UPDATE: This information was sent to me by a reliable source, but I have not verified it as of yet, but thought it was some food for thought;
Dennis has had at least 4 contracts if not five since the late 90’s. One of his contracts led to a dispute between he and the City. The City tried to get out of the contract and he threatened to file a lawsuit. The City paid him $67,273.66 in 2005 so that he wouldn’t sue the City. He then had another contract in 2006, contract number 2006-0024A. This contract was to supply coin operated copiers to the libraries. The City didn’t pay him, but allowed him to keep 50% of the profits from the copiers. This contract expired in June of 2011 after being extended twice from its original contract expiration.
Dick’s firm Woods Fuller has had multiple professional services agreements since 2000. Most recently his firm was retained to represent the City with the Event Center. They have also been on retainer for general legal services. Dick himself billed the City last for services he supplied to the City in Dec of 2009, which was a time period when he was on the previous Charter Revision Commission. I didn’t see any recent billings with his name on it, but his firm is still on retainer with the City. One note, if you go back and watch Council meetings from sometime in 2008 or 2009 (I can’t quite remember when) there is at least one if not two meetings where he testifies in front of the Council as the City’s legal counsel in the condemnation proceedings against Bob and Shirley Phelan. He offered other legal services during this time frame, but that case was the one that was before the Council.
ALSO, as I understand it, since they have no current contracts (or so it seems) and they are appointed by the mayor, filing an ethical complaint against them may be difficult, that and the fact the ethics board is appointed by the mayor to.
Another one of the Mayor’s Tools, Dennis Aanenson (image: Chamber News)
As South DaCola reported on Monday, the commission was pushing towards giving the mayor more power, a lot more power. As you can see in this video (worth the watch, FF 1:17 and follow thru to 1:33) and summary in this article by Ellis, the commission, or at least one member thinks the mayor is king;
“From my thing, the city should be ran as a business — it should be ran as a business, and the mayor’s in charge,†said Dennis Aanenson, a member of the commission. “I deal with boards, councils, all the time, and it’s a nightmare. That you’ve got different opinions from different people. And yeah, it’s the public dollar, but at the end of the day the mayor is responsible. That’s why everybody voted on him and put him in office.â€
Well guess what, Dennis, IT IS NOT A BUSINESS! And if I hear one more person say this I am going to puke. You collect taxes from the taxpayers and we are ultimately in charge, not the council, not the mayor and certainly not some douchnozzle who was hand picked to be a puppet for the mayor. It is people like you who scare the living shit out of me because you want to strip all transparency and checks and balances in government and give that power to one person. That is called a DICTATORSHIP not a DEMOCRACY. And as for your ‘business’ comments, since when does a city make a profit and function on it’s own? If the city wants to run as a business, fine, stop collecting taxes and only depend on fees . . . oh that’s right, they would fail. Not a very good ‘Business’ model is it?
For his part, Jamison said he was disappointed by how the commission conducted the hearing. Jamison had five proposals of his own for the commission to review, but three were rejected in a parliamentary move without an up-or-down vote, and the commission adjourned before voting on the other two proposals.
Let me sum up this part of the meeting. The commission dropped their drawers and took a gigantic crap on Greg, and made no apologies for it. In fact they basically chastised him for even testifying. ‘How dare someone question Joe Kirby . . . uh . . . I mean the commission.’
Jamison pointed out that Mayor Mike Huether appointed the members of a commission that is recommending more power for the mayor. “The council has no oversight in their selection,†he said.
And in that statement lies the root of all evil.
For the record, Mr. Aanenson runs A & B Business Equipment . . . wonder if he has any city contracts?
UPDATE: Both Dennis and Dick have received city contracts. Can you say ‘Conflict of Interest?’
The part that I find most troubling is giving this ego-maniac the power to hire and fire city employees as he sees fit. Pandora’s Box? We’ll see.
Did you watch the meeting? It would turn the council into basically a ceremonial body. Heck, the CRC has more power.
I’m at a worksite where I can’t watch the vid – will check it out later. But let me second your gripe about the old “Let’s run this as a business” ploy. I can’t tell you how many times, in almost 25 years of ordained ministry, I’ve heard that argument made at church board meetings. It’s always an effort to avoid the hard work that a non-business is set up to accomplish – be it the messy harmonizing of all those public voices in government, or the hard-to-get at spiritual quality of church life, or the unquantifiable cultural impact of a museum.
