Weird, I have never seen these meetings on the agenda, online. They are actually good meetings (people asking to use more of their property to build a bunch of crap). Most of the time, I really don’t care, but sometimes people are just being weird with their intentions.
Presentations on the Triage Center Project Lease Agreement and Public Parking Update. The Public Parking update was ‘supposed’ to occur after the council installation so a certain guilty party could sail thru to re-election (this same person has re-opened his Carnegie basement office). The Bunker Ramp has been an enormous disaster, and they don’t like to talk about it. Why? Guilty conscious.
Item #7, Approval of Contracts, Sub Item #13. Notice the ethics complaint that was thrown out against Neitzert cost taxpayers $7,500. And we are worried about what a re-count is costing us . . . Puhleeeeze!
Items #43-44, 1st Reading, Triage lease and joint participation agreements.
Item #45, 1st Reading, More repeals of Covid restriction ordinances. I find it interesting that since the state has decided to call off all restrictive measures, Covid has essentially been flat lining and on some days going up. There has been NO downward curve. This is troublesome because if the curve doesn’t start going down within the next few weeks, we could be maintaining or increasing these numbers going into fall (when school starts) and into winter (when influenza and other illnesses increase). It will be interesting to see if we actually start a downward spiral soon. But I guess when we are hosting youth baseball tournaments and inviting families from out of state (councilor Erickson talked about this in the last informational meeting) what should we expect. While I am fine with people getting back to work safely, some of these other activities are just selfish. So the kids have to take the summer off from sports? Oh well, they are kids, they will forget about it in a couple of years.
Item #6, Approval of Contracts, Sub Item #6, Provide Information Technology Insurance Coverage to the City’s Policy. As I understand this item, the city is seeking a policy to protect them from hackers (instead of just putting safeguards in place to protect us from hackers) $83K.
SIDENOTE: I also have heard that the SD Attorney General is giving Sioux Falls the permission to train their own officers. On one hand, this is a good thing (so we can hire more officers faster) but on the other hand, not sure how this training program will be ran. Hopefully we will hear more about this.
Item #38, The Breaks Coffee House (right next to Total Drag and Common Sense) is applying for a Beer and Wine license. This is awesome because adults will be able to have an adult beverage before attending shows at Total Drag.
It’s been a few weeks since I have done this because the meeting schedules have been all over the map. Just a reminder also that the 2nd reading of the Covid ordinance to allow bars and restaurants to reopen is on Thursday, May 7 (10:30 AM). If passed, it won’t go into effect until Friday, May 8. Several bars and restaurants seemed to have opened over the weekend. Not sure if they understand that the ordinance has not passed yet. I wonder if there will be any enforcement this week?
SPECIAL NOTE: Funny how Mayor TenHaken is calling it a ‘Work Station’ instead of a ‘Precinct’. Gee, would it have anything to do with him attacking Jolene’s plan during the mayoral campaign of creating police precincts? What a tool . . .
• New Governmental Lease Standards and Southwest Police Report to Work Station presentation
SPECIAL NOTE: Notice that the State Theatre will be asking for a wine license. I hope the owner of West Mall shows up and tells them about their hypocrisy if they pass this. I’m sure it has the 4-5 votes to pass. But I do suspect a couple of councilors to vote against it. I’m sure we will hear about all the extra steps they will be taking to ensure minors are not drinking, you know, just like the owner of West Mall promised.
SPECIAL NOTE II: I heard that Councilor Erickson is planning on running for mayor. This probably confirms the rumor that TenHaken will run in a primary against Noem for Governor in 2022. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around these rumors, because I have seen these two clowns do some weird crap over the past couple of years, but it would not surprise me. I think a race between Erickson and Huether would be fun to watch. Get out the popcorn.
Item #6, Approval of Contracts, Sub Item #15, Meals for Isolation Sites. Shouldn’t this be an expense of the County, the State or the Feds?
Sub Item #19, over $100K to fix the retention pond at the Denty. I wonder if they are fishing out bad siding? This place is the biggest money pit this city will ever see.
I found out today many people across the city are doing ‘projects’ on their homes without permits. Some of these properties have been reported to the city. Most of the projects are new roofs, but there have been reports of window replacements and even an entire house being gutted.
I guess one of the reasons this is going on is because the city has limited their building inspections. Not sure if that is true, but if it is, it seems odd. Building inspectors have less interaction with the public than police or fire does. If they are sitting on their butts at home, time to get back to work!
If our governor and mayor tell us we all need to go to work each day because hot dog makers, credit card hucksters and personal trainers are ‘essential’, it’s time they put their money where their mouth is and order all city and state workers to either be working full-time from home and if they cannot, report for duty. If anyone one is essential right now, it is people drawing a salary from taxpayers. If the rest of us can endure being exposed to Covid, the government workers should be able to also.
Maybe the Mayor needs to test his SOAR program out first on city employees?
