South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Rick Kiley

Christine Erickson Clara Hart Curt Soehl Elections Janet Brekke John Paulson Rick Kiley SF City Council Sioux Falls Thor Bardon Zach DeBoer

Sioux Falls City Council Race mash-up

l3wis 2Comments

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.

Elections Rick Kiley SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Councilor Kiley staunch supporter of government secrecy

l3wis 6Comments

SE District Councilor Kiley has announced today he is running for a 2nd term.

That’s too bad.

At this point he has no challengers though there have been a couple of people who have seemed interested.

Kiley will try to paint a rosy picture of his first 4 years which couldn’t be further from the truth;

During his first term, Kiley, 64, fought to maintain free and reduced pool passes for Sioux Falls most needy, reformed door-to-door sales regulations in the name of consumer protection and voted against raising paratransit fares on multiple occasions.

And that is about as good as it gets for Rick. He has fought hard to protect secretive government in Sioux Falls and has backed the mayor almost 99.9% of the time when it comes to his agenda, including an unneeded administration building & change in council elections requiring a majority.

Kiley has also done very little in being an advocate for citizens and often defends city directors over citizens. He also helped lead the charge to concoct bogus ethics charges against Stehly basically throwing one of his peers under the bus under false pretenses under the direction of one of the most unqualified city attorneys we have ever had.

Kiley is bad news, especially if we get a mayor truly committed to open and transparent government, he will find himself in a very lonely place over the next 4 years.

Hopefully we can find a good challenger and someone who can paint a real picture of Kiley’s true anti-citizen government views.

Christine Erickson Patrick Starr Rick Kiley SF City Council Sioux Falls Theresa Stehly

Looks like the council election of Chair and Vice- Chair may be a done deal

l3wis 1Comments

It seems once Councilor Kiley knew he may be on the chopping block he started playing nice with his fellow councilors and citizens. Also, since the administration realized that councilor Erickson may be vice-chair, the mayor has appointed her his new BFF.

Starr said barring any unforeseen council fireworks, Kiley’s the favorite to be elected chairman next Tuesday, with Councilor Christine Erickson the likely pick for vice chair.

Their ascension to the top leadership spots isn’t without some consternation. Councilor Theresa Stehly hasn’t ruled out voting for Kiley and Erickson as Council leadership, but she is toying with the idea of nominating Starr or Councilor Greg Neitzert as vice chair.

I personally would have liked to see Erickson as chair and Starr as vice-chair. Oh well, looks like the administration may win again.

Censorship city Link Open Government Open Meetings Rick Kiley SFFD SFPD Sioux Falls

Building Collapse Video disappearing act

l3wis 4Comments

Friday afternoon I noticed that a new episode of Inside Town Hall appeared on the City of Sioux Falls You Tube page. It was the normal setup. City councilor Kiley had on the Director of 911, Matt Burns (SFPD) and the chief of the fire department to talk about their working relationships. The one thing I noticed when I started viewing the video was that it was 44 minutes long (most episodes are 30 minutes). While there was nothing revealing in the show itself, right at the 30 minute mark it went into a 14 minute (muted) video of the building collapse rescue efforts. There were several breaks in the video and it looked professionally shot, at one point it seemed also a drone was used (or shot from a fire truck ladder).

I gathered that this video was probably shot by City Link crew. While I commend them for doing this, it also got me thinking about a lot of other angles.

• What did it cost to have a city film crew on site for that long?

• While we won’t film parks board meetings, somehow the city found it necessary to film this event?

• Why would the city not do an investigation when they had this kind of crucial footage, which included them marking the cracks in PAVE’s wall, a crane holding up the wall, and pulling away the damaged car?

• Was the footage turned over to the insurance companies and OSHA?

• Why shoot this video (which included the rescue of the apartment dweller being pulled from the wreckage) when we don’t send a film crew to every fire rescue event?

• Were they planning on using this video as some kind of propaganda?

• And lastly, why was this posted to YouTube and now has disappeared from the site?

After watching the video, I talked openly about watching it to a group of friends at Drinking Liberally Friday night at the Taphouse. Did someone in the group (or near the table) report this back to the city?

It’s funny how transparency works in this town.

Rick Kiley SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Councilor Kiley may get the boot due to his relationship with the executive branch

l3wis 8Comments

Trust me, the councilors have been discussing this for awhile, and Kiley may get a May surprise;

In Kiley’s case, it’s his relationship with City Hall that shows signs of hurting his ascent on a council that’s increasingly asserting its independence from the mayor.

“Are you working for us or the mayor?” Councilor Greg Neitzert asked Monday during a discussion on whether to overturn the mayor’s veto of a Council measure to require the Parks Board to post recordings of its meetings on the city website. “This vote, in my mind, is going to answer that question.”

Neitzert in an interview hinted that the Council could deviate from the traditional power transfer order when deciding who next to hand the gavel to in May.

“I want somebody who is going to represent the Council and our best interest. My vote will be predicated on that thought,” Neitzert said. “Are they going to stand up for the Council? Are they going to be open with us? Are you a little too cozy with the mayor’s office at the expense of the council?”

I’ve told councilors to change it up a bit and pick two new leaders (Chair and Vice-Chair). Ideally, I would like to see Erickson as Chair and Selberg as Vice-Chair, but any arrangement that doesn’t involve Kiley would be preferable. Of course, he is painting a different picture;

“If I cast a vote based on what I think could be political fallout … even if it may impact my opportunity to one day serve as chairman of the City Council, the only person I would be serving would be myself,” he said. “The day I base a decision or vote on an election is the day I should resign. That day will never come.”

That’s unfortunate.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

You Missed

1st Amendment Veterans Day

Jesse Ventura Sounds off

1st Amendment Public Utilities Public Works Sioux Falls

The POOP Hole Crew

1st Amendment Developers Development Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls Trump

Was the Sioux Falls City Council blackmailed by Sally Tomato?

1st Amendment Developers Development Downtown Sioux Falls Planning Commission SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

UPDATE: Is it time to recall the entire city council and mayor?