South DaCola

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda • Jan 16, 2024

l3wis January 14, 2024 1Comments

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, it’s been awhile since I did one of these these, but there are some notables on the agendas worth mentioning.

Regulatory Oversight Committee Tuesday, January 16, 2024 at 2:30 PM* (*The meeting will begin following adjournment of the Informational Meeting)

Not sure how you have a 2:30 meeting after a 4 PM meeting? Anyway, they will continue to discuss the childcare issues in our town even though we know what the issues are and we need action, not more discussions. I encourage the council to implement ordinances that encourage businesses to take advantage of Federal tax benefits from helping with childcare costs. I would also encourage the city council to put together a resolution acknowledging that the BOE needs to be exploring more options when it comes to after school care programs and public pre-K options. Sometimes public money doesn’t mix well with private enterprise, I think childcare is a good example of this. But there are oodles of programs that can promote more affordable childcare, it just takes bold policy.

Informational Meeting, Tuesday, January 16, 2024, at 4:00 PM

• Ethics Ordinance Update. I was informed this is just an overview of the recent changes.

City Council Meeting, Tuesday, January 16, 2024, at 6:00 PM

Item #6, Approval of Contracts, Sub Items 6-7, Transit services for LifeScape and Dakotabilities, $900K. (We have been subsidizing these services for years, and that is a good thing, but it appears with a change in transit providers those assumed costs have risen. I still think the solution that councilor Merkouris has suggested is to just make transit free for everyone in Sioux Falls. Why subsidize one group over another? Basically if you are a veteran, a minor or disabled, you ride for free, or greatly discounted. There are also many other discounts people can apply for. End the silly hoops game. Expand the service areas and offer it for free to EVERYONE. I would even encourage a pilot program of 3 months in the winter and 3 months in summer, and see if ridership improves?)

Item #33, The proposed resolution adopts the job description for a new city council staff position titled, “Executive Support Coordinator”. (While I would not argue with council on whether they need more support staff or not since we probably haven’t added many council staffers in the past 100K of population growth. And with the destruction of the internal audit department by councilor Jensen, council staff has actually shrunk. I have argued for a long time that they need to eliminate the legislative advisor and marry those duties into the operations position. We already pay a lobbyist to handle that stuff, we don’t need a full-time staffer farting around with it. We also should just have two Co-City Clerks who have equal power and duties that they share. As for the new position, not a bad idea, but they should have also been a paralegal so they can assist the council on their main job besides constituent interaction, ADOPTING AND CREATING POLICY. They also need their own attorney. What concerns me about this new position is it seems they will have expectations of them above and beyond what a civil service employee should be expected to do;

While 99% of this paragraph is spot on, I don’t think a city council staffer should be resolving any issues with constituents independently. Emotions, politics, family, etc., can be involved when constituents have complaints for their elected officials. This is NOT the job of support staff. They should gather the information and dump that request into the council’s inbox.

This isn’t rocket science. If the job is to much for you, or doesn’t pay enough, resign. I never understand folks who run for office then act surprised they actually have to do something. Knuckleheads.

UPDATE: I have been hearing rumblings from council they are working on several different transparency and open government ordinances before some of them walk out of office this Spring. Several have been mentioned, but not sure which ones will make it. One of them involves a central calendar on the city website for public meetings and other gatherings and another involves live streaming city meetings on other platforms besides just SIRE and FB. There are also some other goodies coming in February 🙂 but I am just going to sit on my smile for now.

Sioux Falls 2023 permit valuations are only million over 2021

l3wis January 12, 2024 9Comments

As I have said in the past, there needs to be a breakdown of Non-Profit, Commercial (private) and Public, so I will do it for you;

