South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Rick Kiley

Developers Development Planning Commission Rick Kiley SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: City of Sioux Falls ‘Lame Duck’ update

l3wis 3Comments

UPDATE: I reported about this a year ago that peeps are camping in our parks, it took the geniuses at city hall a year to figure out how to stop it, but I am NOT sure I am completely on board (Item #45):

This ordinance amendment addresses dwellings in public places and areas not intended for habitation. This ordinance reflects our growing concerns around public health, safety, and the responsible use of our parks, green spaces, and other public areas.

While our trespassing laws would work in there current form, I’m not sure adding more layers to a simple law that works well is the solution. When I brought up this issue, it wasn’t so the city would make it illegal to camp, all I was asking was to enforce our current trespassing laws and interact with these individuals to give them options. How does the SFPD handle it now? They just chase them out of an area, and they are back the next day. If you are not giving these folks an option for REAL shelter, and you are NOT arresting them on trespassing charges, what are you doing with them? Just chasing them to another picnic shelter. We need to work on PERMANENT removal instead of whack-a-mole. I thought about buying Foam Mallets for the police that they can use to chase the transients from the picnic shelters. If you are NOT going to enforce the common sense laws on the books now, the police might as well look just as ridiculous as the enforcement itself.

If you look at some of the city business over the past few weeks, it is obvious a lame duck is in charge, and he has really been flailing since the real mayor of the city resigned last month and now Poops can’t use the Erica Auto Pen anymore.

MAYOR TENHAKEN TO APPOINT FORMER CITY COUNCILOR RICK KILEY TO THE CHARTER REVISION COMMISSION (Item #49)

Let’s pretend for a moment that Rick was qualified to take this position (he is not), being a former city councilor he has a conflict of interest because he was only appointed to protect the interests of the city, the mayor’s office and the city council and could care less about changes that benefit the community as a whole. He was appointed to be another sock-blocker on the CRC tamping down citizen initiatives. I would encourage the city council to vote him down, but we know it will be an 8-0 vote of his approval, so I am looking forward to his arrival on the board 🙁 You do know that the public interacts with the CRC during these meetings unlike the chicken sh!t council that is scared of their own shadows. Rick doesn’t handle public interaction well, frequently talking down constituents at the meetings, it doesn’t roll that way at the CRC. Better put on your big kid pants Rick, this isn’t another day in the park city council meeting where you hide behind made up rules. Can’t wait for him to start telling his HS science teacher stories and how it applies to city law 🙂 I wonder if he will tell the story about the student in the hallway?

TRE MINISTRIES BACKING OUT ON ORIGINAL PROPOSAL AFTER LYING TO CITY COUNCIL, Planning Commission (Item #5A)

So after they lied to the city council about investors and a developer so they could get a $500K, interest free loan (that never has to be paid back) to demolish the buildings on the existing property, including an historical building, they are having a change of plans. I hope the neighborhood shows up to bitch about this. They are basically scaling back the housing portion and are putting in an office building, like we need more office buildings in this town, right next to a bustling residential neighborhood. Tre really needs to sell the property to an apartment developer and put in housing instead of their indentured servant program they plan to run in the name JC. It often cracks me up when these supposed religious organizations lie in public meetings to get tax dollars. Maybe they need the 10 Commandments tacked up in their break room.

REZONE FOR DATA CENTER MOVING FORWARD EVEN WITH OPPOSITION FROM THE CITY OF BRANDON’S RESIDENTIAL GROWTH AREA (Item #46)

I don’t have a problem with a Data Center in the middle of a cornfield, but the problem is the City of Sioux Falls is sticking their noses in the County and specifically the City of Brandon’s residential growth map. Brandon is opposed to the rezone to allow a data center because they want the land to be developed residential as it is zoned right now. Also, the foreign owned company who owns the property has been very secretive about their plans, which should be worrisome. As for jobs? Sure, it will create hundreds of jobs for out-of-state contractors while being built, but very few once open, it’s just a gigantic building sucking electricity full of servers. The planning commission justified their zoning change because the owners will still have to go thru a permitting process. Hogwash. If you would have refused this rezone abruptly this whole process would be over and Brandon would get to keep the land for residential development. So what do we need more of in SE South Dakota? Data Centers or Housing? I think you know the answer, but does our city council? This would be a very easy NO vote, but they never make anything easy. Hopefully they can defer this until they have the full plans from the FOREIGN company proposing this.

