Tea

Still baffled and Concerned. Why is the City of Sioux Falls allowing it’s new Housing Director to run for Tea City Council?

l3wis March 10, 2019 1Comments

I do stand corrected on one level. I guess an employee of the Siouxland Libraries and an employee of the Siouxland Museums serve on city councils outside of Sioux Falls. But in some ways that is a little different. Both of those bodies are funded by the county and city(s).

But I have to wonder about the conflict of interest with a Tea resident as our housing director saying this about Tea and her run for council;

This is the most important quote from the article I posted yesterday.
“The advantages that suburbs have for adapting to disruptive innovation should not be a rationale for their complacency. Adaptation needs to be nurtured; it won’t happen automatically. Suburbs have an opportunity and, more importantly, an obligation to develop proofs of concept and to share those lessons with other governmental entities.”

If Tea is just a part of Sioux Falls, why do they have a city council? Why doesn’t Sioux Falls just annex Tea into our city limits? Seems we would solve a lot of problems for both communities. But the quote also makes you wonder who Chellee will be working for? The opportunities of a suburb of Sioux Falls, or her real paying gig with the City of Sioux Falls? How can you promote development and economic growth for Tea (while living there) and promote affordable housing in Sioux Falls at your day job? While I have had problems trying to find a specific rule or law that prohibits Unruh from doing both jobs, it’s still ethically questionable. Should the SF Ethics Commission be looking into this and ruling on it before the April election in Tea? I think so. I also find it a bit ironic that her family has chosen to live in Tea. Is it because housing is more affordable there?

I also find it curious she lists her employment with Sioux Falls as of February, yet no one saw her working at her new job until the beginning of March. So it seems she was well aware of her employment with the city when she announced she was running for Tea city council. Did her new employer know? If so, why isn’t Mayor TenHaken asking the Ethics Commission to look into this? Maybe they see Unruh as a double agent as an advantage to Sioux Falls?

City of Sioux Falls NEW Housing Director NOT only lives in Tea, she wants to be on their city council

l3wis February 24, 2019 9Comments

It has been rumored that Chellee Unruh will take over as the new Community Development/Housing Manager for the City of Sioux Falls (the previous director is retiring). This has been confirmed to me by several city councilors. She supposed to start at the beginning of March.

Chellee currently works for SE Tech as Foundation Director.

I have long had an issue with city directors NOT living (and paying property taxes) in Sioux Falls. I get it, some are more important than others when it comes to those priorities. Like our Library Director being a Minnesota resident. Does it matter? How about our Fire Chief? He lives in Canton.

How about our housing director? Unruh currently lives in Tea. Tea is considered the fastest growing small town in South Dakota, far exceeding other small towns in the region. So why would the city of Sioux Falls hire someone to help solve our affordable housing issues in Sioux Falls who doesn’t even reside here?

That’s the least of our worries. If Unruh is actually confirmed and takes the job with the city (I’m starting to wonder if this is some kind of joke) her residence is one thing, but if elected to the Tea city council, she could be presenting a HUGE conflict of interest, not just for Sioux Falls but for Tea. So who do you work for Chellee? According to her FB campaign page;

I will focus in the areas of economic development and funding, and protecting the safety of our families.

Isn’t that the job the City of Sioux Falls is hiring you for? While I encourage people to run for office, especially local races, I also encourage people to be very careful about conflicts and ethics. No doubt that Unruh has many talents and probably will make a good city director. But these circumstances are highly questionable.