munson’s many accomplishments and failures I will only remember him as a politician who could not listen. He even reinforced that stance in the final words of his state of the city address in which he commented that he didn’t like ‘politics’ in city government. Like I have said a million times before, everything you do as a politician is ‘politics’ and we as a citizenry have a right to question you, every step of the way.

Good luck Dave in whatever you do. I hope it is something in the private sector.

You would think that someone who has been a politician for 32 years would get it? But I guess not.

l3wis March 4, 2010 11Comments

Once again, Munson does what he does best, blames the ‘negative’ people for his problems;

“Politics really bothered me deeply because I believe so strongly in the city of Sioux Falls.  I think Sioux Falls is so fortunate because we’ve got a very positive group of citizens out here who work hard every day and it really bothers me,” Munson said.

First off, as a politician, everything you do is ‘Politics’ secondly, you clearly broke campaign finance laws, and the only reason you got away with it is because you played ‘politics’ by playing bait-and-switch with the other councilors and citizens of Sioux Falls. You said you were going to not run for a second term (because you were clearly busted) but once again, you didn’t keep your word.