CITY BALL FIELD TO BE NAMED AFTER FINANCIAL INSTITUTION WITH NO DOLLAR VALUE OF SPONSORSHIP (Item #44)

In one of the strangest park sponsorships I have ever seen, they are granting a 30 year naming sponsorship to a financial institution for a new ball field with NO DOLLAR AMOUNT mentioned in the sponsorship. I have never seen this before. They only reference what they will be paying for;

WHEREAS, HBA and the City agree that one of the conditions of such gift is to name the ballfield
“Sammons Field at Prairie Meadows Park” for the life of the Improvements and may be referred to as
the “Sammons Field” on any signage; and

While it is great they will be paying for the improvements (and why would we accept this field from Harrisburg?) there should be a yearly spending cap, so what is it? Transparency is just a turd to flush to this current administration. Don’t be fooled, the taxpayers of SF will be paying for most of the improvements, while we slap a financial institution’s name on it because they bought a couple of park benches. Even the rich and powerful now control our parks, while we have to pay to maintain them.

WHY DOES THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS NEED A MARKETING STRATEGY?

I saw this ridiculous RFP listing from the city last week;

Media Planning and Buying Services and Strategic Marketing Support

First off, the city has a large media department, this can be handled internally, and secondly, the city doesn’t need a ‘Marketing Strategy’ you are a non-profit, not a for profit business. What we need is a qualified public information officer whose only job is to disseminate information to the media and public thru press releases, press conferences and city link. We give thousands to the SF Development Foundation each year to do this, that is LITERALLY their main purpose, DO YOUR JOB!

DAKOTAFREEPRESS IS BACK AT IT

This is unrelated to city bizzo, but Cory is back at it. I figured he would return, everyone needs a break. I will probably take a break after the 2026 city election.

Christine Erickson Greg Neitzert Mayor TenHaken Patrick Starr Rick Kiley SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Councilor Kiley’s Tuesday Night Shananigans & Scammery

l3wis 8Comments

Besides the potential Open Meetings violations at last Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, it seems Kiley was participating in some very strange behavior.

If a City Councilor has a conflict of interest with an item, they must recuse themselves and go in the back room. They must do this AT THE ANNOUNCEMENT of the item and not return until after the final vote. They can’t sit there and listen and then leave before the vote. They must ALSO tell us why they are leaving. Kiley didn’t do that.

My assumption was it was done to save the mayor from having to have a tie vote on Neitzert’s Amendment that Kiley saw in advance*.

Watch how this plays out on Item #40, resolution on development.

(FF 21:20) Kiley doesn’t leave at the beginning, and Erickson whispers something into his ear.

(FF 1:06) Kiley is still sitting on the dais and leans into Erickson and says something as Neitzert discusses his amendment. Between 1:06 and 1:10 he leaves the dais and goes into backroom before the Amendment vote of 4-3 saving the Mayor from breaking a tie. Kiley doesn’t return until after final motion vote and the announcement of the next item.

So Ricky Lee, seems like an interesting time to take a potty break? Talk about blatant corruption and scammery.

But that wasn’t the only time Ricky was up to his little bag of tricks with the help of his magician assistant Heels. *(FF: 2:38) While Neitzert gave an advance notice (several days) of his Garbage Hauler amendment, Ricky did not. It has been ruled in the past by the city attorney that councilors should give a 24 hour advance notice, they have called councilor Starr out on it. So Pat asked Ricky Lee about it and said he could do it because Pat did it in the past to which Pat responded sarcastically, “Yeah, I’d be happy to take credit for it.”

David Barranco Elections Republicans Rick Kiley SF City Council Sioux Falls

David Barranco announces candidacy for Sioux Falls City Council, SE District

l3wis 7Comments

I had heard a couple of months ago a ‘young attorney’ was running for Ricky Lee’s open seat;

David Barranco is getting ready to move forward with his candidacy and this past Friday announced to friends privately that he’s running, and is noting his interest,

In 2022, when Councilman Kiley’s term ends, his seat will be open. I am excited to run for that position. My hope is to serve working families, keeping a pragmatic, problem-solving focus. I’m dedicated to building a bright future for Sioux Falls, with a strong economy and reliable infrastructure.

