South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce

Chamber of Commerce Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce US Chamber of Commerce

Chamber Sponsored Livestock Show Ending

l3wis 4Comments

This from a reader;

See the attached file which is a screenshot of a Facebook post by the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce and a post reply from the 2025 chairperson of the 2025 Livestock Show.

Seems like she was somewhat blindsided by this decision. Chamber of Commerce operates from behind a shroud, lacking transparency, too apparently.

Which came first? The chicken or the egg?

Has the lack of transparency of city government influenced the local business community?

Or (seems more likely), has the lack of transparency endemic in the local business community permeated into the halls of city government?

I’m an ag guy, but not gung ho that the Livestock Show should / needs continue in Sioux Falls.  I think things can get stale and be considered to have “run their course”.  The Livestock Show might be one of those.  I went to the show one afternoon about 15-20 years ago when a college friend’s kids were showing steers (and hogs?).  I found the fairgrounds dreary af on a South Dakota January afternoon.  

There a definitely fewer people directly involved in agriculture all around the state; fewer people involved in showing livestock.   And there are definite cultural changes taking place in Sioux Falls.  Much more bougie than when I moved here 24 years ago.

I just thought appearances are that someone made a unilateral decision and didn’t even bother to engage the people in the organization who ran it on behalf of the Chamber.

I know of Abby, and I can say she is a person who does her due diligence, and if she didn’t know, something’s up. After some local chamber staff resigned a few years ago I asked about any employment issues at the Chamber. Let’s just say it’s something many large orgs face and usually the ‘issue’ is eliminated, the problem in this case is that the ‘issue’ runs the joint. The show being retired probably had less to do with the show and more to do with the sponsor.

Chamber of Commerce Christine Erickson Daugaard Elections Mayor TenHaken Mike Huether Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce Vaney Hariri

Sioux Falls Chamber has shakeup

l3wis 14Comments

The Chamber announced they are replacing(?) Debra Owen;

The Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce announced Thursday that Mitch Rave has been hired as the organization’s vice president of public policy.

The son of former South Dakota House Speaker Tim Rave, he holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of South Dakota.

Debra confirmed to me she left the Sioux Falls Chamber and is happy to be moving on. Her husband David leads the State Chamber. Debra’s title was VP/Director of Public Policy, so I am assuming Tim is replacing her.

Mitch has some big shoes to fill. Besides years of government experience working for the City of Sioux Falls as clerk and a top legal advisor to Governor Daugaard. Debra also has a law degree and has extensive knowledge about city and state government.

In my dealings and conversations with Debra in the past, she was always fair and listened to your side, she didn’t always agree but was never combative and would always dig for answers, probably the reason former Mayor Mike Huether* pushed for her termination. City government has a knack at getting rid of the good ones.

Mitch’s dad, Tim Rave, is president and CEO of the South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations and sits on the Board of Regents.

*SPEAKING OF MIKE, WHO IS RUNNING FOR SIOUX FALLS MAYOR?

The list is still pretty short but it seems Mike Huether and Christine Erickson may be in. They have both been reaching out for early support (Mike more then Christine) I have not heard any more rumblings about Alex Jensen. Greg Jamison will also probably be exploring a mayoral bid, and I think if Huether officially announces he will jump in.

Another name that was floated was Vaney Hariri. I guess friends and colleagues have been asking him to run. I don’t know him personally so I have no idea if he is taking the encouragement seriously but he would be a great addition to the field.

I want Christine and Mike to know I have been greasing up the way back machine, and once I get it running it will probably start smoking once it’s gets to your government careers. Erickson has a much better record, and has shown to be a good campaigner. Winning both a school start date ballot initiative and the slaughterhouse vote (even though they mothballed the place).

I think any outside candidates are going to have fun watching these two duke it out on the debate stage.

SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce

Sioux Falls Chamber admits Shape Places screwed the pooch on Wholestone Foods project

l3wis 4Comments

I am opposed to anymore packing plants in Sioux Falls and think a better approach would be chiding Smithfield to leave downtown Sioux Falls for good. But I also don’t believe in fairytales.

