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1st Amendment Elections Open Government Open Meetings SF City Council Sioux Falls

Let’s work on Transparency, Survey Says?

l3wis January 18, 2026 0Comments

Yeah, I know, you can’t make this crap up (Item #7);

It appears the city council is hiring the same company (Polco) who did the National Community Survey to do a survey about government engagement. Council was already told what they need to work on;

For the record, this may be just a back payment for the survey and other consulting work, but that is usually paid in advance, so it appears they are doing another survey to figure out why the first survey turned out so bad. This is insanity. You need to have a public forum at the convention center and have constituents present their open government ideas to your FACE! You are so scared of the general public you have to blow $30K on another survey so you don’t have to interact with the public. Do you even have an inkling on how open government works? Apparently not.

I wonder if the comments will be deleted from this survey also?

You also ONLY have a month to put OPEN GOVERNMENT transparency on the June ballot. That would be my suggestion, let the voters decide how transparent their government needs to be by putting a package of open government ordinances on the general ballot. But that would have taken planning and having public forums on it starting this past summer. They were to busy trying to build a fence around Dudley.

Oh, and I find it funny the city is spending $500K on the Pavilion’s garage, and subsidizes the Lodge restaurant at the ice ribbon to the tune of $300K a year (also ran by the Pavilion). Did you also know the Pavilion offers NO free programming. Zilch! The art museum WAS free, but Mr. Greedy who runs the Pavilion broke that promise and started charging us. IMO, the subsidies to the Pavilion need to end since there is ZERO public benefit without purchasing a ticket. And even though it is a city owned building, upgrades and maintenance should be paid for by the Pavilion, and there should be a lease agreement.

But we need to cut other subsidies;

I would agree with the city that a review of services needed to be conducted with NGO’s receiving city funds, but why weren’t we doing this all along? Oh that’s right, because our elected leaders and city management are incompetent. I also think the city should do zero based budgeting. In other words, the city should start each department with $0 at the beginning of the budgeting process and justify their budget and expenditures. Right now, they just tack a percentage onto last year’s budget and march forward. It is lazy and it costs taxpayers probably over $100 million a year+ in unneeded expenditures and budgeting. We have a full-time finance department, they should be working on this all year long and getting rid of waste!

I agree with Mike Z, that the city council needs to do a full investigation and forensic audit of every single city department if they really want to get unnecessary spending under control.

I’m sure they’ll take another survey before making that decision though.

Uncategorized

Flippin’ the Bird at a Sioux Falls City Council Meeting

l3wis January 17, 2026 2Comments

So a foot soldier asked me an interesting question, ‘What did you think of the guy who was removed from the city council meeting after flipping councilor Spellerberg the bird?’ I wasn’t there, so I wasn’t sure if his bird involved threats, folks in attendance said it did NOT. All I saw on video was Spellerberg crying to the mayor about a bird flyer;

Flipping the bird (giving the middle finger) is generally considered protected speech under the First Amendment in the U.S. as a form of expressive conduct, even when directed at police, though it can lead to trouble if combined with other actions or interpreted as “fighting words” or a true threat, potentially resulting in disorderly conduct charges. Courts have affirmed that this crude gesture expresses contempt or anger and is protected speech unless it incites immediate violence.

So if he would have done it with other gestures or words that would incite violence or threats, the mayor who instructed security to remove him had every legal constitutional right to do so, BUT if the person simply flipped the bird and even said or mouthed ‘F’ck You’ That isn’t a violent threat and his removal was unconstitutional.

The Prezzo Sally Tomato used that argument this week when he flipped off a Union worker, ‘He was practicing his 1st Amendment Rights.’ So if it is good enough for Sally isn’t it good enough for Sal?

I have no idea who this high flyer was or if he has the financial means to attain legal representation, but they would have a case for illegal removal and the violation of their constitutional rights.

These folks running our city really need to go thru a 12 Step 1st Amendment Rehabilitation Program. It is THAT bad!

1st Amendment Elections SF City Council Sioux Falls Trump

UPDATE: Let Sioux Falls Vote! Sign Data Center petition!

l3wis January 14, 2026 10Comments

UPDATE: Dusty weighs in on Data Centers;

Under his proposal, Johnson said projects should move forward only if they demonstrate no adverse impact on water quality or price, no adverse impact on electric rates, create good jobs, and deliver long-term tax revenue.

They do the EXACT opposite, so I am guessing Dusty is opposed?

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You can go here to see all the signing events, there are several this week starting tomorrow. I also encourage folks to pick up a couple of petition sheets and collect sigs to. While there are thousands of legitimate reasons to not build this Data Center, I am opposed to my electrical rates going up. Full stop. This decision by the council is one of the worst since it hurts individual’s personal finances.

Our elected leaders are telling us these days what they really think of the public;

Sally flipping off an auto worker and telling him ‘F You’ after he questioned Trump about protecting Epstein.

1st Amendment Elections Marty Jackley Mike Huether Rich Merkouris SF City Council Sioux Falls Uncategorized

Trust

l3wis January 14, 2026 0Comments

‘firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.’

