SF City Council

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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.

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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.

Paul Ten Haken SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: What should Mayor TenHaken work on that was neglected by his predecessor?

l3wis December 19, 2025 8Comments

UPDATE: The original post was from May 23, 2018. It was my ‘wish list’ for the new mayor. I responded to my original post with CONCLUSIONS.

ORIGINAL POST;

Obviously, Paul has a pretty big agenda of his own that he needs to work on. But besides what he wants to accomplish (which we will include in the following list) what else should he focus on?

Transparency. This is a given that Paul promises to work on. It WAS the #1 issue in the last campaign. As I have mentioned besides more communication with the council and public, he must also focus on opening more contracts up to the public for review. This includes anyone applying for TIFs or other government grants and partnerships.

CONCLUSION: Not only did Paul do none of the above, he actually made open government worse. A lot worse. It is almost North Korea level.

Crime/Meth epidemic. Paul will get a little help in this department from the counties with the triage center. But he will also have to look at how our police department is handling arrests. With an overcrowded jail and a new one a couple of years away, the SFPD needs to focus on handling situations in the field, like I said, the triage center will help with this. Paul also MUST have a better relationship with the police union.

CONCLUSION: Drug crimes have gone down, but homicides were up and some of them involved drugs. The LINK was opened but it seems to be losing private funding and the next mayor is going to have to deal with that mess (if I were a candidate I would try to get that info before the election). He also started the Sioux 52 Mentorship program, which I applauded, then after a year, Paul bails on it and hands it over to the HelpLine center and takes our taxdollars to pay them. I would love to see a report from the HelpLine center and see where they are at with recruitment. I heard it hasn’t been good lately. I also don’t think this should be a city program, it should be administered by the school district. But that would make sense.

Reducing Homelessness/Hunger. I was impressed with what TenHaken said in a Million Cups debate, he said in 8 years he wants to put the Banquet and Bishop Dudley house out of business. While he may not attain that goal, he should really focus on getting more people off of assistance and on their own feet, this starts with . . .

CONCLUSION: Utter failure. Problem has gotten much worse.

Workforce development. This is a sticky issue for city government. They can’t really force local businesses to pay living wages, BUT moving forward when attracting new business to Sioux Falls they can ask, very forcefully to provide good wages. The council can even go as far as to shape policy around it.

CONCLUSION: I don’t think Paul’s work on this is a positive or a negative. Some good businesses did come here that provide hundreds of jobs, like Amazon, but Amazon was coming whether Paul wanted it or not. While I think it is important for a mayor to put on the charm offensive when trying to attract business, his main duty is running the city. Like I said earlier this week, we give millions to the Development Foundation to do this work. While the mayor should be in the loop, he shouldn’t be the lead salesperson.

Public Ambulance Service. While Paul hasn’t really taken a stand on it, that may be a good thing. I think the council could move forward with exploring the possibility and the costs involved. I think it would pay off in the end and would make our community much safer.

CONCLUSION: It never happened, but it is moving in that direction. I think when our current contract runs out the council will move to city owned with a local backup provider. Citizens right now are paying for ambulance pickups with SFFD mutual aid and receiving NO compensation from the ambulance provider. Taxpayers are assisting a for profit business and it is ridiculous. I knew this wasn’t going to be sustainable and the council finally sees it, at least some of them do.

Improving Public Transit. This was virtually ignored by the last administration. Not only do we need to make regular service better and more frequent, we need to get costs under control and look at privatizing Paratransit while keeping it affordable.

CONCLUSION: I have actually been impressed with the new transit provider, they seem willing to make significant changes, and ridership is up. But this contract should have changed in Paul’s first year, or at least an RFP and search put out there. It only took Paul 6 years to basically sign a new contract. So yes, mission accomplished, but took too long.

Revitalizing core neighborhoods. This can be done through revamping community development. One of those hurdles took care of itself yesterday when the director quit. Not only will this help to clean up our core neighborhoods it will help with the affordable housing issues we have.

CONCLUSION: COMPLETE AND UTTER FAILURE! Our more affordable neighborhoods are in shambles and the city hasn’t lifted a finger in 16 years (Mike and Paul). Paul just pretended the problem didn’t exist. This is why it took me 20 years to get MX torn down, and they didn’t even do it ALL!! This administration wouldn’t know rehabilitation if it hit them like a fart from our president.

Updating the city website. This could include a whole host of changes including being able to download city documents, improving transparency and having all the city board meetings available for review with at least audio recordings.

CONCLUSION: This task was completed and cost over $1 MILLION. Nothing has really changed and it is even harder to navigate, which I think was done intentionally because of the militant closed government attitudes. The next mayor needs to sue the last contractor and get our money back, then we need to hire a local firm to gut it and change it into an actual functioning transparent government website. I think the SD SOS’s website works better, and that’s saying A LOT!

