This is the best place to go if you have a gripe about the city.
I have often told friends and associates that if you have a problem or concern about our city, show up to the 7 PM council meetings Monday nights at Carnegie Hall, downtown Sioux Falls. There is a 5 minute ‘gripe’ period before the meeting starts. And while most councilors or even the mayor may not say much, the importance is that your testimony is on record. Meeting with politicians privately usually solves nothing, heck meeting with them publicly doesn’t seem to do much either. But if you have a concern, it is best to let all of the public know and have them as your witness.
Why do I bring this up? A friend called the mayor’s office today to set up a meeting with him to discuss some of her concerns about the city and moving forward in a new administration. The secretary informed her that Mike will not being meeting with anyone from the public privately until after he has FINISHED the 2011 budget, which is August 1. But she was encouraged to go to Whisk and Chop on Saturdays (where Mike is surrounded by mostly his staff) and air her concerns.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Honestly I can’t really blame Mike for not wanting to meet with private citizens right now. I happen to know someone who essentially harrassed King Dave on a regular basis requesting meetings and even calling the guy at home, and if a mayor opens the doors to private meetings with every citizen who requests one, he wouldn’t get anything else done.
Your suggestion to show up to the council meetings is probably the best for all involved. No closed doors, no silly accusations… just open and ‘mostly’ honest discussion.
I don’t have a problem with Mike not meeting private citizens. Seems like a waste of our Mayors time, when one can talk to him in public.
When is the next council meeting? There’s nothing on the city web site calendar for June.
The Argus picture for last weeks ‘Who to Chop’ meeting was city directors around a table. Were there citizens there? Could this be another KSFY orchestrated and suppressed Town Hall sort of thing?
If the mayor reads these blogs, he could qualify and react.
Mr. Mike, here’s a freebee:
To balance the budget, cut Channel 16. Only city politicians and staff watch it. If I could use public money, I’d love to promote myself. Even if I’m the only member of the audience.
PG’s back. Refrained and forcibly subdued but here. Hello Costner. Sy, we’re at opposite ends of the spectrum but your input forces me to reconsider from a different perspective.
I agree Costner, he has a lot of fish to fry. BUT, this person wanted to bring some of this stuff up privately instead of surprising him in a public meeting. Nothing major just stuff he promised to her during the campaign and she wanted to follow up on it before the 2011 budget was proposed. I actually think she was being thoughtful by proposing some of things to him privately.
As for transparency, I have often believed the city should have a forum similiar to the Argus forum on their website where citizens could comment on things like potholes, parks, snow removal etc. You would obviously need an administrator and make people verify their logins so it didn’t turn into a gripe fest.
I think Jodi Schwann tried something like that on Facebook!
But the city already has a complaint line. The only difference is the complaint is between the city and the person who is doing the complaining instead of being broadcast to everyone else. To some degree negativity simply breeds more negativity, so I don’t know how well it would work to put all the complaints out there in the open. You might find people whining about things they never even thought of before until someone else complained about it.
The other issue is people are always quick to point out the bad but they rarely point out the good. Years ago I worked in a customer service role and amazingly enough I don’t think anyone ever contacted me to say anything good. Reading complaints isn’t really a fair way to gauge the happiness of a city.
I would like to see it as more of a suggestion forum not a complaint forum. You are right, if people want to complain they know what numbers to call. If your neighbor is cooking meth in their basement you don’t bitch about it on a website, you call the PD.