The Staggers campaign sent a letter of reassurance to city employees, which I heard about last week and thought was a great idea. But only in SF would someone have a problem with it;
Sioux Falls mayoral candidate Kermit Staggers sent a letter to every city employee who was registered to vote in Sioux Falls.
“This is basically a goodwill letter to let the employees know where I am coming from. I think it’s a legitimate thing for me to do,” Staggers said Friday.
Something I found startling though was the high number of city employees that are either NOT registered to vote, or NOT registered to vote in Sioux Falls;
Staggers said he mailed letters to about 740 out of the 1,100 city employees.
“An interesting thing we learned is that a lot of city employees live in Brandon or don’t vote,” he said.
Staggers doesn’t want to leave voters out just because they work for the city.
“They simply cannot be excluded from the political process. They have a right to hear from a candidate like all citizens of Sioux Falls,” he said.
And he is right, it amazes me that someone would complain about a candidate reaching out to them? Especially since the names and voter registration list of city employees is public record.
Here is the letter;
I’m not so certain I’d say, “only in Sioux Falls”. But I would say, “Only from the front page of the Argus Smear”. This is FRONT PAGE NEWS? Give me a f’in break. My God, how desperate can they be getting at 10th & Minnesota to call this a headliner?
Kermit definitely needs to mend fences with city employees. As one who watches the City Council meetings now and then I’m amazed at his rudeness and demeaning comments to and about city employees (not the department heads, but the rank and file). It is no wonder that morale is low–he’s a major contributor to that situation.
For him, the toothpaste is out of the tube. It is hard for someone to call on others to work together with him given his history of disparaging and patronizing remarks.
Fred-
Why? Because Kermit doesn’t praise and applaud people for simply doing their job? I have never understood this culture of praising people for showing up and collecting a paycheck. I watched one meeting where the council was even giving an ovation to one of the department heads. Did you read the letter? Trust me, not every city employee is an angel or a hardworker, I have seen some of this first hand.
More than anyone, city employees know Sioux Falls is not constitutional democracy. To enjoy liberty, you must live where people are not persecuted and continuously fee harvested. We would live in city employees neighborhoods but we don’t have gravey train jobs and struggle for extra bread and water.
New department heads, not a good idea. There would be more people staying home and new ones must also 6 assistants each.
Make no mistake, doesn’t matter who is the next mayor, heads will roll. At least Kermit is willing to be honest about it up front.
Freedom means a lot to city employees if they are willing to drive in from Brandon every day. Is there someone to wake them up at 3PM so they can drive back? Oh yea, taxpayers are paying for a special bus with break rooms and an open bar.
“Is there someone to wake them up at 3PM so they can drive back?”
LMFBO!
Kermit definitely needs to mend fences with city employees. As one who watches the City Council meetings now and then I’m amazed at his rudeness and demeaning comments to and about city employees (not the department heads, but the rank and file).
~fred
I watch the meetings also. Give ONE example of Kermit being rude or demeaning to the rank and file.
It is no wonder that morale is low–he’s a major contributor to that situation.
~fred
Morale is low right now because city employees did not get their sacred annual pay raise. Well neither did a vast majority of other workers outside city employment. City employees should be damn thankful for what they have…which is a hell of a lot more than his or her counterpart in the real work world of Sioux Falls.
And l3wis is right. Don’t matter who the next mayor is…heads are gonna role. Bank on it.
I think Kermit should have signed the letter;
‘PS – Now shut up and go make some croutons!’
poly: City employees should be damn thankful for what they have…which is a hell of a lot more than his or her counterpart in the real work world of Sioux Falls.
I agree, but when I made a very similar statement a while back you jumped all over me. Could it be that you have changed your viewpoint, or do you just like arguing for the sake of arguing?
OH NO!
Getting back to what the Argus feels merits front page coverage. This whole thing is a non issue. Now if the Argus wants to really make front page news out of city employee rank and file they would start with these questions.
As many as 400 city employees at any given time work for less than $11.00 an hour with ZERO benefits. WHY?
What is the ratio of city employees who work for a living to city employees who attend meetings and hurl any number of meaningless stats at ya? WHY?
Poly-
Some people like to go thru life without causing waves. Some of these people work for the city of SF. I will never understand it. If I was a municipal employee my number one concern would be ‘customer service’ and ‘value’ and my secondary concern would be being paid for my level of service. It seems both of these are lacking currently in SF. When we have parks workers reading novels while watering trees one wonders?
Costner.
Rank and file FULL TIME city employees make a fair wage. Their counterparts in this city do not. The 400 part time city employees also do not. Management and midmanagement where the city bean counters reside are overpayed. This city has at least 14 employees who make more than the governor of South Dakota. Probably more by now.
When we have parks workers reading novels while watering trees one wonders?
~l3wis
Where did this come from? IF it did indeed happen, odds are pretty good it was done by a part time $8.50 an hour employee who knows he or she will never get any bennies or work more than 1400 hours in one year. Remember, you get what you pay for.
One also wonders WHY your traffic is alive and well from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday thru Friday, and relatively dead any other time. Reading a book or cruisin the net on the company nickel…same damn thing.
When it comes time to make city employee cuts. The ones who live outside the city do not pay city taxes and go first. Ones who stay must succumb to city dictatorship without the civil service exception.
I caught this guy several times doing it last summer, he was in his 50’s and looked like he was with the Parks department for awhile. He was driving a brand new truck with a tank on the back. While I understand it takes awhile to water trees, the trees are close enough that you could alternate several hoses to save time instead of just watering one tree at a time while reading a book. I also see part time workers doubled up on atv’s to do the same job (pick up garbage, branches etc.) While I believe everyone should get paid well for what they do, I also believe they should do their jobs well and efficiently. I don’t see that a lot with parks workers.
“…When we have parks workers reading novels while watering trees one wonders?”
The new oaks at Yankton Trail are worth watering. The poplars, not so much.
Please tell me the cop car in the little parking lot did not have a speed trap set up, on the bike trail!
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