South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

1st Amendment Downtown Sioux Falls Homeless SFPD Sioux Falls

What was the count?

l3wis 5Comments

So they do a long story about the homeless count and provide some stats, but NOT the actual count. If I had to guess it is around 650 a number the mayor threw out there recently. So was the number provided to the media and they decided to not include it? Or did the city not give the number? You can probably get it from the Feds so I am guessing the news org decided to self-censor that number, but why?

I think telling folks what the actual number is helps with awareness. If the public doesn’t know how many, are they aware we have a problem? Not sure, because the media has decided to sugar coat the problem. I live DTSF and ride my bike all over downtown, the entire DTSF area has become a gigantic campground, and it is dangerous because when you tell them ‘NO’ they come after you.

There has been a rumor floating around that the SFPD has said fixing the transient problem is NOT their job. Not sure if this is true, but your literal job description is ‘Public Safety’. That means making sure the transients have a safe place to stay, but it also means protecting the public from those who threaten our safety which I see DAILY!!!! The SFPD have one job, keeping it’s housed and UN housed residents safe. Not sure they get it, the local media certainly does not.

Uncategorized

Dirt(?) Work

l3wis 2Comments

Yesterday I got in a killer ride on the bike trail. If you ride the complete trail now and double back on the Family Park and Bahnson spurs it is 34 miles round trip. During my ride I noticed along the country club course this massive concrete wall that would be perfect for a mural and I also noticed dirt work, when I got to Family Park I saw a bunch of the same kind of dirt (light colored silt, clay) piled up on the private construction property. When I got out to Elmwood I noticed more of the same dirt work. So I asked around and found out the city is removing dirt and silt from the golf course ponds, even the private courses, and labeling it as LEVEE work so the country clubs don’t have to pay. But what gets even better is they are NOT selling the dirt to a private construction company, they are PAYING $3 a ton to TAKE the dirt, and the city is delivering it.

Years ago Craig Lloyd was at a council meeting and he talked about how buying dirt for a construction project is expensive, and now we are PAYING someone to take it! The city needs to explain to the public why we are PAYING to clean up ponds on a private golf course, because the levees have been finished for over a decade, this AINT levee work.

1st Amendment Downtown Sioux Falls Elections Jamie Smith Sioux Falls

Bravo Jamie Smith!

l3wis 2Comments

Funny, the only mayoral candidate that won’t talk to me besides law breaking Hartford resident Selberg is Smith, but I find myself commending Smith today on his campaign.

It appears he has taken NO PAC money. BRAVO! That doesn’t mean he won’t in the future, but it appears at this point he is only taking donations from individuals and he has raised A LOT!

So why is PAC money bad? First off, it was illegal until the SCOTUS decided that money was free speech (worst decision they have ever made since it has turned every election into a bidding war instead of a discussion about the issues, it is F’ing disgusting). You also don’t know who is funding the PACS. It basically is rich folks buying an election.

If I was Jamie, in the age of populism I would encourage him to put out a press release celebrating you took NO PAC money and in the same release explain to folks why PAC money is bad. Two of the other leading candidates took almost entirely PAC money, BAD look. Jamison did not file a report because he didn’t collect donations in 2025, and after his performance in Pierre today on sales taxes and data centers I am a bit nervous about his candidacy (and he should be too).

1st Amendment Planning Commission Sioux Falls

7 minute Planning Meeting

l3wis 1Comments

So there was a planning meeting tonight, it was a whole 7 minutes with a 3 minute pre-recorded chew out session about public input. Yup, 4 minute meeting. Why is this? To avoid conflicts of interest with board members they put everything on the consent agenda and pass it with one vote without presentations or discussion. It is the EPITOME of closed government and unethical behavior.

They started this dog and pony show a few years ago, putting most of rezones on the consent agenda so they don’t have to work, but it is totally against open government.

What is a ‘consent agenda’. It basically assumes these are ‘non-controversial’ items so there is NO hearing, presentation or individual discussions on each item just a blanket vote. Yeah, shady. It is also a violation of 1st amendment rights because they say before general public input you can’t talk about agenda items in the previous meeting. Really? Why would they when we have NO IDEA what the agenda items were.

For legal reasons they do ask anyone from the public to ‘PULL’ a consent agenda item and if someone requests it the planning department has to do a presentation of the item and have planning commission discussion, it also allows for public input, and an individual vote on the item.

Like I said, anyone in the audience at the meeting can request an item gets pulled from the consent agenda.

So a former local government official told me this, ‘Maybe get people from the public to come to the planning meeting and ask items to be pulled?’

Brilliant!

The Planning Commission meets ONCE a month on the 1st Wednesday of the month at 6 PM at Carnegie. I encourage folks from the public to start attending these meetings and request ALL consent items be pulled for discussion. And if any member recuses themselves from an item, DEMAND, DON’T ASK, they follow state and city ordinance and explain their conflict in DETAIL! It is the law and they MUST do it! If they don’t they are violating city and state statutes.

I have nicknamed the commission the ‘Conflict of Interest Commission’. Don’t take my sarcasm as fact, just watch the meetings, tons of recusals with NO explanation.

I think the next mayor needs to terminate the ENTIRE board and install new members who have NO conflicts of interest and can have 100% attendance to the meetings. Seems like an easy ask.

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