With the council suddenly decided they wanted to do something about transparency, this word popped in my head. The public no longer ‘trusts’ elected officials. Why is that? We could go into a long diatribe about how they vote, who funds their campaigns and all of their conflicts of interest and multiple ethics and open meeting violations, it is some of that, but all of that corruption occurred because of closed government, which has been intentional for almost 20 years.

The timing is ALSO suspect. Councilor Merkouris who was just appointed council chair (this is a little game they play when an incumbent is up for reelection, they appoint them as chair so it looks like they are important.) I have never understood the game, because most people watching it, know what is going on. Merkouris has had 4 years to make these changes, but has fought them all the way. Why? Because corruption cannot occur in a transparent government. Merkouris is up for reelection and has a challenger, this is why he is doing it. Let’s look at Rich’s track record. He headed up the homeless task force that barely made a dent in homelessness and has actually gotten worse. Even though they have tons of national support to help with a solution they instead blew money on marketing campaigns, unneeded ordinances and a fence.

I don’t trust him farther then I can throw him. Maybe less.

Here are Merkouris’ transparency concepts (that I suspect will get watered down and amended before the council takes final action);

Creating consistent public input opportunities across boards and committee meetings as a way to make sure expectations are clear for when folks can weigh in,
Finding ways to improve how various entities give notice when a meeting is going to happen,
Creating consistency in meeting locations,
And looking at ways to improve meeting agendas so people understand what decisions are being made when they show up.

While I have stated that I have been after the council for almost 20 years about transparency I proposed almost every single one of these proposals to Brekke and Stehly, they tried to get some stuff passed but got tons of push back, this is WHY I don’t trust Merkouris on this.

Here are my suggestions;

• Public input at ALL public meetings should be at the beginning of the meeting between the consent agenda and 1st Readings of items. It should be 5 minutes and no limit on how many people can testify.

• Post all agendas for ALL meetings on the same agenda page, and have a BIG BUTTON LINK to the agenda page at the top of the city’s home page website.

• Have ALL meetings at Carnegie, Main Conference Room of Admin or City Hall Chambers ONLY! Record ALL meetings and post on YouTube and stream in real time. Have meetings when people can attend or watch. I have said all public meetings should be after 5:30 PM Mon-Friday so people can attend. I would also do an experiment with Saturday meetings.

• This is a Mike Zitterich idea; There should be a Q & A with the council and mayor in the Carnegie overflow room on the last day of the month 30 Minutes before the regular scheduled meeting. This would be a wonderful chance for constituents to ask questions with the help of the media. It would really show you cared about transparency AND it would probably alleviate the volatile public input during the regular meeting.

• Eliminate the rule that you can’t interact or engage with the public. I think Huether* got rid of this rule. It pisses people off and irritates them that you can’t answer simple questions. Munson was famous for interacting with constituents, he kind of had a special talent for it. I find it ironic that Paul breaks this rule EVERY meeting when he cuts people off and gets into an argument with them. The next time he tries to censor me, I think I will bring up he is breaking decorum rules.

I also think the next mayor needs to hire a director level Public Information Officer who manages transparency and records for the city. I will agree with council on one thing, it is NOT their job to manage meetings, that is staff.

All of this stuff is Transparency 101, that’s why I don’t trust much will come from this, except more closed government. I want people to know I HATE PETITION DRIVES, they are messy, they can involve court cases, they are hard work, and, most of all they should be UNNECESSARY. Why? Because our Sioux Falls city council is a non-partisan representative government, that means they should vote and create policy around what the constituents want.

*MY MAN MIKE MIGHT RUN FOR SOMETHING?

So Huether is either running for Mayor, Governor or US Congress against Jackboots as an Indy. But I am also hearing he is SCARED TO DEATH of losing. That is why I am going with US Congress. It would be most beneficial to him to be in DC, and Jackboots is a flawed candidate involved in gobs of scandals;

Gear UP

EB-4

SOS state cover-up (he decided since Gant and Pitty didn’t steal money from the petty cash drawer they were innocent).

DCI Sexual Harrassment and the list goes on. (oh and he buried the investigation of Huether hitting Cameraman Bruce.)

Huether can beat Jackboots, and he doesn’t like to lose. We will see. (but I really hope he runs against Dusty, because that ass whooping will be fun to watch.)

1st Amendment Open Government Open Meetings SF City Council Sioux Falls

I have been telling council this stuff for over a decade

l3wis January 14, 2026 3Comments

Transparency isn’t hard, but for someone who has been fighting city hall on this since the Munson days, it gets exhausting trying to inform every new councilor and mayor the benefits of open government. I guess it took a Gawd Awful survey to get the council to wake up. I found it ironic they are going to announce their plans on January 27th, you know, to tell us about their transparency objectives that they have been having secret meetings about and NOT involving the public 🙂 Just when you think they have it figured out . . .

At least they are ‘attempting’ to do something, but like most things with this council, Smoke & Mirrors. I’m so fed up with this current dais I hope all the incumbents lose in June and the new councilors and mayor walk in on the first day with boots on.

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