Business models have some good things to contribute to any organization. Business people can be awesome when it comes to implementing sound financial accountability, sticking to organizational priorities and other good habits. But the “Let’s run this like a business” trump is almost always an effort to evade and thus sabotage the purpose of a non-business organization.
Dennis, De, Bob T – what a bunch of disappointments. Grow a spine and a conscience before this city gets run into the ground by this Mayor.
The profiteering and lack of accountability that occurred in Iraq is enough proof to me that gov’t and business are two completely different entities.
I just moved here. The politics here remind me of Alabama politics but without the accent or the Baptist bible thumping. For a town this size I’ve never seen a mayor with so much power, so much control, so much ability to run people out of jobs or out of town if he doesn’t get his way. I’ve lived in cities 20x larger than this and the politics weren’t as greedy or corrupt. The fact that the mayor can appoint his own commission with his own commissioners to recommend and vote that the mayor be given more power… at this rate why even HAVE elections or elected officials? We can just have a “Supreme Leader”! Worked for North Korea, right?
Final paragraph in the story:
But commission member Robert Thimjon said he worries there’s too much “fence building†between the council and City Hall, and he expressed surprise that he didn’t see a picture of the mayor at the Carnegie Town Hall, where the council meets. Do people, he asked, “want two opposing forces, or do we all want to be pulling in the same direction for the city?â€
Nice try, Bob. Then explain why, at MMM’s behest, you actively lobbied the Council for Dean Karsky’s appointment last spring?
All we have to do is follow the money to see why you and Aanenson were appointed to this Kangaroo Court:
http://www.siouxfalls.org/~/media/documents/Election/2010/mayor_huether/cfds_huether_010610.ashx
Uh, a corporation has a board of directors and stockholders the CEO must answer to. It’s not a democracy but it’s private money investors can control with the stock price. There’s no control over the mayor except we’ll vote him out and put him on Conair to Leavenworth.
Didn’t voters eliminate a commission in 1994 when they opted for a Home Rule city council? Not only does this mayor disregard the charter, he inserts his own form of government.
I say again; HEIL HUETHER!
I’ve noticed fewer Jews around town, more trains, and an unusual incinerator smell.
Funny.. all I smell is Crazy.
I was at the charter revision meeting yesterday.
I am going to address three issues:
1. checks and balances
2. transparency
3. the disrespect shown by a charter commission member to the Council’s representative
In addition to being at the meeting yesterday, I attended all of the Council’s Fiscal Committee meetings in 2010.
The Council and the Administration spent a year in committee discussing the issue of contract approvals.
And, believe me, this is what this “Joe Kirby proposal” is all about!!!
Commission member De Knudson said that the language used for the executive powers doc was pulled from a pamphlet put out by the State. She used as her reasoning that councils in other South Dakota cities do not approve contracts. She obviously did not do her due diligence as a commission member.
In a memorandum to the Fiscal Committee from the Chief of Council Operations dated July 1, 2011 it shows that Rapid City, Aberdeen, Watertown and Yankton …. all allow their councils to approve contracts. In addition, research was done to show that cities like St Paul, Omaha, Houston, and Detroit also have their councils approve contracts. (all documents from the fiscal committee meetings are available on siouxfalls.org)
The issue of contract approvals was thoroughly researched and publicly vetted by two very competent attorneys….Chief of Council Operations Debra Owen and City Attorney Dave Pfeifle.
The Council ultimately voted 7 to 1 in favor (with Entenman being the dissenting vote).
One of the major reasons that contract approvals became an issue was that city directors were moving hundreds of thousands of dollars around without Council’s approval. In fact, they were not even making the Council aware of these “moves” until after the fact.
Now, tell me that we do not need a system of “checks and balances” and “transparency” for Sioux Falls taxpayers. Bob Thimjon (charter commission member) made remarks about the Mayor and the Council being opposing forces. That is a matter of his perception…..what they really are is a very necessary set of checks and balances!! In addition, Mr. Thimjon made a comment about the Mayor’s picture not being included along with the Council in the council chambers. Carnegie Town Hall is not the Council’s Town Hall or the Mayor’s Town Hall…..IT IS THE PEOPLE’S TOWN HALL!!! Mr. Thimjon, I would encourage you to visit City Hall where on the first floor you will see that pictures of mayors past and present are hanging. Any pictures of past and present Councils are no where in sight!!
