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UPDATE: Item #81 on the City Council’s Tuesday Agenda

Council has been working on this and plan to have 1st reading next week so they can pass 2nd reading at their last meeting on May 21st. They have seen that councilor Rolfing’s idea was about as bad as they come. I know that the council has at least 4 councilors that support it, so I don’t know how the vote will go, but I have a feeling it will go away real quick, no matter who wins tonight.

Basically we would bring back a 34% plurality rule (if any candidate gets at least 34% of the vote, they don’t need a runoff).

UPDATE: Here is a great article about the basis of the ‘Blank Slate’ candidate from the NYT.

So after spending thousands and thousands of dollars getting people elected in Sioux Falls, Matt Paulson decided to run a victory lap (even though Thomason didn’t win by much, and if the campaign was longer, Jordan would have won).

He said this about Jordan on a blog comment (not here):

Jordan probably had the best “grass roots” campaign in Sioux Falls city council history, and he probably would have won if he were a true “blank slate” candidate and not someone with a track record of creating controversy.

You mean like these blank slates you funded?

Councilor Sarah Cole

Mayor Paul TenHaken

Councilor David Barranco

CounTcilor Alex Jensen

Councilor Marshall Selberg (not sure Paulson funded Selberg in his first election)

What have they done besides allowing candy at parades, getting rid of a bowling license and dismantling the internal audit department. Or better yet transforming city government into a closed state of business. Or not living in your district for 2 years ILLEGALLY!

Yeah, not a fan of the political movement towards ‘blank slate’ candidates. Paulson needs these slates, or as I know them, stampers to get what he wants.

He also funds these candidates to the high hilt, this is really the reason they have been winning, a steady flow of money.

I like candidates with experience, and I think both Richard and Jordan have experience and would be ready on day one instead of wandering around the basement of Carnegie reading a copy of Robert’s Rules for Dummies.

As for Paul and his postcard about voting I found it to be ironic. The guy wanted people to get out the vote for his hand picked puppets but throws cold water on letting people have a legal bond election on the aquatics bonds. If that would have been on the ballot in the General, voter turnout would have been huge. Bond elections are emotional for people. Not sure why, but they are.

Right now we have a bunch of business people running the city behind the scenes and Poops goes along with it while not allowing the council to do ANYTHING!

I did have a great convo with Richard last night and he does have some original things he wants to bring forward (and some of them are AWESOME and don’t cost taxpayers a dime). So I am going to keep an open mind about Richard. Now if he can get Mr. Lime Green Lambo to shut his trap, that would be great.

I think the first order of business for the new council would be to ban Paulson from making any more political contributions . . . I know, I know, a violation of his 1st Amendment Rights, but since he doesn’t understand that Amendment, maybe it will apply?

I’m to lazy to do the research, but I believe the city had a photography contest about 15 years ago that focused on our Parks System and some of the stuff was amazing.

While I do commend and applaud the Mayor’s 100 day fitness challenge (with all the Fast Food joints in this hole it should be the 365 day challenge) we should have another photography contest and have peeps submit to the SF Arts Council website and have people vote. They could do it in coordination with the city’s planning and parks department.

I ride constantly and a lot at night, I take several pics almost every night of our gorgeous park system. Truly a GEM! And it’s FREE (for now anyway)!

Thanks to southdakotatruth.com for the toons!

While the Levitt finally released their 2023 annual report (which we will get to later) they announced their performance series for the summer today. Tons of great acts, and I still have to do a full dive, but I was exited to hear Supaman is coming. He is absolutely incredible and fascinating. I had a chance to see him at the Black Hills Unity Concert in 2015 and can’t wait to see him perform again. He wears traditional dance garb when he raps.

As for the Annual Report, no surprises, the Levitt has tons of great sponsors and overall community support. But there was interesting tidbit in the report. 79% of revenue comes from contributions (which I always assumed was pretty high) and only 10% is ‘earned’. Which means the claims made by the Alcohol beverage provider is total boloney saying once if he couldn’t contribute a portion of his sales the Levitt would not survive. It was laughable.

NOW, they may put his sales in the contributor bracket, but I don’t see that as possible;

Contributed revenue refers to gifts made freely without receiving any goods or services in exchange. Donations, grants, and noncash donations are examples of contributed revenue. Earned revenue are funds where the person providing money will receive a good or service of equal or greater value in exchange.

I have said charge a $5 dollar cooler fee and only allow canned beer and wine and your contributions would be much higher and peeps would be much happier. The council could pass an ordinance overnight that allows people to bring their own beverages at Levitt events on the caveat that they have to pay a cooler fee.

Oh and one more thing while we are trying to make the Levitt experience better, BAN PETS!!!!!