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Theresa Stehly

Elections SF City Council SF School District Sioux Falls Theresa Stehly

Where do we stand in the upcoming Sioux Falls City Council/School Board election?

l3wis 2Comments

As you can see, City Councilor Theresa Stehly has been out collecting her required signatures. I hear the goal is to turn in over 1,000 signatures, but I would not be surprised if the number is closer to 2,000. She is the queen of petitioning, and it is a good way to talk to the electorate.

All potential candidates have until 5 PM, February 28 to turn in their signatures. So far Theresa and Julian are the two left (that we know of).

As it stands today, the potential race between Stehly and Count Jensen will be the only full-city ballot option besides the Charter Revision Commission’s proposed amendments. The race between Greg and Julian is a district only race (NW).

As of right now, Selberg (SW) Starr (NE) and School Board President Cynthia Mickelson have NO challengers, and I don’t suspect they will.

All precincts will be used in this election, which ironically will probably make it the most expensive city election for the lowest turnout in the history of the city. I am suspecting between 5-6,000 voters city wide.

We still have a week to go, so here are some scenarios that could happen;

• Mickelson, Starr and Stehly/Jensen (At Large) could see challengers. I have been hearing whispers there are others that have pulled petitions, but have not filed statements of intent yet. I don’t think Selberg will have a challenger.

I think once everything is filed next Friday and we have the validated candidates, then we will start seeing the fireworks, especially for the At-Large race. There are a lot of loose lips from some of the campaigns, and I have been hearing some ‘interesting’ stories about strategy. Not all bad, but you have to take some of it with a grain of salt, because amateurs like to try to set up traps with their ‘bag of tools’.

Once the validation process is over, you will be hearing more from me about the election.

SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec Theresa Stehly

Stehly brings up costs of other ‘Quality of Life’ Projects in comparison to Project TRIM

l3wis 13Comments

During the Informational meeting yesterday, Stehly thanked the Parks Department for doing the Project TRIM experiment. She also brought up other things we subsidize each year. She said that the money could easily be budgeted for the city to trim their own trees in the boulevard.

There was also a discussion about the golf contract with Landscapes Unlimited and how they want to amend the contract so they can possibly provide management for Brandon’s Municipal Course (which I think is a conflict). They cleverly claim that people who will work at the Sioux Falls city courses won’t work at the Brandon course, yet what they fail to mention is that LU is a corporation with multiple management locations all over the United States. Corporate headquarters knows exactly what is going on at both locations simultaneously. They also talked about ‘opportunities’ between the two locations. I’m not sure how people paying to golf at Brandon’s course is an ‘opportunity’ for the taxpayers of Sioux Falls. I have often said we should just have a flat lease for the courses and let the contractor do as they please, and maintain them at their expense. This would be more beneficial to taxpayers, and would eliminate any contract conflicts.

There has also NOT been any determination on how the golf cart shed fire started. During the contract discussion, LU admitted they received $100K from insurance for lost carts, etc. When the Director of Parks, Ding-Dong Don was asked how much the city got from insurance for the destruction of the facility, he responded that they have received nothing yet. When asked why, he said it is because they haven’t figured out yet how they are going to replace the facility (stand alone or along with a new clubhouse). Sorry, but a damaged building value has NOTHING to do with what the new facility will cost. I find this very odd, and wonder if a determination on the cause of the fire will ever be revealed. Of course, this is coming from the same guy who lied about no-mow zones (and various other crap). Can we impeach him?

SF City Council Sioux Falls Theresa Stehly

The Stehly Report

l3wis 7Comments

Sioux Falls city councilor Stehly’s yearly mailed newsletter hit the mailboxes today in Sioux Falls. I know that it was mailed to a ‘significant’ amount of Sioux Falls registered voters. This is NOT a campaign piece. Theresa has NOT announced if she is running for a second term and paid for the printing and postage out of her personal funds and NOT from city tax dollars or campaign donations (I don’t think she has any campaign money). It’s a fantastic read! I did NOT contribute and didn’t know about it until today when I saw it posted on Facebook on the SF Politics page (they actually deleted the post after I pointed out they were promoting it, while bitching about it). Theresa sent me the PDF version below;

READ THE CLEAR PDF VERSION HERE.

Project TRIM Public Works SF City Council Sioux Falls Theresa Stehly

UPDATE: Project TRIM pilot program proves that the city can affordably trim city owned trees

l3wis 11Comments

UPDATE: I wanted to add that the Denny Sanford Premier Center probably costs taxpayers about $6 million a year (after sponsorships, profits, sales and sales tax revenue offset) that comes to $31.58 per year, per resident. Ironically, not everyone attends the EC and on top of that, you still have to buy a ticket to go there. I would say, Project TRIM at no cost would be a lot more bang for our buck.

I was surprised that the number was so low. $58 per property. If you are in violation in it’s current form, the city could charge you $150-$300 to trim THEIR trees, even though in reality we pay frontage fees/taxes to take care of these things. As Stehly points out in the meeting, it could be even lower if we contract the work with private contractors (creating local jobs) or using inmate labor.

I would also like to point out that these costs will get lower each year because the city will be doing this on a regular basis and keep it managed. I also think the price tag is a pittance for the trimming, $688K per year, compared to other expenditures in our city. That comes to about $3.62 per resident, per year. Half the price of a value meal at Mickey D’s. We can afford this.

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