I’m passionate about expanding the local workforce and creating more affordable housing. As a husband, father, and FCA coach, I’m dedicated to keeping kids safe by supporting law enforcement and defending public health. I’ll endeavor to grow pet-friendly spaces, reduce automobile traffic, and plant thousands of trees. Most importantly, I’ll strive to be a cooperative consensus builder — one who embraces good policy but eschews divisive rhetoric.

Of course it should not surprise anyone that David has close ties to the SD GOP. His wife Catherine is involved with the National Federation of Republican Women (I think she serves on the board) and used to work for the SD GOP as staff in communications and is still a region director.

It will be interesting to see what kind of support Dave gets from SD GOP . . .

1st Amendment Alex Jensen Christine Erickson Greg Neitzert Open Government Open Meetings Rick Kiley SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Operations Meeting full of some very dark proposals including killing public input

l3wis 4Comments

The City Council had its Operations Committee meeting in the dark of the morning Thursday at 10 AM. I wonder why there was NO public input? Trust, me, this was done on purpose so the public could not attend, especially with some of the crap they were proposing. Once again, like the mayor, the majority of the council, the RS6 now, HATE transparency and openness, it is at the core of their very dark agenda for the city.

The meeting started out with a proposal for more per diem money to the council for logo wear city council apparel. I think right now they receive around $50 a year and they want to increase it to $150 per year. What confuses me is that they could just buy each councilor a simple magnetic name badge (for around $15 bucks) that they could wear on any piece of clothing, heck, buy them two. Just another example of how they waste taxpayer money on something they don’t really need.

I found it interesting that CountCilor Alex Jensen wasn’t wearing city logo wear but a First Premier pull over, nice touch. Reminds me of when Jim Entenman was wearing his Harley Davidson shirts to council meetings. Got to get in that shameless promotion yah know. Also, we can’t forget the thousands of dollars that were funneled to Alex’s campaign thru his employer’s upper leadership and various mischevious PACs. You better wear the damn shirt Alex!

Another change is for the consent agenda. They want councilors to give a 24 hour notice to city hall if they are going to pull something from the consent agenda so the city director/manager responsible for that item can come to the meeting to answer questions, because their time is valuable or something. Nutzert rambled about wedding anniversaries and kid’s birthday parties. Because, when you make a 6-Figure a year salary from the taxpayers of this city you shouldn’t be bothered for 5 minutes to answer a question about city spending when you should be a Chucky Cheese with your kids. Puhhhleese. There has always been this consistent argument, that I knew would gear up after the RS6 was installed, that city employees personal lives on a Tuesday night are somehow more important than the public’s business. They know they have an expectation to come to these meetings, and like I said, they get paid a hefty chunk of change to do so. If you can’t make it because of an important family event, ask someone from your department to fill in. This seems like a responsibility of the director in charge of that department instead of the city council.

They said city councilors don’t have to give the notice, but if they don’t there is no requirement for the director to show up. So basically it is a ‘Pass’ for the very people who are supposed to be serving us (because you know, they get a paycheck to do so).

I have often argued that the consent agenda should be read at the meeting, and after it is completely read by the clerk, items can be pulled. That’s true transparency.

During the meeting, non-committee member, councilor Brekke chimed in from the podium and suggested that the mayor’s office started giving informational meeting updates like they used to, but ended suddenly. We all know why, because of his simmering hatred towards transparency. Just look at the Covid press conferences, vanished, while our numbers are spiking.

The meeting got more interesting with a move to eliminate open discussion at the beginning of the informational meetings and renaming it council comment or report. Basically they can comment about something they are working on, but NO policy discussion, they once again blamed time constraints even though there is NOTHING in the city charter about time constraints or time limits at meetings. If a meeting runs to long, they can recess and come back at another time. Heck the Board of Ethics recessed twice over Greg Nutzert’s ethics hearing. This is a way of keeping more policy decisions from citizens. Disgusting.