1. The OneTwo, an apartment complex from Lloyd Cos. at 205 E. 12th St. at $35 million. (Com)
2. Sanford Health’s Virtual Care Center at 3001 W. Opportunity Drive at $27.8 million. (NP)
3. BCP Sioux Falls, for a shell warehouse for Owens & Minor and Avera Health at 4001 W. Memory Circle at $25.6 million. (NP)
4. The new Maguire headquarters at 2001 E. Robur Drive at $22.6 million. (Com)
5. A northwest elementary school for the Sioux Falls School District at 2101 N. Valley View Road at nearly $22 million. (Pub)
6. The Jacobson Plaza ice ribbon and playground at Falls Park West at $21.5 million. (Pub)
7. Spring Creek Luxury Apartments from Samuelson Development, 1801 E. 77th Circle, at $21.3 million. (Com)
8. A renovation and addition for Xcel Energy, 1401 N. Minnesota Ave., at $20.4 million. (Com)
9. The Velthuis apartments from Veldhouse Construction, 5100 S. Rolling Green Ave., at $18.5 million. (Com)
10. The USD Discovery District’s first building, 4600 W. Nobel St., at $15.8 million. (Pub)

Commercial: $117.8 Million

Public: $59.3 Million

Non-Profit: $53.4 Million

See, that wasn’t so hard.

UPDATE II: City of Sioux Falls announces house cleanup pilot for wealthy historic homeowners

l3wis January 11, 2024 9Comments

UPDATE II: I guess these loans run thru Federal and State Historic Preservation funds so this is why the neighborhoods were targeted. I do suggest though that the city council comes forward with their own program for other neighborhoods like Pettigrew and Whittier.

UPDATE: I guess the loans ARE available to ANY homeowner within in these districts. But wouldn’t smaller loans in Whittier and Pettigrew make more sense?

Only the city of Sioux Falls would take a great idea to clean up ALL homes in and around historic districts and only target it towards people who can already afford to fix up their homes;

On Wednesday, the City of Sioux Falls announced a new program to improve homes in five residential historic districts and properties on the National Register of Historic Places.

Diane deKoeyer, neighborhood and preservation planner, shared more about the Historic Preservation Loan Program.

Eligible homeowners include those who live in one of the city’s five historic districts: All Saints, Cathedral, Hayes, McKennan Park, and Sherman.

The program is for property exteriors only.

While I am 100% supportive of any program to clean up older historic neighborhoods, the 0% interest loans should go towards ANY home within that district. What good does it do to clean up an historic mansion to its original glory only to have a 700 sq ft home next to it falling over? A neighborhood revitalization program needs to apply to the ENTIRE neighborhood to work. This just sounds like some of Paul’s rich buddies wanting interest free loans to offset the cost of their remodel. This is probably the best example of how trickle down economics doesn’t work, unless you are at the very top.

It kind of makes you wonder who is behind this. Remember the fella who is restoring the grocery store at 9th and Grange? He got a facade easement for the building from Sioux Falls taxpayers, he also got a parking strip paid for by taxpayers. Well guess what, this person also sits on the Board of Preservation and has been remodeling several historic home in McKennan Park. Gee, I wonder who might have pitched this idea?

Lakota Activist to run for Sioux Falls City Council

l3wis January 10, 2024 8Comments

Allison has been telling me since this summer she was running for city council, I just thought it was for the NW district, but as a renter, and not wanting to compete with another potential candidate in that district she is apparently going for the Big Kahuna.

I like Allison, she is pretty fiery and a real fighter. It will be interesting to watch her at forums, because if she duplicates some of the convos we had this past summer she will shock and awe the constituents.

I have already written off the At-Large Council Race. It is pretty obvious the lead contender will probably have well over $100K in his campaign chest, has significant connections within the established Republican moderates and has a pretty moderate record in the State Legislature. Even as a 3 person race I think Richard will go over that 50% + 1 threshold in the regular election. It is unfortunate that the At-Large race couldn’t be more competitive, but when trying to get an entire city to vote for you, money wins!

I also heard a potential candidates in the NE and SW have decided not to run due to family commitments. Which is unfortunate, because both would have been excellent candidates and great councilors!

Does Mayor TenHaken even know what a ‘global solution’ is?

l3wis January 10, 2024 9Comments

When asked about solutions to childcare in Sioux Falls, Paul responds;

I’m a little more interested in global solutions than shotgun solutions for our community.

