South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

SF School Board Member

Elections SF City Council SF School Board Member Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls School Board thinking about changing their elections

l3wis 4Comments

During the working session recently, the school board was considering how they are going to do elections and board member terms moving forward. They want to switch to 4 year terms for school board members (I think they are 3 years right now) and sync them with the city elections in the Spring. They looked at this as helping voter turnout. The other big droning argument in the room was ‘saving money’. It irritates me when a group of non-elected government workers and elected officials get giddy over saving money on elections. I’m all for being prudent when it comes to elections, and I think this will be a cost saving measure to do so, but to make it your main argument OVER voter turnout makes me wonder what this is really about?

Cynthia Mickelson SF School Board Member SF School District Sioux Falls

Former Sioux Falls School Board President, Mickelson starts newsletter

l3wis 5Comments

I will have to give Cynthia Mickelson props, she is one of the rare local public servants who actually wants the public to understand what she does and why. I don’t always agree with Mickelson, but she is willing to have that conversation and provide answers when asked. She has always either returned my calls, my texts or emails and doesn’t shy away from having difficult policy discussions. You can fault elected officials for NOT being transparent or just blatant laziness but it is difficult to become frustrated with an official who wants to work with you.

Cynthia’s N/L was informative, but the chart below really astonished me with how we fund public education now, opposed to 70 years ago;

Downtown Sioux Falls Pettigrew Heights SF City Council SF School Board Member SF School District Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Pettigrew & Cathedral Neighborhood Associations Body Check the City & School District

l3wis 33Comments

I attended the almost 90 minute meeting tonight (I will have a YT video up soon if you don’t have FB) and it was pretty clear what the neighborhood wanted, GREENSPACE! There was a standing vote, and besides the reporters and city/school staff, everyone was standing in approval of leaving it a park.

The most interesting part was that it seems now the staff from the city and the school district said they have NO PLANS for it. Kevin Smith from the city further pointed out that they don’t own the property but help maintain it.

Funny how transparency works, SUNSHINE WINS THE DAY!

Elections Media SF School Board Member SF School District Sioux Falls

Did anybody even know there was a Sioux Falls School Board election?

l3wis 6Comments



If you do a search on google with key words ‘sioux falls school board election 2022’ you will notice the only independent media that comes up is that the election was cancelled because of no candidates except the incumbents.

The SF School District, the City of Sioux Falls and the SD SOS sites ALL mention the election in advance of the February filing deadline. But NO local mainstream media even told the public there was 2 seats up for grabs. I’m even guilty, because I can’t even find if I mentioned it on my blog.

Maybe NO ONE is running because NO ONE knew about it?

While our local media continues to give FREE campaign advertising to the incumbent mayor, they have remained silent about the school board election.

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

PACs are being used to funnel big money into city elections by a handful of people

l3wis 7Comments

Before we get to the PACs dark money into our city elections an update on the races.

In the school board race there are 3 people circulating for the two seats. Baker and Reiter plan to run for re-election, and the 3rd person’s name escapes me, but it is a woman from the banking sector.

MATT PAULSON IS USING HIS PERSONAL WEALTH TO FUNNEL MONEY INTO THE RACES USING PACS

The first PAC that is doing this is Paul TenHaken’s PAC ran by his mentor Joel Dykstra, Next Generation (DOCS). Which has funneled money to Merkouris and Curt Soehl. Major Donors below;

But the big PAC is the one that seems to be funded almost solely by Matt Paulson, Falls Community Growth (DOCS). Paulson funneled $20,000 of his personal wealth (Half from himself and Half from his LLC) into the PAC and turned around under the shield of the PAC to donate $2,500 to Soehl (which explains why certain people have decided to NOT run against him, I won’t say names) and $5,000 to Barranco.

For the record, this is totally legal, it’s just a back door way for an individual with a lot of money to give thousands of dollars to candidates while not classifying it as an individual donation. It has been going on for years from donors like Sanford, Dykhouse and Lloyd.

As someone said to me yesterday, “It seems Mr. Paulson sees himself as a kingmaker.” Money can buy you a seat on the council, he helped pay Jensen’s rent and now he is all in on some more candidates.

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