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SF City Council

1st Amendment Dr. Sarah Cole Elections Gun Control Guns and Roses Guns on Campus SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Sioux Falls City Council already knows who they will appoint to Cole’s vacant seat

l3wis 1Comments

UPDATE: So while the council had an opportunity at the informational and regular city council meeting yesterday to inform the public on how to apply, they decided to wait almost a full day and have a presser. It wasn’t much more helpful. Basically, Council Chair Merkouris said you have to basically kiss the asses of two city councilors to get nominated. Nothing about submitting an application, nothing about that application getting reviewed by council. I never again want to hear ONE single councilor BITCH about constituent participation in government when you play the Chamber Brown Nose Truffle game with this appointment. Do these folks ever look in the mirror?

I know I bring it up a lot, but the city council is very predictable. Watching the meeting tonight was like watching a community theatre play. I have been very speculative of the appointment process for replacing Cole because there has been no public announcement that people can apply to be nominated and appointed. I texted city councilor Barranco a few weeks back about how the appointment process would be handled and he told me that councilor Sigette was handling it, which I find ironic since she also was NOT elected. David also gave me no information on how to apply. I am assuming you would send your nominating petition to Jim David, Council Operations Manager; 605-367-8080. But when Mr. David talked about the item (#21) tonight he never gave an email address or a process of how to submit your nomination and none of the councilors brought it up either. I even texted councilor Barranco after the resolution vote and urged him to inform the public how to apply at the end of the meeting. Crickets. I think it is ironic that a council and mayor that whines about voter participation in elections and running for office gives the public ZERO information on how to be nominated and applying for this position. You can’t complain on one hand that no one participates in local government then turnaround and give the public ZERO information on how to get involved. Are you really that stupid and arrogant? Or more importantly, do you think the public is that stupid? I sometimes wonder what planet these folks are from . . . oh, that’s right, Planet Chamber of Commerce, where the favorite app at the mixer is brown nose truffles.

I encourage EVERYONE even if you are not interested, to apply for this nomination and appointment. Please, flood Mr. David’s voicemail box, because the council will have to answer to that the night of the appointment.

I do make a lot of predictions on this site, you know, my record is so-so, but I have to admit I was astonished that I predicted Cole’s council path almost to the tee. Magic 8-Ball, don’t fail me now!!!!!

I think they will pick Rex Rolfing or Rick Kiley, even though I think Neitzert could also be picked because he would be safe and non-controversial. I actually would look forward to Greg removing his hand from Cole’s back and just taking her seat himself. He was supposed to do a presentation at the informational today about public transit but had to cancel. That tells me he is the favorite to take the spot because he is actively getting involved. This may be a 3 man race, so to speak.

GUNS A BLAZING!

I think my favorite part of the council meeting tonight was public input. At first I was sympathetic to a gentleman that was detained by police for having a LEGAL firearm on him and explaining his situation, but then when he blamed liberals for police training, I just shook my head. I have a feeling the cops ran his plates and found some kind of violation in his past record so they decided to question him. Maybe that is NOT the case, but when you automatically blame liberals for something they have nothing to do with, you already lost you argument. He talked about some lawsuit, so we will see where this Yosemite Sam ordeal goes.

Gun people = Weird

You know, there is a lot of liberal Indy’s like myself who support 2nd Amendment rights, with some regulation, but when you have crazy talk at a public meeting, it just makes me NOT want to support you. I have crazy liberal friends that hunt like mad and have over 20 firearms, but support gun control. Build bridges not shooting ranges.

1st Amendment Developers Development Downtown Sioux Falls SF City Council Sioux Falls TIFs

One 2 . . . Three and Four and the disappearing TIF act

l3wis 3Comments

Photo; Sioux Falls Business Journal

Last night during the discussion on selling the parking lot downtown, something interesting came up. Councilors were concerned that someone wanted to buy the parking lot just to convert into a private parking lot and wanted to make sure there was enough parking if housing was built there and compared it to the One 2 building next to Ace Hardware downtown (the city sold the lot for a song). In the discussion it was revealed that instead of retail on the main floor of the building it is actually now 2 levels of parking (basement, 1st floor) and in making this decision they decided to add 2 floors of apartments to the building. Now, no big deal, development plans change, but it never got re-approved by the council. Which tells me an un-elected city employee made the decision and was likely backed up by the mayor’s office.

TIFs MAY BE A THING OF THE PAST IF THE SD STATE LEGISLATURE HAS THEIR WAY

During the working session yesterday the council discussed the legislative proposals for the 2026 session and their desire to change TIF applications;

• 50% of property needs to be blighted

• TIF must also get County approval (I would also suggest school board approval since they are the most impacted – remember COSTCO refused a TIF because of school funding)

• No grants can be approved with TIF

• Any TIF over $10 million must be approved by voters in a special election

I think these are all a good start, but I would suggest one quick fix; eliminate all TIFs except for community infrastructure like water and sewer services or fire stations.

TIFs have almost NO ROI unless used to fix a community problem like blight and infrastructure needs.

At the end of the discussion Rich Merkouris asked the city attorney ‘How many TIFs in Sioux Falls were granted for just blighted areas?’ Of course, Fiddle gave his normal answer, ‘I will get back to you.’ I might dig around on it this week and see for myself. If I had to guess we have probably only put out 20% of TIFs for blighted areas.

