SFFD

UPDATE: How can Sideras get his full pension?

l3wis May 10, 2017 10Comments

The HR director of the city of Sioux Falls, Bill Dah’Toole, says Sideras gets his full pension. (Watch all 3 of KSFY’s videos) While I understand getting his ‘vested’ pension, I question if a terminated director who is accused of child pornography should receive one more penny of tax dollars with his pension or extended healthcare. But the bigger question is, was he terminated or did Huether ‘cut a deal’. Notice Huether NEVER said he fired Jim, only that he ‘in-acted’ the process. As I understand it, if you are terminated, you only get your vested pension.

It is very suspicious, and certainly not right.

Also, I find it interesting that they are only interviewing internal candidates, some of the same people who have invested with Sideras on lake front property. Isn’t this a gigantic conflict of interest? Of course the mayor needs to hire someone internally so he can keep the conflicts and internal scandals at bay.

Makes you wonder if the Mayor shares any investments with Sideras or his lake front buddies?

UPDATE: I guess by city ordinance, there are no rules against Sideras receiving his pension, no matter what he did after his eligibility. At the age of 60 he will get his pension and health benefits (or his wife).

UPDATED: Why was Sideras terminated before he was arrested or exonerated?

l3wis May 8, 2017 31Comments

UPDATE: As we already know, Mr. Sideras was charged with possession of 10 counts of child pornography. If you read the search warrant affidavit, you will see they have ample evidence against him. He of course deserves his day in court. If found guilty, it will be truly sad that a man of this position in our city did what he did. So how does this reflect on the city and how it chooses its directors? When former assistant chief Patrick Warren was charged with hacking Sideras’ computer, Warren said he suffered from mental illness, and he urged the city to do a better job of evaluating the mental health of city employees. Could Sideras possible obsession with child pornography be caught in such an evaluation? While the city seems to be concerned about the health and well being of the minions, do they do evaluations on managers and offer them assistance? If the city learns anything from this episode, they need to start getting serious about the mental capacity and well being of their managers and directors.

Trust me, I have had hundreds of conversations with people over the past week about the possible reasons Sideras’ home was searched. And I have heard it all.

But with many of these conversations, people are asking the obvious. Why did the city decide to terminate Sideras before charges were brought against him?

In most cases, when a public official is embroiled in an investigation, and hasn’t been arrested or charged, they are put on administrative leave. I find it hard to believe that Sideras quit on his own, especially with the possibility of losing his pension.

This is all puzzling because the mayor has said over the past couple of days he ‘knows nothing’.

Yeah right.