JUST ANOTHER FAIRYTALE THAT WILL NEVER COME TRUE
l3wis 
Vernon Brown
Whatever Vernon
Vernon works in marketing but didn’t think there was anything wrong with this? Whatever.
Vernon Brown’s mayoral campaign has redone a television ad after Brown’s former employer expressed concerns about the commercial.
Brown is a former reporter for KELO-TV in Sioux Falls. The 30-second video included clips from Brown’s reporting days. In the first 10 seconds, the KELO logo briefly appears in three different clips. The ad has been running on cable television shows, including CNN.
KELO General Manager Jay Huizenga said he heard about the ad during a staff meeting earlier this week. He was concerned that viewers might see the KELO logo and view it as an implied endorsement of Brown’s candidacy.
“Because, like, we are already the propaganda wing of Ironic Johnny and the current mayor of Sioux Falls. We just don’t want to confuse viewers by also giving a leg up to a candidate.”
Brown said he apologized and that he doubted many people noticed the logos.
Yeah, because old ladies, your biggest base, NEVER EVER watch Stormland TV News.
“I should have thought of that, but I didn’t,” Brown said. “It’s part of my biography. It’s where I worked.”
That statement right there tells you he knew what he was doing.
With 12 years as a KELO reporter, Brown arguably has the best name recognition of any of the six candidates in the race.
He DID have the best name recognition. I would argue that Staggers and Huether have that in the bag now.
Vernon Brown must be living in a different city then the one I live in
As president of the SD Municipal league Vernon is promoting the silly 1 cent sales tax increase city option. He had this to say about it on his website;
South Dakota Municipal League will be asking lawmakers for a major philosophical shift: a temporary sales tax option for special projects. The League’s success in unlocking the state’s financial handcuffs on cities will largely come from the effectiveness of your community’s story. In this case, the smaller the town, the bigger the impact will be, especially when it comes to necessary infrastructure. Here are a few things to consider as you develop your local story:
Handcuffs? Besides last year, the city of SF has enjoyed RECORD sales tax revenue. With that much money coming in you would think we would be driving on streets of gold. It is estimated that in just 7 years the city has spent over $100 million on ‘quality of life’ projects. Or as I like to call them ‘wants’. If city leaders would have been a little wiser over those 7 years we could have put millions in the bank to pay for things like an events center, but instead the city engaged in reckless spending, and now they want to continue their spend fest by increasing taxes. I have often commented that people are not against an Events Center, they just want the city to spend within their means and show some fiscal restraint, especially with a project of this magnitude. I hope the 1 cent sales tax increase has a fast death in Pierre.
Councilor Staggers says the solution to building a new events center is simple, don’t do it by increasing taxes;
No increase in the city sales tax. Most City Council members want to raise the sales tax in Sioux Falls to 7% for an events center. This tax increase would take an additional $50 million out of the pockets of citizens and give it to the city government to spend. The citizens would have less money to spend at a time when economists are calling for consumers to spend more money in order to get the economy out of recession. Furthermore, since the sales tax is a very regressive tax, any increase in the sales tax would further impoverish the poor and low income families in the midst of a recession.
No increases in taxes and no annual operating subsidy for a new events center.Common sense and fairness dictate that a new events center should be paid for by those people who use it. Likewise, if you do not use the facility, you should not pay for it. A new events center should only be supported if there are no increases in taxes and no annual operating subsidy.
He also comments on what our current taxes should be paying for;
Increase spending on city streets and highways. The city is playing catch up in its street maintenance program. The city’s promise of the 1980s that the second penny sales tax would be used for streets must be reaffirmed and honored. This means more of the second penny sales tax must be spent on streets and highways.
Downtown Vernon BrownKnows respond to the snowgates issue on his website
Vernon responds to all the ANON people out there;
Thank you for the comments on the snow gates posting. I especially appreciate Theresa Stehly courageously putting her name to her comments rather than doing it annonymously. Theresa and I recently had what I found to be a productive phone discussion about this issue and others. I respect her passion for this and other issues. Here are a couple follow-ups:
You stinky rotten ANON people, what do you know? Especially you Costner. Go dance with the wolves or something.
- Further investigation – IÂ committed to Theresa that I’d call the vendor she referenced. I placed that call Friday and left a message.
Yeah, and I had tea with the tooth fairy today. By the way, her unicorn says hi.
- 40% increased cost – “Costner” asked how snow gates can add 40% to the cost of snow removal. This goes beyond the intial cost of equipment. It’s the extra time it takes to plow a street with the gates. Plow operators can’t go as fast with snow gates. The biggest expense in any snow removal is overtime, or in the case of the latest historic event, holiday pay. In that $1.8 million event, the snow gates would have cost an extra $720,000. However, the major point is that they wouldn’t work anyway. Vendors say up to 12 inches. In practice, it’s typically anything more than eight inches.
Actually several communities says it saves time, because you don’t have to go back and clean out windrows in intersections AND you don’t have to slow down to use snowgates. Did you watch the video? But more importantly this is about public safety and damage to vehicles. And furthermore some cities have used the gates in up to 30″ of snow. As for your fuzzy math, we can tell you are a marketing person and not an accountant.
- Argus Story – For more on this issue click here to read a recent story. Note the quote from Bismarck’s assistant city administrator that snow gates don’t clear your driveway like you shoveled.
No they don’t, but instead of scooping 4 feet of snow out of the driveway, you scoop 4 inches. This last snowfall I went out with a shovel RIGHT AFTER Â the snowplow came by. Some of it was so hard, I actually was throwing chunks of ice-snow the size of field rocks instead of scooping. This is assanine. I pay taxes to remove snow from my street, I don’t pay them to push that snow into my private drive.
I live on an emergency route. If anyone would love to have snow disappear from the end of my driveway, it’d be me. That is if they would truly work. I will continue the research. However, it is all about priorities and for me my priority would be to save the extra 40% for badly needed street repairs come spring. That’s where I see demand from citizens for more improved services.
So when is the city gonna start spending money on the streets instead of monkey crappers? Just wondering. Vernon, I don’t think snowgates would work on all the crap you spread. I’ll have all the ANON people clean it up.
Yeah, whatever Vernon
I have often said I support Kermit as mayor because of his honesty, something that Mr. BrownKnows obviously knows nothing about. This comment is a prime example of that.
Brown said some thanked him for not running a float.
“I thought about it,” said Brown, who is on the City Council. “Traditionally, the event is more of a family event. It just didn’t feel right.”
First off, I call bullshit on you. Secondly, I doubt anybody ‘thanked you’ and thirdly, WTF does it being a ‘family event’ have to do with anything? It is not like the candidates were running around with pictures of aborted babies in the parade. Politics and family go hand in hand. If I were running for mayor, I would want to appeal to families, apparently you don’t Vernon. Just admit it, you didn’t have the money or time to put together a float.