SF City Council

1st Amendment Brandon Minnehaha County SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Data Center will get approved tonight

l3wis January 6, 2026 4Comments

UPDATE: HOLY SH!TTTTT!!!!! So the council votes for the rezone, BUT denies the development plan. Then at the end of the meeting they did a reconsideration then approved the plan. Cowards. I have never seen a council pull such a chickensh!t move ever. I have been watching these since Hanson.

I told the council tonight during public input that if they pass this, that they just don’t care. And they proved me right, 7-0 (Barranco was absent, SMART MAN!) They all got in line and voted on a rezone that they fast tracked this summer under the radar. And I loved that part, because I suckered the dipsh!ts into admitting what they did. During my input I told them that the vote was ILLEGAL because of the fast tracked annexation and that the people who live in that part of the county are NOT represented by them. Well that ruffled their feathers so they started throwing legal questions at Fiddle (I was giggling at home) after public input trying to justify the legality (I knew it was legal, I just wanted to hear the excuses). So during their GOTCHA period they had to admit they fast tracked this. Morons. They can’t even cover their tracks. As for a petition drive, a few people approached me tonight that they plan on doing one. So that is good. I also brought up during my testimony that our TV media in Sioux Falls is WORTHLESS because they waited until the day of the 2nd reading to do a story about this. The crowd was laughing. But I was serious. They suck and they are in the bag with city government, it is disgusting. But after the vote, the real fireworks happened, and I figured it would. As folks were walking out they called the council about every name in the book, and not the good book. Damn, I thot I was watching Chapelle. LOL. I also found it funny that when the council was justifying their votes they only talked about the tax revenue and not one single one of them brought up our rates going up. They also justified it because there are other data centers in Sioux Falls. REALLY?!? Yeah, those are clerical, NOT AI, big diffo. But hey, they almost saved the day by denying the preliminary plan, 4-3, then bringing it back and voting for it. You were almost ready to govern, maybe in a few months;

One last rant about the night, man I could do play by play with Lalley and have a blast about this meeting, this one is going down in the history books and please Cameraman Bruce, throw this one on YouTube. Anyhoo, before public input on the Data Center, Paul told people they had to say the name of the town they are from. No they do not, it is a violation of your 1st Amendment rights. He is clueless. Paul actually got his ass handed to him tonight from the public for once. Thank You. I think I’m going to do a best of clip, especially the part where he gavels clappers. Good stuff. Or when the very nice mom told Paul to check his quote with Kelo. LOL.

——————-

This is just the re-zone. The company will have to have final plans approved by the planning commission and city council. As I have told advocacy groups and individuals, this is getting approved and the only way to stop this is with a petition drive, but I still question the legal authority of the Sioux Falls city council to pass this. This is NOT within city limits. In other words, the folks that live in this district (likely a township and NOT residents of Brandon or Sioux Falls) will have officials NOT elected by them making decisions about land use. It would be like the township board voting on a gas station re-zone within the northern most city limits of Sioux Falls. Not their jurisdiction, just like this is NOT. It is called the joint-jurisdiction area that still needs to be annexed in Sioux Falls. Until that annexation happens, the county and the township should have the final authority on this re-zone. I think there could be legal challenges to this as well as a petition drive. I know it would be complicated, but I think the petition drive could reflect a special election within the township this rezone resides. Probably only need 100 valid sigs.

WE WILL SEE ON WEDNESDAY MORNING

I’ll be waiting for all of these ‘supposed’ advocacy groups to present their petition Wednesday morning, but I am not holding my breath. I think they continue to beat their heads against the wall for job security reasons.

I think the thing that bothers me the most besides all the shady legal authority surrounding this rezone is our water and energy costs going up and our elected officials don’t seem to care. It is pretty sad.

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

Sioux Falls City Councilors are oblivious to ethics and transparency

l3wis December 30, 2025 2Comments

And the unethical behavior continues!

A committee with representation from community members, city council and city administrators looked through the applications and chose which organizations best fit into those three categories and served the needs of Sioux Falls.

City councilor Miranda Bayse was originally on the committee, however, a conflict of interest with one of the nonprofits caused her to step away from the reviewing and voting on the organizations. She still offered insight to KELOLAND News about the new process.

Bayse said the proposals exceeded the budget, so committee members had to be selective about which nonprofits received funding from the city.

“The coliseum and what happens in that space is very important,” Bayse said in an interview with KELOLAND News Tuesday. “I don’t know the answer, but if funding isn’t feasible in the budget, are there other ways as a community to support and encourage the things that happen in that space?”

Bayse also acknowledged the timeline to submit and review proposals was tight, which could have played a role in why some organizations received funding while others did not.

Isn’t it interesting how she knows so much about the review process yet she claims she stepped away from it. She was likely in on the meetings, and even if she didn’t vote she can influence other members. It’s pretty simple, if you have a conflict, your recuse yourself before the process even begins. You also tell the public what that conflict is and you certainly can’t vote or influence other councilors. Three strikes against Lucy.

