Here’s Stormland TV‘s VeRNONsion.
Here is the Gargoyle Leader’s version.
This one is worth watching, merely for the Janoct and Kermit moments. Kermit slams Mike on a couple of instances and Janoct, well Janoct, is just plain hilarious – right down to his sudden bathroom break.
Want to make your home or business safer? The city wants to charge you for that.
The Gargoyle Leader is featuring two stories today about how the city council is at odds with Dr. Staggers (again) yet no mention of how they had a change of heart over one of Kermit’s suggestions. Last week Kermit suggested that a 23 page proposed city ordinance on alarm systems should go through committee first, because the ordinance is too far-reaching (it includes a licensing and registration fee to have a security system – that’s right kiddies, only in Sioux Falls would they find a way to charge you for making your business safer). At the time, most of the city council disagreed with Kermit and the PD proclaimed that they have spent “two years” writing the ordinance (like that makes it better). They felt that we should just ‘trust’ the PD. Well, big surprise in the informational meeting on Monday! After fielding many ‘concerns’ from constituents on the matter, the rest of the council decided it was a good idea to go to committee.
Once again, Kermit was with the citizens and right on the issue and the rest of the council was wrong. Is anyone detecting a trend here?
Now to the stories in the Gargoyle. The first one is a blatant attempt to smear Kermit a week before the election. It is clear that there is nothing wrong with Kermit wanting to exempt non-profits that help the homeless, but the rest of the council just can’t resist shooting him down, it was CLEARLY POLITICAL. Even Munson gets in the fight and tries to stifle Kermit (in between the babblings of Quen Be De Knudson).
Councilor Kermit Staggers introduced an amendment that would have added the proposed County Permanent Supportive Housing, St. Francis House and the Union Gospel Mission. “I think what we want to do with this amendment is to send a message that we are concerned about homeless people. I think that’s a very good message for us to send,” he said. Councilor Bob Litz, who proposed adding fire inspection fees to the exemption list, said Staggers’ amendment is veering away from the original intention of the ordinance. Since 1996, the exemptions have been applied toward projects involving volunteer labor and materials that promote affordable housing, city planning director Mike Cooper said. Cooper said the city would lose more money with multifamily projects such as homeless housing and estimated the city would lose a minimum $300 per unit for an apartment complex.
Cooper is concerned about the city losing a couple of grand while flushing $5 million down the toilet called the ‘River Greenway Project.’ Give me a f’ing break! This was clearly political.
And once again, Kermit has proven that he is on the right side of another issue;
Mayoral candidate and current City Councilor Kermit Staggers hopes that doesn’t happen. “I hope he wins,” Staggers said of Wiedermann. As a city councilor, Staggers has spoken against the cameras, often casting the lone vote for their removal. Countdown-number systems that show pedestrians and motorists how many seconds remain until the light turns yellow have been installed at some downtown crosswalks. Those systems are the proper way to deal with intersections that see a lot of foot traffic, Staggers said.
But Vernon can’t resist the urge to claim all drivers that go thru that intersection, “Guilty until proven innocent.”
Vernon Brown cited the death of Argus Leader employee Edie Adams, who was killed at the intersection of 10th and Minnesota as she crossed the street in 2003, as a reason that location needs the camera system.
That has always been my concern with the cameras. I assume the person who killed Adams was prosecuted and handed a punishment. So why do the rest of us have to pay for the crime? It is clear what kind of mayor Brown would make. He would probably ramp up code enforcement to an even higher level of ridiculousness. We need a mayor who trusts us as citizens to do the right thing, not presume we are all guilty.
HERE is Kermit’s TV spot
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMu7pbxMUyA&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
The Staggers campaign sent a letter of reassurance to city employees, which I heard about last week and thought was a great idea. But only in SF would someone have a problem with it;
Sioux Falls mayoral candidate Kermit Staggers sent a letter to every city employee who was registered to vote in Sioux Falls.
“This is basically a goodwill letter to let the employees know where I am coming from. I think it’s a legitimate thing for me to do,” Staggers said Friday.
Something I found startling though was the high number of city employees that are either NOT registered to vote, or NOT registered to vote in Sioux Falls;
Staggers said he mailed letters to about 740 out of the 1,100 city employees.
“An interesting thing we learned is that a lot of city employees live in Brandon or don’t vote,” he said.
Staggers doesn’t want to leave voters out just because they work for the city.
“They simply cannot be excluded from the political process. They have a right to hear from a candidate like all citizens of Sioux Falls,” he said.
And he is right, it amazes me that someone would complain about a candidate reaching out to them? Especially since the names and voter registration list of city employees is public record.
Here is the letter;
From the Argus Leader and KELO-TV;
The Ground Round Restaurant was closed April 1, putting 54 employees out of work.
The restaurant at 1301 W. 41st St. was shut down at the direction of MinnWest Bank of Sioux Falls, which owns the land and building, restaurant general manager Dan Dammer said.
The business had been operated by United Enterprises GR LLC, which is co-owned by businessman Kent Vucurevich. He has been battling financial problems.
Notice that Costello lists United Enterprises GR LLC as one of his business ventures in his first financial report;
So if Kent isn’t paying the bills are his business partners? Maybe someone should ask Costello about it?
A reporter sent me this info today;
Costello told me Kent asked him to help manage the restaurant in 2008. He helped out for four months, but after realizing it was a mess got out of that deal in December 2008. The only reason he put it on his financial report is because the report asked for any business ventures he had been involved in during the past year, which would have been from August 2008 to August 2009.
When combing through the court papers about the foreclosure of the restaurant Kent Vucurevich and Colin Steen were the only two mentioned in all of the filings concerning the Ground Round.
We debated long and hard yesterday about whether we should include Costello in the story or not. We ultimately decided not to include him because he was not involved in any of the legal proceedings or involved when Vucurevich and Steen started going into foreclosure.
While this is good news for Pat, it still doesn’t change the fact that Pat has done business with Kent in the past. It makes you wonder what other scrupulous characters Pat does business with?
It seems not only does the Gargoyle Leader have to put Staggers down, Stormland-TV news cannot resist either. At their six-o-clock news it was clear that Kermit had won their poll, but instead of presenting those results they showed Vernon as having the top favorable rating;
Not only is this misleading, it borders on deception and libel. Doesn’t matter if you like Oklahoma State or Nebraska, it only matters who wins. Kermit won the poll, the poll you paid for. I like Santa Claus, doesn’t mean I would elect him to mayor.
This election is about qualifications, something your editors, news directors, camera men, photographers, journalists and probably janitors lack. You are pathetic source of news and you wonder why day in and day out people tune out the news? Because you try to influence instead of inform. In these last 12 days, I beg you to report the news, as is. In fact, I challenge you, because it seems you struggle with it.
As a blogger, it is MY job to influence, not inform. But it seems now days I’m the one that has to put the truth out there. How sad coming from a guy who does it in his underware while listening to his I-Pod.
l3wis