Rick Kiley

Why isn’t Sioux Falls City Councilor Rick Kiley participating in Forums?

No challengers. No Problem. Suck it.

Technically Rick doesn’t have to debate since he is an incumbent without a challenger.

But I had two different people tonight ask why he just doesn’t do it as a courtesy.

Good question.

I know in the past I have seen incumbents with no challengers participate in candidate forums, just to give voters a refresher of who they are and what they plan to do in the next term.

Maybe Rick doesn’t want us to know what he will be doing in the next 4 years. So much for transparency. I wonder if he knows that Huether will be gone after May 15th?

Sioux Falls City Councilors Kiley and Erickson need opponents

 

It’s time to wipe these two faces from the city website after May 2018.

After the recent votes on the golf contract and parking ramp it is becoming more and more obvious councilors Christine Erickson (at-large) and Rick Kiley (SE) need opponents.

Kiley has always been a strong supporter of the mayor and his policies of secret government. But it seems Erickson has lost her way. It all seem to have happened when her and the mayor had their ‘special’ meeting when she became elected vice-chair. Some kind of handshake deal was made because a lot of people are wondering what happened to the old Christine that supported things like FREE bus rides for kids and opposed the city administration building. That ship has apparently sailed after signing a deal with the devil, or should I say dictator.

Unfortunately NO one has stepped up to run against these two. Clara Hart has decided to stay in the already crowded at-large position that Rolfing is leaving vacant (Paulson and Brekke are also running in that race).

There has been some talk about a possible challenger to Kiley (if not two) but I am still waiting for a challenger to Erickson.

We truly need a significant change in city government coming May, and I think we not only need to replace the mayor and any candidates with his philosophies (Entenman and TenHaken) we need four new fresh faces on the city council.

I encourage people to oppose Kiley and Erickson, they are beatable, you just have to expose their voting records that support a more closed and non-transparent government. Step up, your city needs you!

Sioux Falls City Councilor Pat Starr did the right thing

Sure, we can discuss the minute details about how Pat handled this (did he walk out at the right time? Was it professional? etc., etc.) but when you look at the BIG PICTURE something I reminded the council to do when looking at the parking ramp project to begin with, I think Pat walking out was the right thing to do, especially since he had no other options. The Mayor and Kiley already said there would be no more input, could Pat really have gotten the rest of the council to overturn it? Probably not.

As Tim Stanga brought up during the meeting (and Belfrage discussed it on his show today) the council’s minds were already made up before the meeting even started.

What was disappointing the most about the input about the ramp itself was the fact that we heard NO testimony from the developers, we also had NO testimony from the city’s legal counsel about the liability of Hultgren and Drake.

It was obvious that the mayor wanted to bury the hatchet as quick as possible, it was obvious when he was acting like a restless child when Stehly brought forward amendments.

But what is more troubling is that Kiley and Huether reaction to Starr’s statement that he is the one being ‘unprofessional’. The entire council and mayor BESIDES Starr acted like complete children throughout the meeting, as I have pointed out earlier. I don’t blame Starr for not wanting to be a part of it. I also applaud him that his name will not appear on any of the documents or votes on the project (that I think will never happen due to lawsuits, lack of investors, bankruptcy OR all of the above – remember, the developers have already said they have no investors yet, or a hotel franchise).

Huether and Kiley were acting like jackasses when it comes to public input, as they normally do, and they finally got called out on it. If anyone should be embarrassed it should be them. Honestly Starr looks like a Star in this manner.

Sioux Falls City Council Race mash-up

The city council races are starting to come together, but there are still some unknowns and variables.

Currently the Central District has three running in the race. I won’t rule out that more could get in that race, but probably unlikely.

Retired Firefighter and Insurance Salesman, Curt Soehl. I don’t know a whole lot about Curt, but what I have read on his FB page is that he was very pro-Huether and approved of his accomplishments and leadership style, which is unfortunate.

Thor Bardon. I believe Thor works in banking. Thor’s platform is workforce development and other social issues in our community.

Local art promoter and business owner, Zach DeBoer. Zach is heavily involved with the downtown culture and development.

At-Large has 3 candidates, but that could change.

John Paulson, former Sanford Executive and Planning Commission member who lost to Theresa Stehly in the last election will probably run the same ‘everything is wonderful and great in Sioux Falls’ campaign.

Janet Brekke, who is a former city attorney and currently a private attorney is challenging Paulson. I don’t know a lot about Janet, but I think we will learn more in the coming weeks since she has formerly announced.

Clara Hart has said she will run in the At-Large, but she could just as easily challenge Rick Kiley to get out of a crowded At-Large race (which may get more crowded). Clara lives in his SE district and may have a better chance in a two person race, and avoid a run-off.

As I said, Kiley has announced he will run for a 2nd term and has no challengers currently, I hope that changes.

Erickson hasn’t announced whether she is running for a 2nd term or not, she has said she will probably NOT run for mayor. But currently if Erickson did announce, she doesn’t have a challenger. I’m wondering if someone is waiting in the wings until Erickson announces. One of the bigger questions I have been asked over the past couple of weeks has been, “Will Erickson run for a 2nd term to begin with or is she busy trying to recruit someone to run for the seat?”

As you can see, we have about 5-1/2 months until the city election and the council races are still shaping up. Anything could change at this point.