It almost seems like they are proud of what they can get away with. After the city election in June if crap doesn’t shape up I am going to file ethics complaints against the mayor, city councilors and city employees. It’s time they learn what it means to be ethical because this type of blazen behavior erodes public trust immensely.

1st Amendment Downtown Sioux Falls Joe Batcheller Mayor TenHaken Multi-cultural center Planning Commission SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Dead air on Multicultural Center

l3wis December 29, 2025 2Comments

UPDATE: I guess Rich Merkouris talked about the MCC and Data Centers on this podcast. Ellis tried to claim that if this Data Center meets the criteria of the rezone the council doesn’t have a choice but to approve it. Yes, this is TRUE, but they DON’T meet the criteria;

As you can see compatibility should be somewhere between 1-5. If any of those numbers are 4 or below they CAN deny the re-zone. This is EVEN worse since the Compatibility is NA. WTH?

As for the MCC they did apply for funding and were denied. But it sounds like they may be working on something. Sneve asked him if the public is perceiving the council as prejudice towards immigrants by cutting these programs. Merkouris said he didn’t see the correlation because they fund the Dudley house and that population is diverse. That is true, but most of them are natural born citizens and not immigrants, also there is difference between teaching English and housing someone on a cold night. A big difference. And if you don’t educate immigrants they may end up at the Dudley.

We all know why this happening. It’s Trump’s war on brown people and the orgs that provide services to them. It has been a wet dream of Republiscum for decades to kill Luthern Social Services. I guess I don’t care WHO teaches immigrants English, maybe the School District should be doing it but killing needed services without having a full review of their programming is awful. According to Merkouris this went thru several review processes (all in closed door behind the scenes meetings). They just never learn!!!! And that is the one thing that bothered me most about the interview. Ellis and Sneve of course take the side of government and feel they should approve the Data Centers because they are simply following the law (they are NOT) and the citizens opinion doesn’t matter (Sneve made a wisecrack about it.) I would expect those two to say these things, but what astonished me was how Merkouris kept justifying these steps by following the proper procedures (they are not, because this stuff is not being done transparently). Not one single time did Merkouris acknowledge he works for the people of this community, and I think that says it all. We know who butters the council’s bread, and it ain’t Joe Smoe.

As for approving the Data Centers under current zoning regs that part is also troublesome. It is obvious to me they are trying to pull permits and break ground before July 1, 2026. Why? Because if the legislature passes regs this session they would likely go into affect on July 1st, so if they start building before then they don’t have to follow the new laws because they will be grandfathered in.

To tell you the truth, the council should just defer this rezone until July 2, 2026, and force them to follow the new regs. But that would take foresight and vision. 🙂

Original Post ——–

So when the mayor dropped his bomb right before Christmas eliminating funding for MCC and several other non-profits I suspected the council would be working behind the scenes to restore the funding or work out a long-term solution. Who am I freaking kidding?! So I went radio silence after the announcement because I wanted to see how the council would handle this without me rattling them. I usually email, call or text 1 or 2 councilors a week. Ever since this announcement I have said nothing and I have not gotten any messages from them about what they are working on.

They are ‘probably’ working on something behind the scenes, but it is radio silence. I also found the timing of the cancellation a total A$$HOLE move. But we don’t need to go into that.

When there are hot topics with the city I usually have a couple of people ask me about the issue. On this one, people are crawling over each other to talk to me about it. No kidding. Last night at the Orion Pub I had over a dozen individuals ask me about it. I know that’s not scientific, but shocking to me. It’s bad and the little game of cutting funding right before Christmas when city government is on a 2 week vacation is NOT encouraging.

Believe it or not, I am urging the council to do NOTHING. Let this funding relapse occur.

So why do I want them to do nothing?

I watched the library funding fiasco and how the council was put in a corner because of the turd in the corner office. Don’t do this again! Let the mayor own this. Let the public inform him of his bad decisions. You let this guy get away with soooo much, then you take the blame, and cry in the corner. Probably one of the weakest councils I have seen in 20 years. You need to eat more STEAK! LOL.

DATA CENTER NEEDS TO BE KILLED AT THE BALLOT BOX

As I mentioned before I think a petition drive CAN be done to stop this, but it will take HUNDREDS of volunteers and the cooperation of many orgs. I have mentioned these before;

• Sustainability Task Force (these folks spent months developing a plan only for the mayor to have his pumpkin pusher take a leak on it).

• National Dem Party, the State Dem party or at least the Minnehaha County Dems.

• The mayoral campaigns of Batcheller and Smith.

• Knobe’s group The Change Makers.

• Indivisible 605 (They organize the No Kings Rallies, and actually have one planned on the same day the council will approve the rezone on Data Center. The rally ends at 5 PM and I would encourage everyone to attend and speak at the city council meeting at 6 PM against the rezone, even if they will still vote yes, this will be important to the petition drive publicity).

I think these folks, if teamed together could get 10,000 sigs in less then 24 days! I would also unify advocates! I often roll my eyes at supposed local advocacy groups who write a couple letters to the editor and send STERN emails to legislators. Give it up. Real advocacy happens in the field, talking to folks on the ground.

