Staggers lands a zinger

l3wis February 24, 2010 10Comments

Seems things are heating up in the mayoral race. Bout time.

“While every person, business and organization in the community knew we were in the middle of a serious economic slowdown, City Hall chose to ignore reality,” said Bill Peterson, who voiced his criticism Tuesday.

Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t Bill one of the advocates of the tax increase for the arterial streets and the 3rd penny for the EC? At both council meetings I warned of a economic downturn. Where were your concerns then, Bill?

“This is just another example on how city government is becoming more out of touch on what the citizens of Sioux Falls want,” Huether said.

Yah think? I’m glad to see Mike is out there talking to citizens. I think he is coming to the realization that people are hurting, I can tell you that 2009 wasn’t the greatest year for Detroit Lewis, but I don’t have four kids to feed. I can’t imagine what some of these people are going thru.

Mayor Dave Munson, who is term-limited, said Peterson’s criticism almost sounds like he is running against him. “I hope that he’s not trying to create a crisis for one that doesn’t exist,” Munson said.

Well, Dave, if you think a $330 million dollar city debt and a sagging economy are not a crisis, I have a bridge to sell you in the Sahara.

“They should have seen this coming and they didn’t, and that’s a failure of leadership, period,” Peterson said.

Well, well, well, seems Mr. Peterson doesn’t even know the ‘failure of leadership’ he created himself. He wrote the unconstitutional home rule charter for the city which pretty much ties the hands of councilors to make budget decisions. Kinda hard to lead when you are handcuffed Bill. You pretty much eliminated the checks and balances the city council would have had over the mayor.

Five months ago, some council members and the mayor sparred over the 2010 budget, which is 4 percent larger than last year’s. Staggers introduced 30 amendments to cut spending. Only one passed. It pushed a capital project to a later date.

Yes, and only a couple of those amendments were seconded for debate. That is the rubberstamp council at their best. What I can’t understand is even if you do not agree with Kermit’s amendments, why wouldn’t you at least be willing to debate them?

The current plan for potential holdbacks is to put the city, and the next mayor in a good position, Munson said.

“I really do want to leave it solid,” he said. “We have to make assumptions ahead of time.”

Yes. A solid debt. $100 million for ‘Quality of Life’ projects like monkey crappers, wood thingies and football fields for kids living in Montrose. $70 million for a water pipeline that we won’t have for another 2-6 years (maybe) and over $10 million for levees that the Feds should be paying for out of our income taxes.

Staggers said his opponents who supported the local sales tax funding option for the events center are contradicting themselves.

“It’s interesting that they are concerned about the budget, but at the same time they are out there advocating tax increases,” he said.

ZING!

Thots on the Sioux Falls mayoral forum

l3wis February 5, 2010 8Comments

Not only would Mike make a great mayor, he is also a cat lover. But hey? Who doesn’t love a little pussy?

The Gargoyle Leader did a decent job of covering the event yesterday, but we will get to that in a moment. I want to give my quick overview of how the candidates performed and some strange things that were said;

Pat Costello didn’t really say anything new, and he seemed to be railing on Mike a little. I think Pat and perhaps some of the other candidates are coming to the realization that Huether is their toughest competitor (in their minds). They really seemed to agitated about Mike’s stand on the Events Center.

Huether: I support a new arena, however, the proposal is too broad and too expensive and the good people of Sioux Falls don’t even understand it.

I think the irritation came, because when Mike was talking about the EC, he talked about what he has been hearing from citizens, and he sounded pretty genuine, at least I believed him, that’s when he made the statement above.

Costello also talked about his ‘whopping’ two years he worked as an accountant, not sure how that would make me want to vote for him. Also, him and Vernon flat out lied about property tax increases, which I felt was a ploy to gang up on Staggers.

One thing they won’t have to worry about is property tax increases. City Councilor Staggers vowed not to raise property taxes in 2011, but City Councilor Brown pointed out state law only allows an increase for new construction.

“None of us will be increasing your property taxes. The state doesn’t allow it,” Brown said. His comment was echoed by Costello, who also is on the City Council.