1st Amendment Developers Development Downtown Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken Open Government Open Meetings SF City Council Sioux Falls

Mayor’s ‘staff’ gets busted last night

l3wis 1Comments

Besides all the lying going on about the Sioux Falls Parks Master Plan, to which councilor Sigette said that the administration was NOT being transparent, there was another item that stirred the pot. Item #34 was a resolution to surplus the city parking lot at 13th and 1st. At first glance, this seems like a good idea, since that space could accommodate a whole host of things. If I had a couple million to blow I would do a 4-story structure with a partial courtyard, retail on 1st floor and 3 stories of studio apartments. I would even encourage it to be ‘carfree housing‘ so you wouldn’t need to have parking. Most of these developments have a couple of grocery runner e-cars they can use for errands as rentals;

But I knew when this popped up on the agenda, the jig was up. It was pretty obvious to me and many constituents who showed up to testify that the city already had a buyer (it was confusing as to who this developer may be, but it has some involvement with the Shriners next door). It really doesn’t matter who is buying the lot, as Sigette said, the administration is NOT being transparent, not just about the parks but parking downtown.

Normally how these supposed hearings go is the city staff put it on the agenda under the radar, they bully the council into voting for it and keeping their mouths shut and the public is the only one that appears at the meetings knowing this is wrong and basically corrupt. Not so fast. The council reamed the parking and planning staff about this, to which the planning director had to admit there is an interested party and why they are doing it.

SO WHY DON’T YOU JUST SAY THAT!? WHAT THE F’CK IS SOOOOO TOP SECRET ABOUT SELLING A PARKING LOT?!

Because, corruption can’t help itself. The mayor’s ‘staff’ has been getting away with these insider deals so long ($100 million in no-bid contracts for example) that it is just second nature for them. They were caught red handed last night, and it was fun to watch the constituents and the council double team the ‘staff’ over this corruption and lies. It was about time, and I hope ALL council meetings moving forward are like this, calling out the obvious corruption and lies of the staff.

And while the discussion last night was contentious, I think the council was extremely professional on how they approached it (they looked like an entirely different council last night) this is how government is supposed to work. Staff is supposed to give the council and the public ALL pertinent information, if they do not, it must be demanded of them before any votes take place, this finally happened last night. Erica’s ‘staff’ uh, I mean, Paul’s ‘staff’ is officially on notice and I’m lovin’ it!

I think with the government shutdown, this is prime time to evaluate ALL public employees and not only their job performance but their integrity and ethics. I can handle a little laziness, what I can’t tolerate is lies.

1st Amendment SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

What a stupid argument

l3wis 1Comments

There was more stupidity occurring at the council meeting tonight. And guess what?! It’s happening again for the same reason; LACK OF TRANSPARENCY.

Just look at this stupid graph they have been man-splain’ to the council for over a year;

Notice, this is square footage of PUBLIC facilities. So what is the square footage of private facilities? As councilor Greg Neitzert said at a meeting last year; ‘There’s a gym on every corner of this town.’ I think he made it pretty clear when they first presented this stupid graph that there was NO comparison to the private sector, even after that warning over a year ago, they are still pitching this stupid argument. Sure, we may not have as much public fitness as other communities, but if you need to workout in Sioux Falls, you can find a gym and it is likely more affordable then the city.

I often tell councilors you need to support more outdoor / FREE recreation because it is something the private sector DOES not provide, and that is why we DON’T have much public indoor rec because we have an amazing city funded outdoor park system! How about we improve this? Or at least fix the broken equipment at Rotary Park!

Parks and Rec need to focus on what they do best, outdoor recreation and stop trying to act like they need to run a Gold’s Gym (I think they went bankrupt?)

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

The City of Sioux Falls needs a Public Information Officer

l3wis 3Comments

After having several individual discussions with councilors over the past few months about public input, libel and the city’s inability to live stream a video in YouTube it all came to a head at tonight’s meeting.

Mayoral Candidate David Z. came to the podium tonight and asked for some public information. He got nowhere and the council seemed confused also. I know I mentioned this awhile back, but the solution to these problems with transparency is for the city to hire a full-time public information officer who works for 3 entities; Law Office, City Council and Mayor’s Office. It would be preferable that this person had a law degree or is a paralegal. They would also have to have some marketing bonafides. Either way, this person would be the liaison to the media and the public when it comes to information. They would manage all pressers, media inquiries, constituent concerns, etc. They would also manage all of the city’s meetings making sure they are noticed correctly and the right materials are posted with the agenda. I would also like them to take on a side project of creating an information tab on the city’s website that makes it easy to find information, preferably on the front page (the current search engine is a gigantic POS*).

I used to think that many city employees just don’t care about following open meeting laws so they don’t.

But it is NOT that.

As I understand it, each department manager is responsible for their meeting’s agenda and with their other duties, they really shouldn’t be asked to be open government experts. I just think they don’t have anyone guiding them to do the right thing. If you had one or even two people in the city who were in charge of this, it would take a lot of stress off of these directors and managers that have other important work to do besides looking up open meeting laws.

*I don’t use the city’s website search engine, I learned another trick that works better; When you open Google type in; siouxfalls.gov: topic. In other words type the topic you are searching for like ‘building permits’. It isn’t perfect but it works much better then the city’s website. Good thing we paid almost $1 million for the upgraded website. We got taken to the cleaners.

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