The best was at the end of the meeting when, ironically, during open discussion CountCilor Jensen suggested moving public input to the end of the council meetings and eliminating public input on 1st readings. Oh, he was very soft and careful how he presented it, but it was clear when he said something about doing ‘business’ first, what he meant. Councilor Nutzert quickly chimed in and said he would assist him on it, but they may have to take an all expenses paid trip by a right wing partisan hack group to come up with a plan (I jest). I have often argued you put public input first because the public’s opinion is much more important than the business of the council, you know, the people who fund this government and come on their own time to do so. A business coming for a rezone or license is part of an expense of doing business and has little to do with the issues and policies of this city. Citizens should always be at the forefront of local government. I knew this was going to happen when Theresa left, and they have the votes to get it done, so it will probably happen. While I will do my best to fight it, unfortunately this is what happens when a majority of the council has this fascist view of transparency. Total Darkness.

Audit Greg Neitzert Rick Kiley SF City Council Sioux Falls Theresa Stehly

Councilor Stehly gets it done without even voting

l3wis 7Comments

As I have mentioned in the past, Councilor Stehly has gotten a lot of things done without the votes, but by just simply putting on pressure.

She did it again this afternoon at the Audit Committee Meeting.

She asked for several things from the podium during the 2020 Audit Plan presentation;

• An external audit of the Parking System (Theresa mentioned that she found it odd that the city wants to keep building or subsidizing parking ramps downtown yet wants to sell off flat parking lots).

• An audit of the CMAR (Construction Manager at Risk) process.

• Travel expenses of city staff (I guess that during the current administration, city directors and staff, and mostly the mayor, have been taking a lot of ‘junket trips’ but not really giving a report to the public as what they are doing on the trips. Recently TenHaken put up a short column about his trip to China, but never really told us what was really discussed. We also get a lot of updates on FB from the Innovation Manger and all the different cities he has been drinking in.

• A study of City Director salaries in comparison to other cities. Something I pointed out the last time the HR department did a wage study, but did NOT include city directors. How convenient.

The committee argued the merits of all the items. Councilor Brekke mentioned that maybe the city council budget analyst could look into the last two items and do a presentation on those findings – which I agree.

Audit Manager Nelson suggested that the CMAR audit would have to be done externally due to it’s speciality of the audit.

But they got into a long discussion about the external parking ramp audit. Councilor Kiley said he didn’t want to put it on the audit plan because they are in the middle of litigation, but other members argued that there was nothing wrong with putting it on the agenda, and if they have to pull it in the future, they can. The amendment to add it passed with Kiley and Chair Neitzert voting against it. Councilor Stehly doesn’t sit on the committee so she couldn’t vote on it.

T.J. TypeOver said they won’t audit it until it is done;

T.J. Nelson, deputy chief of staff in the mayor’s office, said City Hall isn’t opposed to a review of the parking system or the ramp, but not until the ramp project is complete and the dust settles on any lawsuits surrounding it.

“The administration will complete a comprehensive review of the process that led to the prior approval of this project by the Huether administration. This will take place following the ramp’s completion and resolution of any outstanding legal matters,” he said. “At this time, the administration supports a financial or construction audit consistent with the time frame outlined above.”

Yeah, after we have f’d up in every possible way we can, then we will tell the public how that f’k up occurred. WHAT!? Wouldn’t it be wise to figure that out BEFORE we move ahead with another developer or even litigation? Wouldn’t this help our case? Sometimes I wonder if putting money in a burn barrel would be a better way to spend money then paying city communication staff.

There was also a presentation on the Landfill Audit. There was a lot of problems going on out there where basically employees were not following procedures and not doing proper inspections. You can listen for yourself. My view is the city is missing out on a lot of landfill revenue due to the laziness of the employees. I think they were warned about these things in past audits. I think it is time to start handing our pink slips, then maybe they will get the picture.

Chair Neitzert mentions at the end they are going to start the process of hiring another staff auditor (which they do need). I wonder if this time they will actually put an employment ad in something besides Tidbits and the City Hall’s lunchroom?

PUBLIC TRANSIT MEETING

I still haven’t heard all the details of what happened, but I guess a committee member got a little irate about how the public is being left out of the decisions they are making. More to come.

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