Yet they both voted to increase the percentage that the state allows cities to take in 2009. And when you increase the percentage, you increase taxes. I would think an accountant would know that. Maybe he didn’t get to that part in his career yet, considering he only did it for about two years.

Bill Peterson seemed angry, bossy and arrogant again like he did in the first forum, he just doesn’t have the demeanor to be mayor in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, we need a strong leader, but what we don’t need is a mayor that is going to TELL us what is best for us, and Bill comes across that way. I just don’t think he is a bridge builder. This comes as no surprise, Bill has worked in management for years, and if he manages his current employees like he wants to manage the city, I feel sorry for them.

Mike Huether seemed to be caught flat-footed a few times, I think he was surprised by some of the attacks. I think he performed well, especially taking a stand on the flawed EC plan, but at one point he started comparing himself to Staggers. You never want to say you are like one of your competitors, even if you are (which he is not). He also made a statement that kind of made me laugh, “Sioux Falls is already a retirement destination.” More like most elderly don’t have the money to retire in sunny Arizona, so they find themselves stuck in SF living on a fixed income. And I’m not sure how that statement sounds to young people. I just thought it was a funny statement from a guy that calls himself a progressive. There is one thing I like about Mike though at the forums, he seems to be very jovial and tries to interact with the other candidates, I found that refreshing. He is quite the opposite of the angry cabbage patch kid, Bill. Oh, and he likes cat owners.

Kermit Staggers was very consistent, concise, honest and sincere in his answers. The one thing I have not realized about Kermit until this forum, is that he is a rock. This is very important in a leader. If a path for our city is chosen, it will take a rock to stay on that path. While I agree with this statement from Kermit;

Staggers: We have to make sure we have our present retirees can stay in Sioux Falls. We have to make sure it’s affordable.

I would have liked to hear more about job creation. I know he has ideas, and he needs to get them out there. Kermit is a strong proponent of deregulation, which I believe is a job creator. He also believes in keeping taxes low, this is also an effective way to create jobs.

Then there is Vernon Brown. His ongoing theme is ‘Jobs, Jobs, Jobs’ but talks very little about how he can create those jobs. My advice would to be stop selling Sioux Falls as a low wage haven and start attracting good paying, green energy manufacturing jobs. Besides lying about the property tax increase, Vernon also goes on to mislead on various other issues, which doesn’t surprise me, he has done this countless times in council meetings. First off, he claims to have a ‘blog’ that statement made me spit out my soda when he said that. You mean the one where you delete people’s comments? Then he said this;

Brown: I won’t be the one imposing a sales tax on you, that’s your decision.

Yet I voted to increase fees, property taxes, the 2nd penny since I have been a councilor, oh, and BTW as the president of the SD Municipal League I am pushing for the sales tax increase. C’mon Vernon? How F’ing stupid do you think people are? You want this increase, you have made it your priority as the League’s president, you may not be voting on it, but you will promote it like crazy to anyone who will listen. He also made a extremely misleading statement about a east/west road through the middle of town. I have often said it is possible, and we could save the golf courses and make them into a state park and build the road. Vernon claimed ‘Some historic homes would have to be taken out.’ Whatever. Once again, Vernon came across as a phony.

All and all, I think the candidates need to hone their messages better, and with less then 70 days until the election, they better be coming up with some deets, quick.

This outta be good. The Argus Leader will stream the 2nd Sioux Mayoral forum live, and Janoct ‘Bo’ Ajda will be in attendance

l3wis February 4, 2010 3Comments

Janoct will make for an interesting forum. He usually takes stands that no other politician takes, and it makes for great listening. I still remember when he ran last time for mayor and schooled the candidates that homeless people are not ‘problems’ they are ‘citizens’ of our city because they pay sales taxes just like the rest of us. You could have heard a pin drop.

I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE KUDOS TO THE ARGUS FOR BROADCASTING THIS LIVE, NOW I DON’T HAVE TO DRIVE TO TEA (Trail Ridge) TO SEE THE EVENT LIVE.