South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Open Meetings

Harrisburg School District Open Government Open Meetings

Update I: Did the city of Harrisburg violate open meeting laws

l3wis 3Comments

Update: I want to correct this post. Since it has been confirmed he resigned and was not terminated they can handle it as a personal issue in executive session. Now if he didn’t willingly resign, they would have to vote on terminating him in public.

Update: The rumor circulating is he was terminated because he pissed off developers. I know, shocker!

The short answer is YES. When the Sioux Falls city council decided to fire then city clerk Owens behind closed doors they got slapped with an open meetings violation. Harrisburg recently fired their city administrator behind closed doors. That is a NO-NO. Whether the person was doing a good job* or not does not matter, an appointed position like this is hired in the open and fired in the open. I hope this person slaps Harrisburg with this violation.

*There was a quiet recall effort amongst citizens in Harrisburg to get rid of the city administrator. Not sure if this had an effect on his firing or not? He also was getting into it with our mayor over jurisdiction lines and the state over the prison. Will we ever know why he was fired?

Art Bunker Ramp Censorship Downtown Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken Open Government Open Meetings racism Sioux Falls

It only took them a year and a half to do an article about this

l3wis 5Comments

Besides myself, who broke the censored mural controversy, only one other journalist has really poked around on the topic, but someone must of went over to the newsroom and woke up one of their jokalist’s to write an article. It is actually a pretty good article on the insight of what the artists were going thru, but not very timely;

Would they ever work with the city again on a project? They’d never completely count out the idea, the artists said.

But, Hernandez added, “the experience was pretty horrible.”

These fine young artists aren’t the first and certainly won’t be the last to suffer the consequences of ‘horrible’ city policies and leadership and blatant CENSORSHIP.

There is also another concern. Do we have RACIST elites in this community influencing city hall policy?

Speaking of suffering, the city has asked the courts to dismiss the Federal housing discrimination lawsuit. Just your typical dragging out the clock games they play. Of course, we know that is likely NOT going to happen. They have an incredibly solid case.

1st Amendment Mayor TenHaken Open Government Open Meetings SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE II: Mayor TenHaken continues to cut off public inputers

l3wis 12Comments

UPDATE II: HERE IS a great example of what Paul is doing wrong;

“Public meetings are not safe spaces for elected officials,” Fitzpatrick said. “They should expect to hear the unvarnished thoughts from their constituents, and if they can’t handle that, they shouldn’t be in public office.”

Did you hear that Paul? Time to resign.

Paul struggles with his Constitutional oath of office. When you say you will defend the constitution that means every amendment including the first. At the informational Curt was cutting people off also. I will remind the mayor for the 1000th time, people can say whatever they want to at public input as long as they are not physically threatening council. It is really frustrating that constitutional officers don’t understand their oath. Oh that’s right Paul went to the school of doxing and closed government. If he ever cuts me off I will continue to speak right thru him, because I know the security police in the room will not arrest anyone for practicing their 1st Amendment rights.

UPDATE: Speaking of that last sentence, I encourage any constituent who is being cut off by the mayor to stand your ground. I won’t defend you if you are yelling and dropping S and F bombs but if you are being respectful and actually talking about ‘government’ in general they can’t arrest you. In fact, I know that the SFPD has told the mayor they will NOT arrest anyone at the council meeting for practicing their 1st amendment rights. So let’s challenge him and see what happens? It would be a black eye on the administration if the mayor requests security arrest an 80 year old woman who is complaining about her neighbor’s stereo.

1st Amendment Ethics Open Government Open Meetings SF City Council Sioux Falls

Argus Leader Case against the City of Sioux Falls thrown out

l3wis 4Comments

I figured a judge would toss this. (Actually an injunction was denied, the case can still move forward) never understood the argument they were making. The Dakota Scout could not register until after the legislature changed the law.

I think the bigger issue here is the MASSIVE CONFLICT OF INTEREST. I think if not a few, ALL councilors knew that Paulson was an investor and all 9 councilors (includes mayor) have received money and campaign assistance from the email farmer.

But let’s play an ignorant constituent and PRETEND that the council had NO clue who the investors were. If that were the case, why did they vote on this? They know that they have to file a investor disclosure with the SOS and that disclosure should have been a public document BEFORE the council voted. But somehow that filing got mysteriously misplaced.

Shananigans.

This case should have never been about timelines, it’s about a council who has NO ethics and approves a contract that will benefit an investor. And I would argue that Paulson isn’t really benefitting monetarily, but he does control the narrative. You know, like when you reject a mural because you think it is racist, and the media, including the DS didn’t touch the story with a ten foot pool. Shocker!

This case isn’t a question of legality, the Dakota Scout met SOME of those requirements, it is a ETHICAL issue and ALL 9 on that DAIS need to taken to the ethics commission, one by one, and dealt their punishment.

My position on the matter hasn’t changed. The internet has been in existence for over 30 years, it is time to embrace it. Public notices in a paper with a circulation of 5,000 or even 7,000 isn’t cutting it. Nobody goes and reads 6 point type in a paper you pickup at Burger King. Give me a break! It is laughable to think that even one single person is getting their legals from a printed paper.

If you want to see public notices, you can, 24/7, 365 days a year, for free, ONLINE! And if you still want to resist the evil internet you can go to the clerk’s office (unfortunately they don’t serve cheeseburgers) and get a print out. This isn’t hard folks. Stop wasting tax dollars on a service that virtually 1% population MAY use.

Maybe the city could have Legal Notice Mondays and have food trucks in front of Carnegie that wrap your sandwiches in printed out legal notices! Bet you would reach about half of the population that way, because if there is one thing Sioux Falls is good at, it’s eating!

It’s all pretty damn ridiculous how our state legislature crafts laws. They still think it is 1952.

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