Particularly since Kermit is a publicity hound, especially when it is earned media (read free) and the Councilman from the Central District has been getting a lot of earned media lately. Most all of it has to do with his bickering with other City Council Members.
BOLOGNA! Bickering is what I do Joel. Kermit has been bringing up relevant points that some of our other councilors cannot comprehend. Government is about debate and dissent, not sure when this concept went by the wayside? Comments like “I should be charged tuition for Kermit’s lectures” isn’t exactly the best way to discuss relevant government issues. A ‘Bicker’ only starts when the ignorant say something that is not relevant to the topic.
Staggers is often a lone voice. His tilting at windmills is well known. There are more 7 (the Council majority sans Staggers) to 1 (Staggers) votes in the last several years than the proverbial than Carter has liver pills and the multitude of budget amendments he offers year after year that die from lack of any other Council Member seconding his amendment (even for discussion purposes).
This statement alone tells us that you (Joel) are completely out of touch with Sioux Falls’ constituents. While Staggers is the minority on the city council, he supports the majority of his working class constituents. This paragraph alone is so loaded with FOX News crap, I don’t now whether to get a shovel or a payloader.
Admittedly I have a love – hate relationship with him. I worked with him on several of his campaigns when he was a successful candidate for the State Senate (he served four terms).
Trust me Joel, I think he probably feels the same about you.
His personality is most often warm and engaging and even when you do not agree with him you can’t help but like him.
Amazingly, we agree on something. I’m not going to go into a long story about how great of a guy Kermit is, but I will say this, he was the first people I ever interacted with in city government, and after that interaction I have been a fan ever since. Like him or not, he is a nice person and he gets stuff done for the citizens of SF.
He can though become a grouchy at times when he is unhappy or things don’t go his way.
Grouchy? More like frustration with the beauracratic circus called Sioux Falls city hall.
Lately Kermit has acted in way that suggests that he does not have the temperament for executive office and certainly not Mayor. In recent weeks he has had public spats and feuding with Council Members Bob Litz, Pat Costello, and Greg Jamison.
FYI, Joel, those spats were not started by Kermit, they were started by the councilors mentioned. When Kermit states the facts and someone is ‘hurt’ by those facts that doesn’t mean Kermit started the spat. The truth hurts, so call a freaking whaaaaambulance already. Why are politicians considered ‘controversial’ when they are being honest, but when they follow the status quo and rubberstamp a poorly planned and dishonest agenda they are considered ‘nice’ or ‘good’.
But the bigger story is Kermit lacked the ability to resolve these personal situations in a manner incumbent of the Mayor’s Office.
Number one, it is no secret you support Vernon Brown as mayor, so this was an obvious personal attack to benefit your candidate (that you strangely don’t mention in this post) and secondly, Kermit has incredible ‘resolve’. He has asked these three councilors repeatedly to resolve these disagreements in private with no avail, and is usually blindsided by their insults. Recently councilor Jamison asked the council chair to remove Staggers as the chair of the Land Use committee in a public meeting, without any pre-warning to either Kermit, the chair or the council. Let’s talk about resolve.
Kermit may be a formidable candidate. He is a good campaigner and he has been working very hard on this race for a long time. Certainly voters will want a fiscal conservative (there are several in the race besides Staggers) but I don’t think he will get much traction.
You are right on the first half of the paragraph, but sooooo wrong on the second half. Even if I didn’t support Kermit for mayor, I still think it will be a horse race in the runoff between him and Huether. mark my words. Just because politico’s like yourself know who Bill Peterson is, doesn’t mean the rest of the public know or care. I can also sum up with why I came to the conclusion that these two will be in the runoff. Staggers and Huether have put themselves out there. Nobody knows Peterson, not to mention once they find out he wrote the flawed city charter that his past millionaire boss, Kirby, pushed him into, he is toast. Brown already failed once at running for mayor, and since he broke his promise not to finish out his council term it will reflect badly on him. Costello has too many conflicts of interest and once that gets out, it will doom his run.
Voters foremost want a leader (particularly for executive office) who despite differences of opinion instills confidence, finds common ground, and is capable of earning respect.
And they would get that and more with Dr. Staggers. It is pretty obvious he takes stands for citizens, and that is what we need more then anything right now.
I don’t know who this Joel person is, but he is wrong on so many levels it is almost as if he is just arbitrarily tossing words together to explain someone with no knowledge of the man himself.
If there is one thing Kermit is, it is a man of the people. He is probably the only member of our city council who actually understands the voting public and the only one willing to go out on a limb to do what they would do if they had a vote. That might not always be popular, but I don’t think we should elect city (or national) leaders just because they are popular or because they hold popular opinions. We elect leaders to make the sometimes tough and sometimes unpopular decisions. If the job were easy anyone could do it and be good at it… clearly the second half of that equation isn’t true as displayed by many of our current council members.
