So the Mayor (chair of meetings) and councilors Cole, Soehl and Barranco were absent tonight, which left only 5 councilors to make decisions (which is a quorum). The chair CAN vote when the mayor is absent.
What made it even more ironic is that councilor Jensen decided to ‘phone it in’ and had the audacity to try to cut off a public inputer several times. She actually shut him down and continued. BRAVO. Later during public input I informed the council that we have the right to talk about ANY city business on ANY item and they need to STOP interrupting people.
Public input bothers the administration and some councilors so much there is now over a one minute delay if you watch the meeting on CityLink.
I also asked the council tonight after they approved a project for Nielson construction (item #76) if the same company is moving forward with the affordable housing project that got a TIF from the council last year. I don’t think the council should approve any projects for this developer until they break ground on the TIF project. You told us we needed this and it was workable. So when is it going to happen?
Also, on a side note, I encourage the media to live stream the Lenin’s Tomb (zoo animals) meeting tomorrow. If we can’t get transparency out of the administration it is the duty of the 4th estate to pony up. I also encourage members of the public to protest the public input denial at the beginning of the meeting. While there is some gray area when it comes to public input and state law, it is pretty obvious this is an official meeting that doesn’t have the normal carve outs. They are discussing city business publicly during a work session and that falls under the purview of state law and public input. Before the current whatever was mayor the city council used to hold work sessions in the lobby of Carnegie to discuss pending policies, nothing set in stone, just throwing ideas out there and during this the public was invited and encouraged to input. This meeting is no different. I would suggest though if they make a motion to do public input to put it at the end so constituents can respond to what was discussed. Having it at the beginning would NOT be beneficial to the committee or the public.
Dead silence, that’s what you will hear at the meeting held Wednesday at 8 AM because there is NO public input;
Brockhouse Collec-on at the Delbridge – October 4, 2023 8:00 a.m., City Hall Media Room Work Group meeting #1 Work Group Invites: Don Kearney Becky Dewitz Councilor Alex Jensen Councilor Rich Merkouris Mick Conlin Jeanelle Lust Ally Brandner Jeff Scherschligt Staff Invites: Denise DePaolo Jenna Harris Vanessa Gomez Karen Leonard Audrey OWo-Pepper Dave Pfeifle Catherine Schlimgen Erica Beck
Developing a plan for surplus, Erica Beck a. Mayor TenHaken’s request b. Work group & resource team c. Meeting hygiene d. Targeted milestones e. Today’s meeting focus
Introduc-ons, Erica Beck
Brief overview and history of the collec-on, Don Kearney and Becky Dewitz a. City / Delbridge agreement
Collection condition, Becky Dewitz a. Master inventory list b. Annual maintenance c. Condi-on assessment d. Testing – previous and ongoing
Es-mated costs of refurbishing, encasing, and building a new space for the collec-on, Becky Dewitz and Don Kearney
Op-ons for surplus, City aWorney’s office, Becky Dewitz and Don Kearney a. Legal considera-ons b. Liability c. Specific to the master inventory list
Next meeting: October 19, 8:00 a.m., City Hall Media Room
As you can see, the administration changed their mind and decided to have a public meeting. The problem is the public isn’t allowed to speak. This could be a violation of state open meeting laws dealing with public input;
The public body shall reserve at every official meeting a period for public comment, limited at the public body’s discretion as to the time allowed for each topic and the total time allowed for public comment, but not so limited as to provide for no public comment.
Public comment is not required at official meetings held solely for the purpose of meeting in executive session, an inauguration, swearing in of newly elected officials, or presentation of an annual report to the governing body, regardless of whether the activity takes place at the time and place usually reserved for an official meeting.
So is this an official meeting? Technically YES! It was publicly posted on the city website 24 hours in advance, so that would make it an official meeting. But the violation may have already occurred. Since it is under the 24 hour window to re-post a corrected agenda that includes public input, they may have already had a boo-boo. They could however correct it at the beginning of the meeting by making a motion to include public input on the agenda.
I joked recently that I considered bringing a ballot question to the Charter Revision Commission that would ban marketing/banking/real estate executives from running for mayor or city council. While snarky, maybe I need to get serious about it!?
For the record, I don’t personally know Mr. Spellerberg and when he announced today, I had no clue who he was, BUT, he did what I have been telling potential candidates for several months; YOU MUST ANNOUNCE FIRST AND EARLY. I actually put that window between October 1st and Thanksgiving. Well someone must of heeded my advice, unfortunately it wasn’t somebody I know 🙁
A Sioux Falls mortgage loan officer is the first person to publicly announce their candidacy for next year’s Sioux Falls City Council elections.
Ryan Spellerberg made the announcement on Monday afternoon that he intended to run in the city’s southwestern district, a seat currently held by Councilor Marshall Selberg, who is term limited.
Spellerberg’s release named affordable housing, reducing crime, investing in infrastructure and expanding the city’s park system as some of his main goals.
You know, all the things that a good city councilor would and should be working on. I am always surprised that people running for city council for the past 20 years mention the same things they are going to work on. Well guess what, most of the things he mentioned are on cruise control and take little to no action from the council. Taxpayers fund the police, they don’t need the council’s help running the department. The chief is appointed by the mayor and does what the mayor tells him to do. Most of our taxes go towards infrastructure (new and maintenance). I am not sure how a councilor could improve this, just another cruise control policy that the council approves spending on in normal routine business. Our park system is our greatest asset and the city manages the system well, especially when it comes to funding and expansion. Not sure they need anymore cheerleaders on the council.