I think this petition drive could be uniting, even if you don’t get the sigs or some judge with deep pockets in the city throws it out, it will send a clear message that the citizens are fed up with the city council making poor decisions that affect our daily lives and expenses.

We WILL SEE if these groups act or just drink tea, eat gummies and write letters that no one reads 🙂 Kinda like how I run my blog 🙂 and that is why I could never do it alone. Hey folks! It takes a village! But yah gotta leave your hut.

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

Sioux Falls public inputer passes

l3wis December 26, 2025 0Comments

I nicknamed him Dennis the Menace. He was a conservative who would come to the podium and admonish the other public inputers who said unflattering things about our mayor and council. It was horrible trolling and most of us in the crowd would just laugh at his rants toward the public as just another ignorant right winger, and he was. He often blamed Muslims for the problems in our country. Yeah, he was one of those guys 🙂 But when I really knew he was full of it was during his rants about Seattle.

For weeks Dennis went on and on about how bad Seattle was (drugs and homeless). I have several relatives that live in suburbs of Seattle and work in Seattle. One of them told me that downtown is a s-hole and you don’t leave your locked vehicle when in Downtown. But other then that like most major cities the only drawback is traffic.

I decided to see if Dennis actually lived in Seattle. He did not. His obit said he lived mostly in Tacoma and when I looked up his past residence before leaving Washington state he lived in a small suburb about 40 miles South of Seattle. Seems like quite the distance between DT Seattle and where he lived. He did work in Seattle, which I also found ironic. Because he said he moved to SD to get away from all the Libs in Seattle. No he didn’t. He moved here so he wouldn’t have to pay income taxes in his retirement. Almost a 100% of his professional life was in the Seattle area. His last job was working a forklift at the Seattle Port Authority – My grandpa worked for them for 40 years as a delivery driver! I find it funny that a place that gave this man his welfare and wellbeing would trash such a place. When my grandpa retired, I think in the 1980’s, he never dreamed of leaving Seattle and retiring in Wagner (where he was born). But that’s typical of conservative boomers, use up what you can and move on and avoid taxes at all costs.

The other part I found funny was all the local newspaper articles I found online from the town that Dennis lived in. He was a frequenter at public input at his city commission meetings. And he said some nasty things to the council. I also found that odd since when he spoke at SF City Council meetings he was sticking up for our mayor and council.

I guess the entire city commission was Libs and that is the REAL reason he would admonish them. Libs according to Dennis (anyone who was NOT a registered Republican was a Lib in Dennis’ book). So I guess three-quarters of our country is Lib, who knew?

I will applaud anyone who is willing to speak publicly about their beliefs on government, what I don’t applaud is when they use that platform to spread hate and misinformation.

1st Amendment Brandon Planning Commission Redistricting Sioux Falls SF City Council Sioux Falls

Data Center Re-Zone Lobbying Hard!

l3wis December 25, 2025 1Comments

I have been seeing quite a few ads online for this Data Center Lobbyist front called NetChoice. And they have specifically said in the ads that they are pushing for the rezone on the Data Center between SF and Weirdsville (Brandon).

I guess they are getting serious about this. But why would you advertise to the public when all you have to convince is a mayor and 4 councilors? NetChoice really doesn’t understand how this works.

Oh, and I read their posts about data centers. Total hogwash. I told someone for every ONE positive story about data centers there is 1,000 negative stories. Do you think that is a cabal?

I have told people I think only one or two councilors are opposed to this, but will get their titties twisted on Jan 6 and vote like good kids.

THIS IS PASSING, I HAVE NO DOUBT!

The sad part is this will set a VERY dangerous precedent. I think the city should wait for the state legislature to put regs in place before re-zoning, and BTW, in a joint-jurisdiction zone, which is even more troubling because who really has the authority to approve this? The County? The Township? The City? I don’t know, it is a freaking mystery to me.

If this moves forward, you will see a massive data center park built in Sioux Falls, and since we didn’t stop this NOW we are screwed, but are we?

I think this re-zone is important enough that there needs to be a petition drive to call a special election and overturn the re-zone. If we don’t stop this NOW, we never will.

I don’t have the resources to get 7,500 sigs in 20 days, but several non-profits do. I emailed a local non-profit opposed to this rezone and told them to get a petition drive ready, because this is the only way you will stop this madness, I would also coordinate with the sustainability folks, the Dem party, Jamie Smith’s campaign and that local group of independents lead by Knobe.

And it is madness. The way the council has voted on items affecting residents over the past two years has been baffling, counter productive, damaging, and frankly disgusting. If it’s black, they vote white. If it is white, they vote black. They vote against our interests so much I am trying to figure out what’s in the water at Carnegie?

The big boys in the tech world think they are going to roll us hayseeds in SD, it’s time we stand up to them and tell them were they can stick their servers.

UPDATE: Data Center will get approved tonight

Sioux Falls City Councilors are oblivious to ethics and transparency

UPDATE: Dead air on Multicultural Center

Sioux Falls public inputer passes

Data Center Re-Zone Lobbying Hard!

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UPDATE: Data Center will get approved tonight

Big Announcement

So that took awhile

One Great City!