The hypocrisy is unprecedented – and all reported from Noem’s $130K FOX News studio in the basement of the governor’s mansion.
When she was running for governor, my mother coined her as ‘Donita Trump’. How true it is. How true it is!
Maybe she should resign and hand the reigns over to Rep. Mike Saba, the only elected official in state government who is trying to fight through this crisis with calculated and studied approaches.
While he talks about how he is transparent, he still hates transparency like the Dickens. Absolutely hates it. We saw this over the past couple of weeks when he couldn’t tell us about the covid outbreaks. Hey Paul, the truth will set you free Brah!
What is even more alarming is that a councilor has specifically requested this information to be shared with the public and still the refusal, it’s like a gigantic middle finger to him.
There are two new appointees to the Planning Commission (I will share a short bio),
• Janet Kittams (CEO of the Helpline Center) Janet is good person, and has formerly served on the REMSA board. I think she will make a great addition.
• Bradyn Neises, (Commercial Real Estate broker with Bender). His appointment is kind of ironic since he will be replacing another former Bender Real Estate Broker, Andi Anderson. Maybe she will borrow him her company polo shirts to wear during the meetings. Bradyn will be filling in for Andi’s last year of of appointment.
Neighborhood Connect. It appears the Planning Department is rolling out some new software to do the following;
• Transparency • Extend business hours • Alerts • Reduce inquiries • Easy user interface It integrates with the City of Sioux Falls Land Management software
While on it’s face, I think it is a good idea, over the last couple of months the city hasn’t had a very good track record with their online presence. Their videos have been crashing, the CityLink live stream has been taken down, the search engines are complicated and a mess and the pilot program for on-demand transit may not get off the ground. I guess if the city wants to be innovative, maybe that innovation should work.
Also presentations on the upcoming election and 2021 Budget Prioritization.
Item #45 & #60, 2nd Reading, Supplemental Appropriations. Not sure how this vote will go, or if it will be amended, but I have a feeling it will get at least 4 votes to pass (Mayor tie-breaker). They really should censure him for violating the charter and proposing budget changes.
Item #54, 1st Reading, Supplemental Appropriations of $355K to Pavilion for planning the repair of the roof.
Item #55, 1st Reading: AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, REPEALING SUBCHAPTER SIOUX FALLS VETERANS PARK ADVISORY BOARD OF CHAPTER 95: PARKS AND RECREATION OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF SAID CITY. (I’m not sure why this board is being repealed, hopefully there will be more details Tuesday night).
Item #56 (57-58), 1st Reading:AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, AUTHORIZING INTERIM WATER RATES FOR CERTAIN CUSTOMERS OUTSIDE THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS. (Prairie Meadow Area). This has to do with a future annexation agreement.
Item #64, A RESOLUTION ADVISING AND GIVING CONSENT TO THE APPOINTMENT OF MEMBERS TO CERTAIN CITIZEN BOARDS. (once again the biographies are missing, I have requested from some councilors to ask the administration why the BIOs are no longer listed on agenda).
There have been a lot of strange changes lately to the city website and agendas. The latest is in the Planning agenda, instead of numbering the items, they are now using this labeling system; Ex: REZ-011688-2020. More confusion for no reason.
Questions about the ownership of a strip of land within the Sioux Steel Co. site in downtown Sioux Falls has created a new, unexpected hurdle for the proposed $185 million redevelopment of the property.
The land in question was once a channel of the Big Sioux River and has ownership origins that stretch back beyond South Dakota statehood all the way to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.
Archived press clippings appear to indicate that the channel that separated Seney Island from the western bank of the Big Sioux River was filled in and, along with the former island, was turned into usable land in the early 1900s. Sioux Steel Co. has owned and operated on the site since 1918.
Officials in the state School and Public Lands and Attorney General’s offices are reviewing maps, historic documents and other information to determine whether the state may have a claim of ownership to the strip of land.
I’m not naive, I’m sure the State will probably come back and say they don’t have rights to it, or if they do, sell it for very little coin. I know how palms are greased in Pierre.
But what makes this story frustrating is with all of the people from the Sioux Steel Company, Lloyd Company and the city’s planning office, NO one came across this possible conflict? It took a hobbyist in history to find it?
Not to mention that around $3.5 million has already been spent on planning this project and NONE of these questions were asked before passing a $20 million dollar TIF.
Sometimes I think developers in this town just fly by the seat of their pants, cross their fingers and hope things turn out.
Only agenda item is a going away party for Departing Members Pauline Poletes and Robert Thimjon. They accomplished their very successful shut down of charter amendments. Party on Garth.
Sub Item #25, $136K to YMCA for after school programs and
Sub Item #26, $111 to VOA for after school programs.
I wish the merits of these four items would have been discussed in the regular meeting instead of stuffed into the consent agenda.