I agree, affordable housing needs help, but like past candidates, promises made, promises broken. It is going to take bold and courageous policy changes that will piss off the developer and realtor industry, and I am sorry, but someone on the inside can’t fix this problem because of their blatant industry conflicts. You can’t have two masters.
It often surprises me when people throw their hat in the ring to run for city council and have little to no idea what the body actually does. Everything he mentions in his press release is already being done by the current council besides improving affordable housing.
Basically Spellerberg is saying, “I am the status quo. Now where do I pick up my rubberstamp?”
I speculate, though I have not heard either way, that Mr. Spellerberg was likely recruited by either the administration, Councilor Selberg or both;
He has yet to file a statement of organization for his municipal candidate campaign, but his announcement has already drawn support from Councilor Alex Jensen, who said “Let’s go Ryan Spellerberg!” in a Facebook post.
As I assumed, the mayor will be recruiting candidates, just not sure if this is one of them. But he fits the PTH Council candidate mold; White. Male. Christian. Developer/real estate/banking. Transplant from another state (but still midwestern). Volunteered on some non-profit boards. You get the picture. I wonder how many city elections he has voted in? We will get you that info, even though it doesn’t seem to matter to people, since Dr. Cole was elected to council with no local voting record.
In his spare time, the 46 year old has been involved with Habitat for Humanity, Sioux Falls Veterans Community Project and teaching Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey.
The first two projects, great for our community, but Dave Ramsey??!! I actually have listened to Dave, and what is really ironic about his advice is that it is common sense. So maybe we need someone like this on the city council to teach a little fiscal common sense?!
I think they are beyond help.
I am willing to give Mr. Spellerberg the benefit of the doubt. He just announced, and if he can come up with a workable solution to our affordable housing issues, he would be worth installing, he just better keep that to himself 🙂
Here is my random count on potential council candidates;
NE District, Pat Starr is term limited so this seat will be open. So far I have heard a male moderate Republican is considering a run in the district.
At-Large. Jensen is flip-flopping everyday. It is comical. Every day I either get an email or text telling me that either Alex is running or he is not. I could care less at this point. But there is a community activist considering running for the AL also. Alex has bent so many rules behind the scenes that if he decided not to run I think the council that is left next Spring would be OK with that. It is unfortunate that the public doesn’t know some of the BS this guy has been up to, because he certainly wouldn’t be on the council anymore and NOT running for re-election. If Jensen bows out on a 2nd term run, it won’t be because of ‘family commitments’ it will be because no body wants him around Carnegie.
SW District. Obviously Ryan is running, but I have heard about two other potential candidates in that race.
NW District. I have heard about two candidates running in this district, both minorities.
Since Spellerberg’s announcement, I expect more PTH hand picked candidates to announce while I watch all the others play catch up.
The thing about announcing a run for council now is that you can always back out before you have to collect petition signatures next year. Maybe you get on the campaign trail, and realize this isn’t for you, that’s fine. Just announce already, because if you don’t we are setting ourselves up for another blowout.
I think if I was advising a candidate, my advice on a campaign slogan would be, “Save the Children!” Wins every time! I would avoid, “Save the Dead Animals!” It just doesn’t have a good ring to it.
Also, hire an experienced graphic designer to create a logo. I know it is fun killing 50 hours in Word creating the perfect logo with your children, but it’s not a science project, you are marketing yourself and it is OK to hire a professional to create that image of you (that’s my lame graphic designer rant).
Recently a group has said they are exploring doing a petition drive to try to save the collection. They are working thru the details but hope to have an initiative put together so they can put it on the Spring ballot. I don’t think it would be hard to get the sigs, I just don’t know if voters would support spending millions to save them.
But the potential petition drive isn’t the ‘crazy’ part of the story.
I’ve heard rumors that city councilors have been ‘told’ by the city’s legal team not to discuss the zoo tomb with the media or openly on social media. Not sure if it that is the case and if any of them are complying? Their 1st Amendment rights trump any silly by-laws or state laws that may prevent them from speaking out. Our lead city attorney isn’t known to be a real constitutional scholar.
I have also heard rumors of threats made toward officials. Unfortunately, I believe some people have gone way overboard on this issue, and nothing would surprise me at this point.
Closed government is a double-edge sword. You can’t just close it to your detractors, you have to close everyone out for it to work, including your followers. So guess what? Sometimes your devout followers can become your biggest enemies when you start cutting them out of the information loop.
I’ll keep saying it, there are NO winners with closed government just the LOSERS at the top.
SIOUX FALLS HAS A NEW TOURIST ATTRACTION, ZEBRA MUSSELS
The attached release references the detection of zebra mussels in the Big Sioux River just south of Watertown. The presumed source is Lake Kampeska, which has been known to harbor the little buggers for a few years. Given the relatively rapid movement of river water, GF&P is now considering the entire river downstream of Lake Kampeska “infested.” We will need to adjust our river sampling protocols to avoid the potential of spreading them further. Fortunately, the sampling season is about to end for 2023.
This should be of particular note to the City of Sioux Falls, which draws water directly from the river just north of the airport. We’ve all seen the pictures of zebra mussels clogging water intakes. The last I heard, they get about 6-7% of their water from the river, so this could have an impact in a time of growing demand.
I’ve never heard our public works team talk about this before. Maybe the administration will treat it like other issues, ignore it and hope it goes away and if not paint a mural over it.
l3wis