Either she isn’t very bright or she has got accustomed to the nice paycheck;
Jodi Schwan went to City Hall to solve a problem. Four years later, she thinks she solved it. Her thanks for that is the sinking feeling that after Tuesday’s election, she might be out of a job.
I guess I have never really had a personal problem with a chief of staff position and it’s pay, if that is what Schwan was hired to do. It was always Munson’s poor judgement in hiring her that bothered me. He hired her to be a puppet for him not a COS. And apparently, I am not the only one who thinks that;
But she’s never been able to get past the impression that she’s more of a high-priced press secretary than a top-tier executive. Half the candidates to succeed Munson say they will eliminate the position she holds, and some community leaders have found her role bewildering from the start.
“If you ask me what does Jodi Schwan do, I still have no idea,” said businesswoman Linda Barker, a longtime supporter of city projects.
Bob Jamison, a former city councilor, thought the term chief of staff would imply chief over the staff. He found otherwise.
“I like Jodi, but I think she has been utilized more as a public relations person,” he said. “I think it degraded the position, for lack of a better way to put it.”
Bob Good, managing partner of Management Recruiters of Sioux Falls, said it’s common for people to switch careers. Munson previously was a teacher, insurance salesman and banker. But to make such a jump in pay and responsibility as Schwan did is uncommon.
“It’s very rare somebody would hire somebody for that high level position that wouldn’t have the requisite experience,” Good said. “That almost never happens.”
She came in with no experience in government and a salary of $98,000, more than twice what she made as a news reporter for KELO-TV.
Twice? BAHAHAHAHA. If Jodi was making $49,000 a year as a beat reporter at Stormland TV News you better not let the rest of the reporters know that. Everyone knows TV journalists are some of the lowest paid reporters in Sioux Falls.
I think the city clerk nails it when it comes to what Jodi has accomplished;
“I think she’s doing exactly what the mayor wanted her to do,” said Debra Owen, the city clerk.
Maybe I am reading too much into this quote, but it kinda sounds like to me that Jodi has been an effective puppet for Munson. I still remember when South DaCola called out the city on their $30,000 calendar. It only took one day for Schwan to go crying to Stormland TV News (City Hall’s propaganda wing). Most COS wouldn’t mess around reading ‘blogs’. It was clear that Jodi was hired to be ‘damage control’ and Chief ‘Information suppressionist’ for the mayor. Not a chief of staff.
As with Munson, she will not be missed by South DaCola.
Well, Jodi’s KELO contract was probably signed before Young Broadcasting took over. The main reason so many of their more talented reporters left in the couple of years after that transaction is because Young wasn’t going to continue to pay as well as the previous owners…which is why we’re now stuck primarily with interns or just-graduated morons.
From the argus article.
A nagging issue for her detractors has nothing to do with her, nor with her pay, which now at $107,000 makes her one of 23 city employees above six figures. It was that her job, as Munson defined it, never could reach the potential of what a chief of staff might be under other circumstances.
23 city employees make in the six figures? 18 governors of these here United States make less than one Jodi Schwan? No ill will towards Jodi. She only took what was handed to her on a silver platter. A city dentist that makes $132,000 a year? A Health Director making the same? A Public Works Director that makes $132,000 a year? An ASSISTANT Public Works Director that makes $117,000 a year, then gets a bonus for God knows what? Remember, these two directors are in charge of our streets, and our potholes in particular.
There is only one candidate who will trim this pork. That’s right. KERMIT STAGGERS.
It’s amazing how the Argus reporter expounds to another page about nothing. Nobody knows what she did. Sure, she’s valuable for that. Who couldn’t be.
Being ‘windshield’ for the mayor may have kept the bugs out of his teeth but that’s about it.
The video that accompanies the argus story is not to be missed:
http://www.argusleader.com/article/20100411/NEWS/4110332
Scott’s comments about Kelo’s just-graduated reporters and interns is exactly right. this station is no longer able to keep up with the argus leader on big stories like the story it broke today on the sioux falls casino plan. Kelo probaby doesn’t have enuf people to do their own version of the story even after they got beat so they will just ignore it
That casino story just pisses me off. We don’t need anymore fucking casinos in Sioux Falls. Enough already. The great part about a casino in Larchwood is that they can deal with the bullshit, while they provide jobs and sales tax revenue for Sioux Falls. And on another positive note, it will reduce the number of phone booth VL casinos in SF. Since 66% of all VL revenue comes from SF, they are a little nervous. That’s what they get for funding state government from gambling and food taxes. F’ing idiots.
Here is a link to the Argus “NEWS.
http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=NEWS
In it you will see the Jodi Schwan story. You will also notice it had 44 comments associated with it. Those 44 comments have been “memory-holed”. As a sometimes poster to the Argus news stories, this is something I have never seen them do yet. Whole threads and comments manage to disappear on their forum, but not that I ever knew of in their comments on stories section. Normally I’d say just another Argus instance of someone playing “Winston Smith” from 1984.
But after reading the first dozen or so comments that were still up yesterday, I think the Argus used good judgement in memory holing the existing comments and taking away the ability to make further comments. It was really sick and not at all suitable for public consumption. Remember, this woman has a family back in Ohio. Prolly proud as hell of their Jodi. And in many respects rightfully so.
We all need to keep in mind Jodi is not the the guilty one here. She took what was handed to her. If that is a sin, then we are all “whores”.
Yeah, I noticed the ‘knee pads’ comments on there yesterday and was disappointed. Are we crass here on DaCola, sure, but I am not the Argus Leader. If you don’t like what you read here, don’t come here. I don’t have any advertisers and do not receive money from any of the candidates, well one did pay me, but it wasn’t for blogging.
As for Jodi, I agree Poly, Jodi has a great resume and before she started working for Dave, she had a great education. It’s just too bad that Dave doesn’t know the difference between a COS and PR person. I have often blamed Munson for such a dumb decision, not Jodi.
i like how the argus always deletes the posts regarding their spelling errors, and when people point out how they never even bother to check simple geographical fact and the like.
I wonder if they will print a correction on their endorsements come Wednesday morning.
Gawd, I crack myself up.
I know for a FACT that Jodi couldn’t have been making more than $30,000/year at KELO. She’d been there only a few years, and starting reporters make $23,000/year at best (probably less now). Maybe with her master’s she was a little higher priced. But not over $30K. Just go over to Kilian and as Mark Millage. NO WAY IN HELL he paid her more than that.