Item #7, Change orders, we will be handing about $1.5 million to Journey Construction for the Village on the River Bunker Ramp.
Item #20, Transfer of 2020 Retail Liquor License, with video lottery terminals, and 2020 Package Liquor License from Badlands Gaming LLC, Badlands Gaming, 1600 West Russell Street, to South Dakota Veterans Alliance Inc., 1600 West Russell Street. It looks like this deal is moving forward.
Item #25 (29-30), 2nd Reading of TIF agreement with Lloyd Companies and Sioux Steel Development. As I have said in the past this will pass. I guess councilor Stehly will be absent from this meeting and NOT voting on the issue due to previous commitments. I have said that a better approach would be to gift them the River Greenway property (so they can develop it at their expense) and give them a $10 million dollar TIF only for that redevelopment. I think it is a crying shame that local lawmakers across the country are suckered into these kind of agreements which are truly developer handouts and little else. I’m praying for an amendment, but I don’t think it will happen.
Item #26, 2nd Reading, ordinance on campaign financing and elections. I feel there will be some amendments to this item and it will be an interesting to see what is slipped in. I still think that this ordinance should be amended so it is NOT implemented until after the municipal election.
Item #27, Supplemental appropriations for police overtime pay for special events. Like I said yesterday in a post, I fully support this, but I think a discussion should have occurred with the council before the mayor’s office proposed this. It is the council’s job as laid out in charter to be the legislators, not the mayor’s office.
Item #28, Parks and Rec fee increases. You will notice that some of the biggest increases are at the Midco Aquatic Center.
Item #31, Resolution approving preliminary plan for the controversial Golden Gateway addition.
Item #32, A RESOLUTION REMOVING UNCOLLECTIBLE, DELINQUENT ACCOUNTS FROM THE RECORDS. Interesting that these accounts are confidential?
Item #34, Resolution, allowing Landscapes Unlimited to modify the noncompetition clause under the Management Agreement.
Item #35, Charter Revision Commission presents their ballot amendments. I’m urging a vote NO on amendment ‘B’ which would increase the number of signatures needed for a charter revision petition.
As I have complained about in the past, it rubs me the wrong way that the Sioux Falls Planning staff recommends approval or denial of items on their agenda. It is the job of the Planning Commission to study the merits of a proposal from the information staff provides, it is NOT the job of public employees to recommend approval. Layout the plan, show the compatibility than let the Planning Commission decide based on the information.
While zoning and development in general is one thing, a massive 20 year, multi-million dollar tax rebate is totally different.
The Planning Commission can deny this proposal simply based on the fact that we don’t really know if the TIF will be beneficial or not. Denying the TIF would simply mean the PRIVATE developer would have to go back to the drawing board, the citizen taxpayers would not be harmed one iota if this was denied. In fact I would go step further and say that approving this TIF would be harmful to the 100% property tax paying citizen of our city because we would have to pay more in taxes to prop up this private venture.
I still think the city council needs to pass an ordinance forbidding planning staff or any public employee (that is hired, not elected) from recommending approval of endeavors that benefit private business. It’s unethical, if not highly suspect.
Next week’s City Council meeting agenda item concerning the Canterbury – Paddington development is bringing up ethical concerns. (Watch the fiery exchange at the last planning meeting, items 5B-C). The adjacent property owners wondered why the planning department and planning commission ignores it’s own ordinances. The short answer; MONEY & GREED. The only reason the SFPC gave (and their typical answer when big money development rolls up to the podium at these meetings) is they own the land they can do what they want to. Sounds great, I think I will get started on my nuclear reactor in my backyard this summer – neighbors be damned. But make sure you put up a sign warning about bees in your yard! You know, those naturally occurring insects that provide life giving pollination.
It appears there will at least two conflict of interest issues which might be raised and at least two recusals may likely be needed.
Mayor TenHaken’s Next Generation Leadership PAC has Joel Dykstra involved in the management of the campaign / PAC organization. Joel will be asking for a RE-ZONE and PRELIMINARY SUBDIVISION PLAN approval from the city council after the Planning Commission already approved it.
Councilor Selberg works for Van Buskirk Companies. The company was involved turning this development into a cluster to begin with by not finishing a promised road in the beginning of this development.
As we research more business connections, we see potential conflicts and believe full disclosures with recusals are required. Hopefully Marsh and Pauly will be recusing themselves next Tuesday on this item. If they don’t there could be legal and ethical ramifications from the adjacent property owners. We will see if they do the right thing.
KEYSTONE, S.D. (KELO) -- The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota is reporting “incidents of police misconduct” as well as “violations of constitutional rights” at protests ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit and the return of fireworks at Mount Rushmore.
A mannequin wears a face mask at the Citadel Outlets in Commerce, Calif., Thursday, July 2, 2020. California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday urged Californians to turn to their "better angels" and use common sense over the holiday weekend by…