Public Art Funding. I really think the city is missing out on a huge opportunity by not tapping into the entertainment tax fund to use towards public art. Public art promotes tourism and really defines a city’s quality of life. It also promotes local business by using local artists, artisans and contractors to work on the projects. And if nothing else, it makes our city more beautiful and cultural.

CONCLUSION: Yes and NO. When suggested these items 8 years ago, I would have never guessed that our mayor would have turned out to be an ART CENSOR. And that is NOT a badge of honor. If anything, that move actually damaged our local art scene and broke a lot of trust between the local artists and the city. They also consolidated a bunch of crap at the Pavilion and hired a Full-Time arts coordinator (still waiting to see her cultural plan that she contracted out). Paul knows about as much about public art as I know about rhinoplasty. He needs to stop.

Build a Skatepark with a public/private partnership!

CONCLUSION: This happened but not after the skate park association had to beg for private donations for 7 years! Paul could have funded this on day one and not make the volunteers beat down people for a city owned park but since none of his buddies were on that committee it wasn’t a priority for him. I still think the council and mayor looked like complete jerk offs for dragging their feet for so long on public funding. We piss away in operations at the Midco in 2 years what that skate park cost us, there is also $80 million in reserves. I think the only reason the association eventually got city money was because of a pass thru with ARPA Covid funding. So I guess if Covid never happened, the association would still be beating the streets for donations.

On a separate note, recently, Joe and Jennifer Kirby donated $1 Million to Frank Olson pool, which I assume would bear their names (thank you). But this donation took an interesting twist. When Don Kearney, Parks director was asked if this would reduce the $47 Million dollar bond to $46 Million (which would seem logical) he said NO. And when asked what the money will be spent on he said ‘Construction’. So instead of using this donation to offset the cost of the bond, they are just going to spend it as additional money. Oh, and it gets even better. This is NOT a yearly donation for sponsorship, this is a ONE-TIME gift. Which is usually NOT how it works. The sponsor would make a donation each year over a period of time. So the Kirby’s basically paid $1 Million for a permanent sign on the pool. That’s how the city handles transparency in this town. Jokesters.

Some have asked why the Kirby’s are doing it this way instead of yearly payments. Because it is the end of the year and accountants have ‘suggestions’.

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Charter Revision meeting was very entertaining

l3wis December 17, 2025 0Comments

It is rare I watch an entire city meeting and am thoroughly entertained throughout. I highly recommend it.

The first thing I will say is it seems the chair of the meeting, Anne Hajek was the only one who knew what was going on as she had to tamp down the rhetoric from the city attorney and Rick Kiley and as other members said things that made no sense.

Right out of the gate, Kiley decides to take on Anne, um . . . mistake. But he is so arrogant he really took a go at it. First he thot he could just propose crap on the fly since he is a member of the CRC (he thinks the mayor should get paid $200K and councilors $40K. Zylstra thinks the mayor should get $250K, we will discuss in a moment).

Hajek reminded him that he needed to bring his proposal forward like the public and the attorneys office by sending a written proposal in advance of the meeting. Kiley realizing he couldn’t win the argument tried to get Fiddle-Faddle to defend him, he tried and also failed. Then Kiley pulled the ‘former councilor’ card and said ‘well this is how we did it when I was on council.’ and Anne quickly quipped ‘The council and commission have different procedures and duties.’ I always knew that Kiley wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer and he didn’t disappoint tonight.

CRC DOESN’T EVEN BRING A FLOOR VOTE ON TWO CITIZEN PROPOSALS

To add insult to injury the two proposals by citizens didn’t even get a second motion for a floor vote. I’m sure it had to do with Fiddle’s tired old advice he gave again today that basically proposals from citizens that make major changes to the charter should be voted down by the CRC. Yet Fiddle is proposing a change in the charter (next meeting) to eliminate the mayor’s salary from the charter which is a parlor trick that gives the council and mayor the ability to give themselves raises without citizen approval. Kind of sounds like a major change Fiddle? He basically said only UNELECTED staff can put proposals on the ballot.

The two proposals that were voted down were removing the mayor from council meetings and advanced TIF rules. I supported both of them, but I told Zitterich on his TIF proposal it may be a little early since the legislature is probably going to implement new TIF rules this session, then we can fine tune them to Sioux Falls next year and that was the exact reason the CRC voted down the proposal. But I will give props to Mike, all of rule changes are in line with what the legislature is proposing. It wouldn’t eliminate TIFs but they would only be for very specific projects like affordable housing and not 5-star hotel parking ramps.

