SF City Council

UPDATE: City of Sioux Falls will construct a $70K fence around The Dudley House

UPDATE: While discussing this with folks we realized there is also a huge conflict of interest with the city giving this money for fence construction. The director of the shelter, Madeline Shields, is a contract employee(?) with the city doing ‘Inside Townhall’ as their moderator. I tried to get her removed because of this conflict several years ago (a raccoon could host the show) but no dice. So now we are giving money to city employees’ pet projects? WOW! I would also be curious what she get’s paid to do a 20 minute show once a month? Any guesses? Apparently $70K. I also had a conversation with a city councilor about this saying I approved of fencing for the employees but that should be the expense of the BDH. Obviously it would have to be withdrawn or amended at Tuesday’s meeting, not holding my breath.

Hey, just make sure you don’t put the fence posts in 5 gallon pails, that’s a NO NO. Item #20, read the explanation HERE!

Essentially we will lease the parking lot for $1 a year and pay for the fence and maintenance. A better approach would be tearing out the parking lot and put in a pollinator garden. This will just make the place look like a prison, and the folks that are now using it for shelter will just move into other parts of the neighborhood and downtown. When you tell a homeless person that can’t sleep on a certain sidewalk, they will just find another sidewalk. You are solving nothing and you may exacerbate the problem. Right now most of them are full view at that location, kick them out and they will disperse all over causing an even bigger problem. Be curious who the brain child that cooked this up? But I do agree employees of the BDH need a fenced in parking lot, but they can pay for it themselves. We keep throwing money at this issue for all the wrong reasons.

CITY OF SIOUX FALLS ALREADY APPROVING SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS AND IT IS ONLY FEBRUARY!

Item #22, well this isn’t good. A little early to start digging into savings. I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of this this year. (Note, the $2.5 Million is a donation to us from a private party).

The 1st Amendment and the Sioux Falls City Council

It seems I am spending a lot of time these days talking about the role of the council and the 1st Amendment. The thing that always puzzles me is that the 1st Amendment is NOT complicated, but folks struggle with it.

So today HB Bill 1050 got killed, by a ONE VOTE in taxation committee. Several folks were instrumental in killing this bill. It would have pretty much put a $450M tax debt on the citizens of Sioux Falls if passed. I posted Greg Neitzert’s written testimony after the hearing. I truly believe that testimony changed minds, and Cathy B’s telephone testimony cinched the deal. I also emailed the committee suggesting amendments and solutions (I think it would be good for small towns, but NOT SF.)

After this I assumed city hall was reeling, trying to figure out their next steps (I will post later about the future of the Riverline District).

But things got really interesting.

I’m going to leave the constituent’s name out of this for privacy reasons, and the city councilor, because I think it applies to the ENTIRE council.

Their is a constituent that emails the mayor and the council quite a bit, he is very involved in local politics, and I don’t always agree, but he always CC’s me in the emails so I am a media witness (I think I told him to do this). I have several concerned citizens that CC me when sending emails to the city council and I encourage you to CC me, witnesses are important.

fb.art@sio.midco.net

I sometimes do a reply all to their emails if I feel something needs to be clarified or piled onto.

After I posted Former Sioux Falls City Councilor Greg Neitzert’s* submitted written testimony to the taxation committee on the blog this constituent emailed the council with Greg’s testimony and a brief statement about his work. This person called the council ‘CORRUPT’ three times, but in fair context and NOT harassment. Then he said that Greg has ‘LARGE BALLS’. Trust me, I spit out my coffee when I read that, but it’s NOT a threat or harassment. In fact, Neitzert saw the email and thot it was funny. So a newly elected city councilor wasn’t having it and reported the email to Human Resources as harassment. HOGWASH! Not only is this constituent completely harmless they wouldn’t hurt a soul, but that doesn’t matter. This NEW councilor seems to think that he is a city employee and has the same protections, he does not, YOU ARE ELECTED and must follow the constraints of the 1st Amendment and the US Constitution. Now if such an email was sent to an unelected city employee, that would be an issue. So the city’s HR department warned this constituent if they send anymore ‘Harassing Emails’ they will be blocked. First off, they don’t have that authority because this person is NOT a city employee, secondly, sending an email about concerns is NOT threatening. It often puzzles me that they put their hand on a bible and swear an oath to the Constitution but have no idea what is in the document. If you can’t handle the heat in the Carnegie Kitchen may I suggest resignation. Nobody will miss yah. The irony of all this is this councilor was in a similar situation at a former employer. Kettle meet Black.