Since the beginning of this process I have been adamant that there is little the city council and mayor can do to stop this, and the Chamber pretty much simplified the reasons why;

The people of Sioux Falls approved our city’s current zoning ordinances by 65% in April of 2014.

This was AFTER the city council had already approved it and the citizens referred it to a vote. I voted against Shape Places because it removed many crucial conditional use directives the council used to be able to apply to projects. I believe that if Shape Places was never implemented, we may not have seen a council approval of a new packing plant because there would have been public meetings to address the conditional uses.

You get what you ask for.

Unlike Noem, I applaud the initiative process in this matter (even though this should have been a Charter Amendment that would have forced a special election within in 90 days of certification of signatures). It would have given WF little time to react with a grandfather trick.

I expect, even with the passage of this measure, that there will be some court challenges.

Chamber of Commerce CVB Downtown Sioux Falls SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Did The Sioux Falls Chamber & Experience Sioux Falls (CVB) agree to split?

l3wis 2Comments

Not sure. While rumors are going around that a decision to split was made very recently, nobody has said a word publicly, but the Sioux Falls City Council got an update about the possible decision at the 4 PM informational today in which a presentation involving the Falls Park Visitor Center Management Agreement was discussed and these changes;

9 month Term: January 1, 2022 – September 30, 2022
• Discussions are on-going between the Chamber and Experience Sioux Falls regarding potential
separate legal status for Experience Sioux Falls.
• 9/30/21 coincides with the end of the Chambers fiscal year.
• 60 day termination clause exercisable by City, which allows for transition of agreement once an
effective date of separate legal status is determined.

This was first presented at the Parks Board Meeting on November 17, but it was also very sketchy as to what was going on. They called it ‘legal status’ changes between the Chamber and CVB and are having ongoing discussions. Terri Schmidt, head of ESF (CVB) did say;

“ESF becoming independent from the Chamber, that process is really moving along now, and tomorrow there is a major meeting where we are expecting to probably either seal the deal, or being really close to sealing the deal. I don’t know if anyone on the outside will really know the difference, it will be more of back house of becoming independent.”

While NOTHING was said by the presenter at the informational about why this is occurring, the council, who must certainly know, has also chosen to keep this quiet or at least not filling in the blanks. Council Chair Curt Soehl even bragged about keeping it quiet and secretive by saying this at the end of the meeting;

“Thank all those involved for keeping their eye on the ball and realizing there is a lot of external noise going on at this time, for all of this, and to protect the city from everything they do.”

I find it interesting that the council is being publicly noticed about contract changes but during the presentation the public cannot be filled in on the details of a possible split. The hatred towards transparency in this city is even more troubling especially when the chair of the council brags about the secrecy. WOW! Surprised he didn’t just take a potty break during the presentation 🙁

It seems the head of ESF is the only one to at least give an inkling this was going to happen. So was a deal struck last Thursday? We may never know because of all the ‘External Noise.’

I also have a feeling if this was a simple matter of ‘back house’ deals and ‘legal status’ it wouldn’t be that controversial to release that information to the public, especially since it involves our tax dollars. I have a feeling this was a lot messier than they are putting on and they are hiding the sausage making from the citizens.

Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce

As I predicted ‘Riot Buses’ from Fargo were Facebook B.S.

l3wis 14Comments

While I was uncertain if riots were going to occur, I certainly figured it wasn’t going to be some mysterious group from Fargo. The SF Chamber has apologized;

“Griffen said he should have verified the information with police before suggesting protest buses were headed to Sioux Falls from Fargo. The rumor, he said, came from the Downtown Sioux Falls Inc. organization, whose leader said it came from a city councilor.”

The irony is if you know anything about Anti-Fa, they are a loose knit group of individuals, and certainly not racists, and anti-fascism not pro-fascism. As I predicted, it was a bunch of latch key kids with nothing better to do on a summer night.

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