The meeting tonight was fantastic, everyone was recognized, etc, etc, but there was two great moments. The first is when Kermit made his last ‘NO’ vote on making adjacent property owners pay for city owned property, sidewalks. Even though this was Kermit’s last question to a city official, they still couldn’t resist to mislead. Kermit asked if the city owned the sidewalks and the official’s response was, “It is public right away.” Some things never change, do they?
The other moment was the final vote, which had to do with the appointment of council boards. Quen Be De Knudson was the lone ‘NO’ vote on it. And it was her last vote. Oh, the irony.
Here is Kermit’s advice to incoming councilors that was published in the Gargoyle Leader today;
Automatically voting yes is one of the easiest tasks of a City Council member, especially when other council members are always voting yes. The real challenge for a council member is to think through the issues at hand and to ask probing questions of department heads in order to understand the topic at hand. When a vote is taken, always have a good reason as to why you voted the way you did; be principled and represent the people with your vote.
Please keep in mind that the purpose of our city government is to protect and serve the citizens of Sioux Falls. The city government must focus primarily on the needs of citizens rather than the desires and wants of a few.
Always remember that increasing taxes, fees or assessments might be a simple way of raising money for the city, but at the same time, these increases impose an undue financial burden on the unemployed, low-income families and those people living on a fixed income.
Finally, care, listen and use common sense in dealing with your constituents. Visit Sioux Falls neighborhoods and remember that you are working for the citizens of Sioux Falls; the citizens of Sioux Falls are not working for you.
And these two comments by Quen Be De, says it all . . . .
6. Remember that you are just a part-time city councilor and not more than that.
11. Get to know the new legislators and try once again to convince them to allow cities to vote on an optional one penny sales tax for badly needed projects across the state.
NO. You are a full-time elected official, whether you think so or not. There are some people that don’t make yearly working full-time that make what part-time councilors make. If you were volunteer, I would agree. But you are not. Get ready to work your tail off. And I had to laugh at her second comment. While her husband Mr. Quen Be Dav is bragging about balancing the budget you have De advocating tax increases. Funny stuff.