South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

SF City Council

Affordable Housing Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Omaha holding big event Tuesday to help Tzadik residents

l3wis 3Comments

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!

religion SF City Council Sioux Falls Taxes

Why are the taxpayers of Sioux Falls giving money to a Religious Organization?

l3wis 12Comments

Not sure how long the city has been doing this, but if you look at the December expense report apparently we need to fund religious orgs in town now;

YMCA (YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSN OF SF): $16,416.63, Operating Support

Besides being kind of an odd amount and giving money to a religious organization without the consent of the public or even the city council is NOT a good look. Also, if you check their tax filing from 2020 they are part of a National organization that pulls in millions from donors and grants;

This organization is an independent organization and not affiliated with a larger national or regional group of organizations. Young Mens Christian Association is a 501(c)(3) and as such, is described as a “Charitable or Religous organization or a private foundation” by the IRS.

They even describe themselves as a religious organization. It would be like the taxpayers giving money to the Catholic Diocese. I know we have been giving to them for awhile on different programming but after they f’d up the deal with Sanford on the west side rec center, essentially forcing us to purchase the place because Sanford was loosing money on the facility, they shouldn’t get another penny from us!

The entire expense report is fascinating to read because it provides little detail for massive handouts, like this;

LLOYD COMPANIES: $992,331.40, Various Projects

Closed government at it’s best!

Speaking of that, the salaries finally posted Friday afternoon, AFTER, they were printed in the Dakota Scout and distributed. I have not done a deep dive yet, but if you compare to last year, some folks got some massive raises!

2024 DOC • 2025 DOC

Curt Soehl SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Why did Sioux Falls taxpayers give $100K to the SD Trade Association?

l3wis 2Comments

UPDATE is at bottom of article. Also, as many know by now Luke Lindberg is the son-in-law of John Thune, so no surprise he got the money.

I only agree with Councilor Curtis the Blurtist on occassion, and he is correct when he said at the 1st reading of the grifting agreement;

“This is not our role as a city,” he said at the council’s Jan. 14 meeting, noting that City Hall relies on organizations like Forward Sioux Falls, the Greater Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Sioux Falls Development Foundation to navigate private markets on Sioux Falls businesses’ behalf. “If they’re going to continue funding trade, that’s fine, but … it’s not our lane as the city of Sioux Falls.”

He is correct. These importers and exporters are private capitalistic business owners who generate millions in selling and buying products, they should be funding this organization. And let’s take a look at their tax filings. As you can see this is just pure grift, they didn’t need our money, they should have went to their members if they needed this money. The council’s priorities lately with handouts has been atrocious and needs to end.

UPDATE: Notice in their fiscal year of 2023 they spent very little of their budget on actually helping importers and exporters, most went to salary (LINBERG is going to work for the Trump Administration). There expenses were $407K and they only spent $42,752 on helping their members (10% of total expenses) with half going to travel expenses ($22,477). So I guess it is safe to assume the money we just handed them is going towards salaries and not actually helping trade. I wonder if the council even bothered to research their expenses before giving them their money. Don’t kid yourself.

Elections Mayor TenHaken SF City Council SF School Board Member SF School District Sioux Falls

See what happens with public engagement in Sioux Falls

l3wis 5Comments

Not sure which SFSD Board Members pulled their arses from their heads, but this was a wonderful way to engage the public about elections, etc.;

Nearly two dozen people attended an informational meeting about what it takes to be a school board member, and how to run for school board, for the Sioux Falls School District on Tuesday night.

Sioux Falls School District Board of Education President Carly Reiter and vice president Dawn Marie Johnson led the meeting, and explained that board members approve budgets and policies, hire and oversee the superintendent, develop and review policies, represent community interests in education and attend appropriate city, state and national events.

Imagine that, when you have a meeting at 6 PM on Tuesday night you can actually get people to attend (though this is at the same time of the council meeting.) You are also helping people to navigate the political landscape. While I appreciate the public engagement, we know that they will be handpicked, funded candidates that Poops and Matt Paulson pull from one of their prosperity gospel churches. The right wingers will likely put someone up to, though they didn’t have much luck the last two elections. I wonder if they also talked about how to file a campaign finance form that is not perjured?

I think it would be great if 24 people ran for school board. That’s what public engagement is about, not hiding in your basement doing jumping jacks.

Downtown Sioux Falls Railroads SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Pools, Handouts, Crime, Studies & Lenin’s Tomb of Dead Monkeys

l3wis 7Comments

Well it took a lot of hand wringing, two city councils and over a year to figure out the pool bonds;

An ordinance of the City of Sioux Falls authorizing the City to issue bonds backed and repaid by the City’s existing 2nd penny sales tax to utilize for $68,000,000 in parks and recreation improvements at the Westside Recreation Center, Kuehn Park, and Frank Olson Park.

They could have just put it to a public bond vote last spring, but that would have taken vision and leadership two attributes this current city government can’t wrap their heads around. I’ve told people it likely would have passed by over 60% of the vote. The argument for the new expenditures is about as laughable as it gets. If you were to put it to a bond vote you would get the answer you are looking for instead of speculating we are short (public) indoor recreation facilities. We are NOT short. We have more indoor (private) recreation then any city our size probably in the nation. Just do a google search, with new places being built every day! The new hobby lobby will be a gigantic indoor rec facility, privately owned and operated. It reminds me of the building permit argument, ‘Look! Look! We are over a Billion on permits, oh, and half that money is coming from you.’ We have plenty of private indoor rec space we don’t need to compete with them.

More handouts to the lobbyists (Item #13):

The proposed supplemental appropriation provides South Dakota Trade $100,000 to support its operations in 2025.

Well, I saw this coming a mile away, a lobbyist shows up to an informational, cracks a few jokes with the councilors and the next thing you know they have $100K in their pockets. I find it ironic we have to give an organization money that essentially represents importers and exporters in our state that are transferring millions in goods each year . . . maybe they need to be asking their members for the money instead of the taxpayers of Sioux Falls? Just a thought.

CRIME TRENDS CAN’T BE IGNORED

Jodi wrote this article in 2018, but it kind of rings true today.

TRUMP ISN’T EVEN QUALIFIED TO CLEAN A TOILET

I joked with someone that even though a convicted felon can become president they still couldn’t pass a Federal background check required before you could become a janitor in a government building. That’s right folks, the guy cleaning your toilet has more integrity and government clearance then the man in the corner office. Kind of reminds you of the public sector.

DUSTY MONKEYS AND THAT HUNCHBACK

It seems the city is ready to send most of Lenin’s tomb to Notre Dame. I contacted the department that would be taking on the collection and told them to request the origins of each of the animals before taking them. Since many are endangered I told them it would be ethically wise to see if any of the animals were taken illegally or poached and it would be a bit embarrassing for them to be displaying animals that were taken in this way.

LONG OVERDUE STUDY OF RAIL TRAFFIC IN SIOUX FALLS

The Federal Railroad Administration is giving the South Dakota DOT $1 million for an analysis and crossing safety study in the Sioux Falls area.

Hopefully this will result in many of the crossings DTSF to be closed and rerouted. We have far too much train traffic DTSF and I’m glad to see the agency in charge of regulating them will actually be regulating them.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

You Missed

1st Amendment Satire

Poops Doppelganger

1st Amendment Planning Commission Public Utilities Public Works Sioux Falls

Non-Unity Bridge Deja Vu

1st Amendment SF City Council SFPD Sioux Falls

National Community Survey Comments

1st Amendment religion

Religious Freedom