Yesterday, Councilor Jamison represented the Council at the commission meeting. He had five points that the Council wanted to convey to the Commission.
In all the years that I have attended meetings at Carnegie, I have never seen the amount of disrespect that was shown Councilor Jamison by Commission member, Dennis Aanenson.
Remember, Jamison was there to represent the Council who represent the 156,000+ citizens of our community. Dennis Aanenson’s remarks were OUTRAGEOUS….
“From my thing, the city should be ran as a business –it should be ran as a business, and the mayor’s in charge. I deal with boards, councils, all the time, and it’s a nightmare. That you’ve got different opinions from different people. And yeah, it’s the public dollar, but at the end of the day the mayor is responsible. That’s why everybody voted on him and put him in office.”
With all due respect Mr. Aanenson, perhaps you are not up to the job of public service.
Commission member Aanenson is also the person who used a parliamentary move to “indefinitely postpone” discussion of three of Jamison’s points. And then proceeded to make a motion to adjourn before voting on the other two proposals. FYI This commission is holding a total of four public meetings and there is ONLY one meeting remaining on January 27th.
This is about making major changes to our city’s constitution and and this is how our citizen’s representative (Jamison) was treated……….with TOTAL DISRESPECT!!!!!
The one good thing that I can say about this situation is that between now and the vote in April the media and concerned citizens can work to cast light on this entire issue!!!!!!!!!!!!
De was wrong? Shocker!
Thank you for the incredible information, cr. Will the media do a damn thing? Probably not. God forbid they would do the job of educating the people and go against the mighty short man Huether. C’mon media – get a backbone and please get it quickly.
Thank you for the incredible information, cr.
Wow. That’s all I can add.
correction: I meant to say that I attended all of the Council’s Fiscal Committee meetings in 2011 not 2010 (although, I did attend these also).
Thank you CR, I saw exactly what you did.
In case you missed it, Mayor Eddie Haskell was in full BS-mode tonight on KELO:
http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm/SF_City_Council_Not_Impressed_With_Revision_/?Id=125803
Oh, I have heard all kinds of rumblings today. Anybody know where to buy a good copier?
Did De have her TV on at the meeting?
So am I clear that we get to vote on this change in April?
Am I the only one that thinks Dennis looks like complete hell in this picture? For goodness sake dude, comb your hair, shave, and I really don’t want to look at your chest. Blaaah!
Lewis – I learned a long time ago it doesn’t take much moxy to be able to by-pass the local retailerr of high-tech stuff and buy direct from manufacturer – or at least the mid-channel distributor vs. tsaid end-of-channel-retailer and save a lot of $$$. And that local guy is still obligated to provide the warranty and repair services.
Thanks cr. Where’s the media? Without them there’s no way to alert the public.
Huether uber alles…
Ruf – Oh I know, but their is always this guilt trip to ‘buy locally’ even though all the products they are selling are from China
hmr59, one of my favorite DK songs, besides of course, kill the poor; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8zhNb8ANe8
Almost comical were it not so sickening – the fact that the “tail” which is wagging this dog is an eccentric, ex-patriot blue-blood of Sioux Falls who resides on the west-coast.
High degree of deferential treatment offered to this guy (via conference call !) in order that he might instruct us rubes back here in Sioux Falls on the manner by which we should govern ourselves … errr by which our mayor should govern us.
From this I did see evidence that there are, in fact, editors at the Argus Leader:
Initial feed to AL news update and written by Ellis:
a paraphrase of the initial read was something similar to “…Joe Kirby, a resident of California and who will soon relocate to Sioux Falls…”.
_____________
Except for using the term ‘resident’, this is much as I believe Mr. Kirby self-described during one of the conference call sessions with the charter review and revision commission (“living in Ca, but planning to move back to Sioux Falls soon”).
My thoughts: ‘atta boy Ellis … offer the the subtle point of the oddity that someone who doesn’t even live in this town is wagging the dog on this issue.
_____________
Update posted by 8:30 p.m. was revised to describe Joe Kirby as a “…Sioux Falls resident…”.
They changed it? Lapdogs for the mayor.