CRC APPROVES CITY ATTORNEY PROPOSALS w/A FUTURE MEETING ON SALARIES

There was some language changes to the charter that have to do with budgeting and election dates due to the change in state law.

But Fiddle has another proposal, he wants to take the Mayor’s salary off of the charter. Like I said above, this will let them decide their salary instead of the folks who pay them. There are also other proposals. Joe Kirby proposed a 20% increase as a course correction, Kiley wants to pay even more as does Zylstra. I told Anne tonight after the meeting they should just do a COLA that matches the COLA of the city employees (non-public safety). Problem solved.

I also told Anne that in the middle of a recession this is HORRIBLE time to ask voters to approve raises, it will fail miserably like it did last time. They really are that TONE DEAF! If you don’t think council and the mayor get paid enough then why did you run for office? You knew what it paid, it was clear in the charter.

Zylstra brought up the argument of the CEO running the city. So tired of that stupid f’ing argument. The city is NOT a for profit business that designs over-priced square space websites or a predatory credit card company, it is non-profit, taxes in, taxes out in services. It’s NOT hard accounting. He felt that the mayor (elected) should be paid like a CEO or the School District Super (they are extremely overpaid BTW). Here’s why his argument is silly. When we elect a graphic designer to be mayor, he doesn’t have the expertise of a public administrator. This is WHY hired administrators like city managers or supers get paid more, they likely have a PHD in public administration. They get the job and that is why they get the salary they do. Since an elected mayor doesn’t have the knowledge or experience of a Public Administrator they rely heavily on staff and directors, which is fine. In other words, delegating the work instead of actually doing it. I think the mayor’s salary is just fine where it is at. The financial opportunities the mayor receives thru business relationships make him more coin then a silly salary ever would (you know, like getting $1 millon over appraisal on a building you sold). I also think we need to move to a city manager form of government and have a professional run a town of this size while the council is free to form policy with the cooperation of the city manager instead constantly fighting the mayor.

I also find the argument for a raise tone deaf because of this chart;

If you recieved those kind of scores in your yearly review do you think your boss would give you a raise? They would probably sh!t can you on the spot.

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Falls Park, data center and an RFP

l3wis December 16, 2025 4Comments

(SCOTT L. EHRISMAN (C) 12/16/2025)

You need to watch the informational meeting today where they talk about transforming Falls Park into an entertainment complex. The council pushed back pretty hard. Merkouris expressed he would like to see more of a natural park. I agree, they are cheaper, a lot cheaper, and they pretty much maintain themselves if you plant the right native species. They also look much more beautiful then layers of concrete like we currently have on the greenway (I think it is so funny we call concrete a GREENWAY). And as a visitor staying in a hotel downtown would you much rather take a stroll thru butterflies and flowers instead of a massive concrete path? We could turn Falls Park into a nature gem. Hopefully the next council takes this proposed plan and burns it, oh, and ask for our money back.

Why don’t we learn something from our immense failure of Jacobsen Plaza? What is the most popular part of the Plaza? FREE SH!T!!!! DUH!!!!! Make more natural trails at Falls Park and turn it into a nature wonderland instead of a mini-donut crap hole.

DATA CENTER MOVING FORWARD

The city council approved the 1st reading of zoning for the proposed data center and the conditions. Once again the council has FAILED to ask about the increasing energy costs. Not only is our council voting against our interests this will hurt us financially. Demand will drive up costs. I think if they plan to self-contain the center in 5 years, I would support it. But sucking water and power from us won’t help our rates. I beg the council to do their research. I see a national story EVERY DAY about the increased costs of Data Centers if their water and power is not self contained.

SHAWN ‘FIREBALL’ PRITCHETT HAD A CHANGE OF HEART.

It’s rare, but I gotta give Curtis the Blurtist credit on this one. When the finance director, Pritchett, came to the council tonight to fund motor graders he did his homework and put out an RFP (did his job for once). I believe this is because Curt put a boot up his ass about this and he was NOT going to buy motor graders without having an RFP. Funny how things work out better when you follow rules.

VERNON DID WHAT HE WAS HIRED TO DO

Everyone knows that the city council just wanted a shadow councilor over the next 6 months who won’t ask questions and ink up the rubber stamp. Vernon did not disappoint tonight. Besides his swearing in the only word coming out of Vernon’s mouth tonight was ‘YES’. Good Boy! I hope they gave you a treat.

Sioux Falls public inputer passes

Data Center Re-Zone Lobbying Hard!

UPDATE: What should Mayor TenHaken work on that was neglected by his predecessor?

Charter Revision meeting was very entertaining

Falls Park, data center and an RFP

You Missed

The POOP Hole Crew

Was the Sioux Falls City Council blackmailed by Sally Tomato?

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

UPDATE: Data Center will get approved tonight