Sioux Falls

Post of the Dead (ZW minus 17)

First off, I’d like to emphasize the importance of this year’s elections. Now more than ever we need to remind EVERYONE we know to vote, or we might end up with this in the White House. Seriously, this isn’t as far off as it seems.
she's only one brain away...

Second, it was brought to my attention that USA TODAYwas running a piece about Zombie Tag. I wondered how it was that I hadn’t heard of it yet.. and then it occurred to me that I’m not a coed with entire days of my life to waste on college campuses. I’ll admit that it does sound like tons of fun, and if a game popped up in SooFoo I’d be there.

Thirdly, come out this weekend and watch George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” on the big screen at West Mall 7 at 9PM this Saturday the 11th and October 18th @ 9PM. All proceeds will benefit the Sioux Falls State Theater.

Undeadly Yours,

Zed

 

SF City Council overides VETO

The council reinstated the non-profit money last night. But our city attorney, Mr. Know-it-All doesn’t think the council had the legal right to do it.

The outcome left City Attorney Robert Amundson questioning whether the council’s action was legitimate. Last week the council approved the 2009 budget. This week they were approving a resolution appropriating the money.

“I think it should be looked at,” Amundson said following the meeting. In theory, the city attorney represents both the mayor and the council.

The council is his client, not just the mayor. He needs to be defending their decision not just his buddy the mayor. Like I have said in the past, I have great respect for Robert Amundson. He was a former judge, and that is maybe the issue with Robert, he is opinionated like a judge, not an attorney. He needs to understand his job as an attorney is to advise the council on the letter of the LAW not his OPINION on the LAW as a sitting judge would do. The council isn’t asking for a verdict, they are asking for an opinion, there is a difference.

New SF Chamber Chair; Citizen advocates are ‘Negative’

In the Sioux Falls’ Chamber of Commerce News published in the Argus Leader, the new Chamber Chair Dave Fleck had this to say about citizen advocates and half the city council;

“More recently, the Sioux Falls City Council* voted for additional funding sources for the construction of arterial streets and other infrastructure projects. Instead of focusing on negativity, the council had a vision of where Sioux Falls could be and voted for our future.”

*(Only four councilors voted for the increase with the mayor breaking the tie, this equals 50% of the council, not a mandate or a majority).

This kind of divisive language is no surprise from a Chamber member. Over the weekend it was reported that the US Chamber of Commerce was one of the biggest supporters of the Wallstreet bailout, they are also the largest lobbyist in Washington, spending over $40 million dollars last year in lobbying congress. They like it when taxpayer’s give them money for projects like roads. Mr. Fleck seems to think that it is NEGATIVE for government to look out for citizens first. The amendment that councilor Costello offered to make cuts to the budget instead of raising taxes was very POSITIVE because he was saying we can build these roads without raising taxes. Talk about optimism.

Mr. Fleck goes further with his citenzry attack;

“We need to be willing to risk short-term controversy for long-term benefits.”

There is nothing negative or controversial about asking our elected officials to listen to people who pay their wages and fund this city’s government. In fact I can’t think of anything more negative then apathy.

KCPO ‘The Facts’ Shocker!

Jason Folkarts had a Republican on his KCPO political show. Wait, he always has on Republicans. Kidding aside, he had my favorite city councilor Dr. Kermit Staggers on the show. It was refreshing because;

1) Kermit knows his stuff when it comes to civics (He has a PHD in that stuff).

2) He is an old skool conservative – which is cool – low taxes – small government.

3) He slammed the bailout, I think I liked this quote, “This is going to have to be paid for by people who haven’t even been born yet.” (I think Leslee Unruh is working on that).

4) And best of all, he pretty much made fun of the Vote No on IM 10 TV commercials about teachers not being able to talk to their husbands. Kermit and I agree on this, it is complicated language, but it is a good measure and the other side is LYING THRU THEIR TEETH in the commercials. No surprise though, it is NOT supported by either political party.

5) He loves Sarah Palin. C’mon Kermit! Really?!?! Well not quite, but he was pretty complimentary.

Gene ‘Montgomery Burns’ Rowenhorst defends the fleecing of taxpayers in SF

Like a good Munson soldier, Gene tells us that paying more taxes is necessary (Argus Leader);

I would like to put this discussion in context. In March 2008, the mayor and the City Council commissioned a citizen survey that reached 3,000 households in Sioux Falls. Citizens were asked to rate the statement, “I receive good value for the city of Sioux Falls taxes I pay.”

Gene, why didn’t you mention there was only aproximately 1,000 respondents? That’s right, city hall is making decisions with your taxdollars based on the opinions of aprox 0.66% of the population. But if you include the metro area (which will be affected by the arterial roads that percentage drops to 0.44%.) Not a good guage if you ask me. On top of that, we still don’t know who these surveys were sent to, which should worry us even more. Mailing lists are very accurate and specific. You can order a list to go to any demographic within a city. I would be curious what demographic this was sent to. One indicator was a large number of people saying they felt unsafe Downtown at night. This tells me that the survey was sent to 1) Senior citizens 2) yuppies who never come downtown and are generally scared of downtown areas because they watch too much Fox News about inner city crime.

I also take issue with this statement;

That leaves $139 million in our budget.

$27 million is for railroad relocation. This is money coming from the federal government that we need to show as part of the budget due to accounting rules even though the citizens of Sioux Falls are not funding this project. This money cannot be used for arterial street construction.

What Gene isn’t tell you is that SF Taxpayer’s are footing this bill and we will (hopefully) get repaid by the FEDS. In most cases when cities or states foot the bill first, it is rare that the FEDS pony up. and if you think after this $819 billion dollar bailout that they are going to be handing out checks like this, you are freaking nuts.

This is also misleading, and he should have given a breakdown;

That leaves $90 million in our budget.

  • $43 million is in other funds that are restricted for specific purposes such as transit, community development, storm drainage, etc. This money cannot be used for arterial street construction.
  • Most community development dollars are loans that are merely originated by the city. But lately you will notice that the city has been giving handouts in the form of TIF’s and Facade programs. I would be curious how much of that $43 million is for community development handouts.

    Once again the city has told us how they are spending our money, but not how they are trying to save us money. That is what is fundamentally broken at City Hall and the department heads that work there. They are not looking out for us.