Huh? What do unwed teen mothers have to do with childcare affordability? And why does France care about our childcare problems? Thank god this answer was at the end of the interview, because I am not sure where you go from there?

Was the shotgun reference hyperbole? Better be careful, some people may misconstrue your words and we wouldn’t want the Sheriff showing up to your home would you?

But his word games don’t end with childcare, he thinks getting rid of the tax on food in Sioux Falls (around $15 million a year) would be detrimental to the city’s already bloated and massive budget of around $800 million for 2024.

On the finance side, he is also concerned about the local impact if sales tax on groceries is eliminated. It’s something that could become a reality if voters pass a proposed statewide ballot measure in November, and the mayor said it’s an “elephant in the room” that would significantly impede the city’s ability to serve constituents.

Is $15 million a good chunk of change? Sure. But you can’t resurface a bridge or build a bunker ramp for that amount. While I would be concerned if we were a smaller community, we could easily adjust our budgeting to overcome the shortfall, not to mention that $15 million may be collected on other purchases. We also have a reserve fund that sat at almost $80 million last year. For the city to say we would be in dire straits by eliminating this tax is hogwash. We spend millions each year propping up non-profits and quality of life projects. This cut would be a hiccup. But sadly we may never see the cut locally. If the statewide initiative passes local communities can still charge up to 2 cents and it would take the council or a citizen led local petition to get that changed. If the statewide initiative passes I encourage citizens to hound the city council about eliminating the tax locally.

Speaking of the bunker ramp, TenHaken seems to think that the place doesn’t cost us anything!

It’s costing the taxpayers exactly zero cents to have that ramp unfinished … so that’s why we’re not in a hurry.

I’m not sure who is running the books for the city, but I think they would disagree. The bonds for the Bunker Ramp are being paid down by parking fees (taxes). In fact it is costing so much, the parking department spends their yearly budget on little else, so in essence it is costing taxpayers in lost or sub par services. We are basically paying a mortgage on a rental property with no renters and getting zero ROI.

He also mentions the Link;

The Link has been open two and a half years now. I think it’s doing some things great, and it’s doing other things not so great. We just want to make sure we’re serving the needs of all the partners – that’s going to be a focus in the next year.

I think with the recent announcement of the expansion of Avera Behavioral Health the city will be moving to privately contract even more for services at the Link. Not sure what that model will look like since there is ZERO transparency from the administration, but I predict there are wheels in motion.

He also has a BOLD vision for the Riverline District;

In the first quarter of this year, the community’s going to hear about a pretty bold vision of what we’d like to see.

Recently the mayor mentioned this in a separate interview;

“We’re shooting to say ‘Here’s the vision. Here’s the dream around convention space and indoor rec space and all the needs the community has,’” TenHaken said.

I have a feeling with the discussion around the quality of life bonds before the April election, Mayor TenHaken will propose a Rec Center be built at that location, ironically what was originally going to go there. If Paul and the City Council can sell the public on the idea (even though they will probably just force it on us like they did with Jacobson Plaza) that means an indoor facility may NOT be built at another location therefore reducing the size of the bonds this Spring which were estimated to be around $80 million. Basically Paul would be proposing to kick that can down the road.

I think the location would be great for a rec center, but as councilor Neitzert pointed out at a recent public meeting, why is the city competing with private gyms?

But TenHaken wants us to know, we are big and bold;

“The reason it’s been quiet is my administration wants the community to think really big and bold, and not just about one parcel of land but a bigger 2050 vision for the community and how the Riverline can be a piece of that.”

LMFAO! The reason you are keeping it quiet is why you keep everything quiet, to slip one past us, or at least try to. The project took the public approach at fruition and got told they didn’t want a baseball stadium, so now everything is done in secrecy. There will be NO bold vision, just another taxpayer bailout to some developer or contractor who feeds at the trough of city hall.

Next time, Paul should probably just let his communications staff write his responses so he can concentrate on his ‘global solutions’ like pumpkin recycling and jumping jacks with the kids, because you know what they say, ‘It takes a village’ and unfortunately that includes the ‘idiot’ to.