After following city politics for almost 4 years now, I will say this, everyone running for mayor in 2010 have qualifications to be the next mayor, BUT, Kermit’s qualifications overshadow them. Before I tell you why I think Kermit is the ONLY choice for mayor, I want to touch on my concerns about the other candidates. Like I said, all the candidates have qualifications that would make them ‘decent’ mayors but here is where I have my doubts;
Janoct Ajda;Â While Janoct understands the concerns of the working man, he has no understanding the workings of government.
Bill Peterson; Besides Kermit, Bill is probably one of the most intelligent candidates running for office. But there are two things that worry me about Bill. He wrote the flawed and possibly unconstitutional city charter and he seems hellbent on pushing a personal agenda, whether the public approves or not.
Pat Costello; I like Pat’s views on fiscal responsibility, but is that campaign talk or the real deal? I would find a Pat Costello administration as a third term of Munson. Pat’s contributors bought him and he would do the bidding of the special interests of Sioux Falls.
Mike Huether; Mike used to be my second choice, but it seems lately he has been getting desperate, attacking Kermit for being a dissenter (which I think will only backfire). While I think Mike is a guy who wants to listen to the public I struggle with his past business experience and the fact that he worked in a VERY PRIVATE industry. Something that is lacking in Sioux Falls city government is transparency, something I think Mr. Huether would struggle with, since he hasn’t been that transparent about what he did as a VP at First Premier. He talks about business experience but doesn’t tell us what he did. A lot of political double-speak from Mr. Huether.
Vernon Brown; Oh, where to begin with Vernon? Vernon does have some attributes; He is likeable and has done some great work on behalf of the homeless. Vernon also is a working class joe who has climbed the ladder all by himself, and I will give him credit for that. But after that, I’m not sure what qualifies him to be mayor. He knows how to ratchet up the rhetoric, being a reporter for Stormland TV News probably helped him in that department. But my major concerns about Vernon are simple. He doesn’t take stands and often flip-flops on issues, just look at his city council voting record. He seems to be on the fence about government transparency. And one thing you can be certain about, Vernon will spend money on unneeded ‘supposed’ quality of life projects like it grows on trees. We don’t need another Munson.
Now to Kermit. As I outlined above, this is why I think Kermit is the ONLY choice for mayor. I am not gonna go into a long rant as to why I think Kermit is most qualified, I have been doing that for months, but I will say this about him;
• Extremely Intelligent
• Caring
• Citizen Advocate
• Fiscal Conservative
• Government Experience
• Transparent
• HONEST
I think his honesty says it all to me. He is the only candidate who has been honest and sometimes has given the public the ‘Ugly truth’. That worries people. But don’t believe the Munsonites and there constant, “The truth is negative – but lies are positive.” boloney. It’s time the citizens of Sioux Falls were told the truth.
We can’t fix what is broken, if we don’t know what is broken.
It’s time to fix what is broken in Sioux Falls, and improve what is already great. VOTE STAGGERS – APRIL 13TH.
I guess I don’t understand why him being the VP of Marketing at Premier makes him a bad person. Did the marketing department have some sort of “conspiracy” towards marketing to people that will just throw there money away or what?
Least to Best Choice:
Janoct: Off the beaten track but an approach that represents the forgotten class.
Peterson: Threatening to democracy. Architect of Home Rule tyranny.
Castillo: Many outside interests. Couldn’t give enough time. Special interests, greed.
Brown: Good character but naive and without direction. Sales but never into management.
Huether: All or none. When he opened the portfolio, he’d be overwhelmed and crash.
Staggers: Experience, intellect, careful evaluation, common sense. He’d wade into anything and come out an olympic swimmer. I wish he were bolder and more forceful. Image needs power presentation.
Mr. Mayor: Comes in and uses Home Rule to restore constitutional democracy. Cuts 30% of city employees and lowers pay/benefits for the rest. Nobody makes more than the mayor. If they leave, bye and promote an assistant. Put savings into 1/3 pool for new convention center. Makes bond sales successful. After 4 years, pass the reigns to a kinder more public council restricted mayor. Return to private life but occassionally return as consultant on big city projects.
Carter-
I just think Mike would have a tough time adapting to government. You can’t run a city like a corporation, especially a Credit Card company. I would hope we learned a lesson from two former CC employees, Munson and Rowenhorst. I worked in the CC industry for 4 years as a designer and have designed many mail pieces for various other CC companies in my freelance design business. It is a very private, secretive industry and has ZERO in common with city government or finances. And it is definately not transparent. City government must be transparent to be effective. Kermit is the only candidate that gets it.
if huether has the events center answer as he claims, why doesn’t he tell us that it is?
it seems to me that mike would be able to adapt to the specific demands of being mayor that you mentioned. in addition to his experience at citibank & first premier, his service in the larger community (washington HS, the banquet, helpline center, etc…) can be a lens for understanding the importance of public accountability. building coalitions to accomplish specific goals are just part & parcel of managing a non-profit or directing a capital campaign. mike’s carried much of this experience into his campaign as he’s been going door-to-door & business-to business throughout the city.
Ben- Public service isn’t something you pickup overnight. We need someone who will hit the ground running. Kermit, and even Vernon have that experience. It is nothing personal against Mike, I just don’t see politics as his cup of tea.
Carter
First off, Huether did not work for First Premier Bank. He was Executive VP of First Premier Bankcard, head of marketing and development efforts. What did they market and develop? Their flagship card, the one that drove them, was a fee-harvesting card. It was “marketed” and “developed” to lure a specific group of people. It lured consumers who lacked a borrowing history or ever held down a job (high school seniors), have a spotty or low credit score, (uneducated, underemployed, unemployed),the old retired group of Americans, (widows, widowers) who are being swallowed up by ever shrinking fixed incomes. Thankfully, a lot of practices First Premier used were outlawed by the feds on February 16th.
We’ve already been down the road of what a fee harvesting card is, no need to go their again. How they marketed this scam can be better explained by l3wis. In fact, go back to post number 3 in this thread. l3wis pretty much explains how deceptively First Premier Bankcard went about their trade. That post number 3 has two words in it that we all need to pay think about. Those two words are “not transparent”. First Premier Bankcard was not transparent, and by extension, neither was huether. Same for several other candidates.
Is Kermit Staggers transparent. I’d say so. That’s why he is our best choice for mayor.
Could somebody explain to me exactly what Huether did “as a patriot” in the days after 9/11? That Argus letter confused me.
Huether sent out a flyer with a picture of himself and Tom Daschle. Was this suppose to resemble an endorsement? Where was the kindly quote from Daschle, if it was?
Not that I’m defending a Daschle endorsement, BUT you have to realize that Obama got a majority of the vote in Minnehaha county in the presidential election. What does that say? We have quite a few liberals and moderates living in Sioux Falls, and I think Mike will try to ride that wave. What he doesn’t understand is that ‘young people’ don’t get energized by municipal elections, seniors do though.