*Full disclosure, I worked on Greg’s first term campaign coordinating his messaging, graphic design, marketing and direct mail, it was one of the most successful campaigns I was involved with, we kicked ass and took names!

A redacted letter over dusty monkeys?

You would think they are trying to cover up the assassination of JFK?! During the informational today (on a Monday this week, so they can go kiss the ring of the legislature tomorrow) they went over getting rid of the Brockhouse collection and they had letters from the Delbridge family supporting the surplus. So why is this letter redacted? I’m sure there was nothing TOP SECRET about what was said;

I still think this is a missed opportunity. We could have privately raised the $850K to restore the collection then we could put the displays in public buildings all over town. I know the zoo didn’t want the collection anymore, and I am fine with that, but we don’t have to build a whole new museum we could put the collection in special built atmospheric cases and put them in public buildings. The lack of vision from this work group was astounding! We don’t have to build a whole new multi-million dollar building to house the collection, WE HAVE EXISTING PUBLIC BUILDINGS. I am not sure why the mayor and mostly museum director wanted to surplus this collection. Once again, we have allowed Pastor Poops precedent, and they keep piling up.

UPDATE: Omaha holding big event Tuesday to help Tzadik residents

UPDATE: So, things are not getting much better. So this happened;

So while the tenants are getting gouged on utilities by the service provider, the landlord isn’t even paying the bills. To turn tenants gas off in the middle of winter is CRIMINAL and it is time for the SFPD to produce an arrest warrant for this guy.

As you know, the city of Omaha is also dealing with that dirty rotten rat who owns Tzadik properties;

Health and safety concerns have been raised after conditions at City View Apartments were brought to the attention of the city, and it’s because of those issues that local attorney Dave Pantos said residents could possibly get out of their lease for free.

Well look there, a local attorney willing to help, in Sioux Falls, not so much. In fact I was in a meeting with an attorney and state representative Kadyn Wittman several months ago with tenants and all they got was the ‘HAND’ and little help, but no surprise. They have more important things to do, like making sure transgender females can use the woman’s bathroom 🙁 Most attorneys in Sioux Falls are on retainer with the city and won’t take personal cases against the city or landlords because they like the city’s butter on their bread. It is almost impossible to get a SF attorney to represent you against the city, maybe the SD Supreme Court in all their knowledge should address this? LMFAO! They are so useless, I don’t think I could even count on them to be a school cross guard. Either way, they are getting legal representation, unfortunately they have to get it from out of state.

Oh, but besides rent for an apartment crawling in cockroaches, frozen pipes, broken security, broken pipes, broken fire alarms, mold and nails flying out of the garbage disposal they make the residents pay a service company for utilities, and it is a doozy. I will post two bills that are completely different but still make no sense;

When this was first sent to me, I told them, “Pretty obvious you are being gouged.” I have a 900 Square foot house that I live alone in and these above charges equal about $177 in winter and $90 in the summer so I find this to be an incredible ‘GRIFT’ by the service provider and the landlord. I actually laughed with the service fee. Really?! After basically taking a 100% or more commission you still charge a service fee. RATS!!!!!!

The saddest part is the inaction from city hall. The city government has a lot of power when it comes to putting this person in compliance, but they are to big of wimps to do it. It only took 20+ years to tear down a recycling center that almost fell over before the bulldozers showed up by my house, so I am guessing that maybe in 2045 these folks will get some help 🙁

But hey, we gotta build a ninja warrior complex in the Arena! Priorities people!