Unfortunately, it seems the bulk of our council is only interested in doing what is in the best interests of their country club buddies, campaign backers, or their own pocketbooks. Kermit seems to simply do what is in the best interests of the taxpaying public instead of himself… and that is a rarity for public servants.
I’ve yet to see anyone who I would even consider a close second to Staggers. He gets my support hands down.
Several years ago I was at a budget meeting where the different programs that receive city money were being discussed. As usual, Kermit was questioning every one. At that time the city gave $2,000 or so for a house that the fire dept. took to schools in the area to show how kids could escape a fire. Kermit quesitoned this support. This was money went to something that could help a kid escape a fire and hopefully save their lives or others. I couldn’t believe that he was questioning supporting this program. A lady who I did not know at all, turned to me and said “what any angry man”. I will never vote for Kermit Staggers.
Just because he questions the funding doesn’t mean he’s against it. He’s right to make the council stop and actually think about where every dollar goes.
I can’t wait to see what he does to the EC taskforce.
Give me a break. I don’t know the details of the incident you speak of, but the Fire Department has had that little mobile house on a trailer for at least a decade or two, so Kermit probably didn’t feel they needed another one.
Everyone has their pet projects, but if you just want a bunch of council members and a mayor who say “yes” to every dime that is requested, then Kermit isn’t the guy for you, but when the city gets into debt problems don’t come crying when your taxes get raised even more.
I’ve watched Kermit enough to know he will vote to spend money, but it has to be for things that actually benefit the city. He isn’t going to support pet projects or wasteful spending even if it is just a few thousand dollars.
City leaders need to learn how to balance a checkbook, and to date Kermit appears to be the only one who has ever taken an economics course. He is probably the only true fiscal conservative we have on the council.
Mr. Staggers doesn’t get along with council members who are developers (these 4). They get excited when major projects are forthcoming and they could lose bids without Munson magic. If Staggers reinstates competitive bidding, taxpayers should get 25 percent more for their dollar. Some of the 4 will be voted out such that the council can control funding. If Home Rule is revoked, the council would have more power via a constitutional checks and balances democratic process.
Kermit’s the man. Dr. Staggers for governor. He is far and away the best political leader from Sioux Falls, including the US congressional delegation. He’s far and away the most in touch with the needs (verses the wants) of the citizens, and the means to support public needs.
Many times people ask me why I like Kermit, and I always have the same answer; “He’s honest.” Trust me, I don’t agree with him on a TON of things, but I have to appreciate an honest constitutional politician.
I’ve got to agree, he is honest. I like how he goes up against other councilors when it seems there’s special interests involved. It seems he wants to give to the city and population more than to further himself (the present leadership). I’m not there entirely but I’m leaning in his direction.
Here’s the rub with Staggers, his rhetoric doesn’t jive with reality. I do believe he is honest, and I think he honestly believes what he says. But the stait dope is he’s been wrong way more than he’s been right when it comes to his protest votes and predictions of doom and gloom.
We are in a slowdown right now sure, but we are still faring better than 98% of the rest of the nation’s small/mid sized metros. We are viewed nationally as a “pocket of propsperity” for a reason. We still have low unemployment when compared to the national averages, we don’t have too many foreclosures, we aren’t in that big a pinch fiscally, we still have some degree of growth, albeit stagnant, but we aren’t reeling backwards as was predicted time and time again by Kermit.
Also, his tantrum with Litz still shows me the guy has a totalitarian streak that will not bode this city well if he ever gets to the big boy chair.
I go to this site most every week to keep up with whats happening with our tax dollars.
http://siouxfalls.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2
I know this much. This city would be in very deep doo-doo without a watchdog like Kermit.
Sy-
There you go again parroting Kermit’s detractors. Kermit is VERY pro development, he has been fighting hard for deregulation. He also thinks we can have all the same things we have now in SF, just with a smaller price tag. It has been pretty obvious that SF has been paying too much for stuff for a long time.
Actually, I think Litz acted the fool as well, but that doesn’t mean he was entirely wrong.
Litz got angry. He made his position known and walked out. It’s healthy that councilors disagree. That’s how compromise is presented and eventually becomes the best answer. Perhaps, they’ll make up. Ongoing, they can benefit by siding with each other on another issue. It’s called democracy. Something this mayor has attempted to replace utilizing home rule such that oligarchy has become full blown socialism.
I agree PG, I think a lot of this stems from the back biting and secrecy of this mayor, and it’s easy to take it out on Kermit.