South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

2010

Code Enforcement Sioux Falls

Review Code Enforcement? Isn’t it a little late for that?

l3wis 11Comments

I must kill the constitution!

Once again the Gargoyle Leader puts on kid gloves while battling a monster;

Review the way that city code is enforced across the board and find a better way to make it fair.

Earlier in this editorial you said what is wrong with code enforcement; IT’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL. The review process is over, we know what will make it fair; get rid of the administrative appeals process and let citizens fight their citations in front of a judge.

It’s fortunate that new Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether already had called for just such a review during his campaign, saying that consolidating the process across the various departments that oversee city code might be the best solution.

Consolidation will help the administrative part of code enforcement and save tax payers money, but it does nothing to solve the problem. It is really quite simple;

• Fire anyone directly involved with this mess

• Totally destruct the process as it is now and start from scratch

• Allow citizens to defend themselves in a court of law

This isn’t freaking rocket science, it is constitutional rights. It is a shame, that a person who has given so much to Americans as a combat vet had to spend $40,000 of his own money to prove the obvious.

The bigger question though is why is the Gargoyle Leader using kid gloves on this topic? It’s simple, they have contributed to the flawed system in a round about way. After one of their employees was killed by a careless driver they pushed to put in red light cameras, another convoluted city endeavor that doesn’t allow citizens to fight their charges in front of a judge. Funny how the AL Ed Board didn’t bring that up in the editorial.

Sorry, you can’t have it both ways, if you want to keep the cameras, you have to ditch the unconstitutionality of them. That means actually ticketing offenders (not cars) and allowing them to argue their charge in front of a judge, or dismantling the robot police.

Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether

Hey, Mayor Mike, It’s time to get over yourself

l3wis 8Comments

In a story about our mayoral election process in Sioux Falls, Huether couldn’t resist to get in one more dig about how people were mean to him in the final days of the campaign?

But Huether disagrees. The campaign dragged on long enough and probably led to voter fatigue, he says. And in the runoff, “the last two weeks weren’t fun because of some of the tactics used.”

While people have hammered me about being nicer to Mike and to get over my ‘sour grapes’ I find it astounding that a guy who won is still crying about things people said about him.

Let’s clear something up Mike. YOU WON! And you won because you hired a professional bad ass campaigner to run your campaign, and you spent a gob of money. Partisanship, gays, abortion, short bald men and big mouths like me, Tracy and Ches had nothing to do with it.

I opposed you for a number of reasons, and 90% of them were funny shit that no one cares about (like your campaign colors being totally awful.) The main reason I opposed you is simple; You became a millionaire on the backs of poor people who have no understanding of finances and credit cards, all the while telling people you came from where they came from. Trust me, if First Premier would have came knocking on your mom’s door, she would have taken it, and you know it. Maybe that was your advantage as marketing VP of FP Bankcard, you knew how to sucker your own kind.

So please, if you want to be an effective mayor, stop worrying about your image, your hair and your precious daughter, and start worrying about us, the ones who fund your four year (hopefully) adventure.

Monkey Crappers Sioux Falls Zoo

New crappers & now a hot tub?

l3wis 12Comments

Boy, we are living the life on the taxpayer’s dime in Sioux Falls

Oh, where to begin?

Snow monkeys from Japan soon will show their inquisitive faces in Sioux Falls.

They’ll make their new home in the Great Plains Zoo as part of a $5 million expansion to educate and entertain year-round visitors to their exhibit.

They’re famous for seeking out a warm bath.

“They like to sit in the hot springs in northern Japan,” Smith said.

Maybe they would like to come over to Detroit’s house for some margarita’s and a hot tub soak on a cold winter day?

Money for the new exhibit will come from three sources. Planners hope $1.5 million will come from the businesses in a fund drive the Chamber of Commerce has endorsed. Officials first set that target at $2.3 million but lowered the goal because of the soft economy. Another $1.5 million will come from the city capital improvements budget and $2 million from additional donations, Whealy said.

Oh, sorry, we don’t have $8,000 for a house that helps ex-cons transition into society or tax breaks for homeless shelters but we have $1.5 million for monkey hot tubs. Pathetic.

While I welcome the new exhibit, it is time we cut the purse strings at the zoo. If they can raise $3.5 million privately for the project, it is obvious they can raise the entire $5 million privately. Let’s get the CITIZEN’S house in order before we get the MONKEY’S house in order.

1st Amendment Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether Sioux Falls

Mayor Huether; Only transparent when it is convenient?

l3wis 18Comments

Let’s go for a kayak ride Mike

Oh trust me, Mike isn’t the only politician guilty of this practice. Most politicians LOVE transparent government, when it benefits their agenda. Like I said a few days ago and throughout the mayoral campaign, TRANSPARENCY will be a tough concept for Mike to embrace, simply because he worked in such a secretive industry;

But it’s quite another thing to have quasi-official, unnamed transition team members whom you regularly consult to help you decide who fills those positions.

That’s exactly what it seems like Huether is doing, and it’s starting his tenure at City Hall off on the wrong foot.

Here’s where the ED Board (in all of their great knowledge) doesn’t get it. I don’t think Mike understands the entire concept of OPEN GOVERNMENT. I’m not saying he is stupid, just ignorant to what it means.

The new mayor has said he’s protecting those advisers from taking heat for their suggestions.

I can understand this concept in the corporate world, but not in the public sector. The taxpayer’s of this city are your board of directors and we have a right to know what kind of marketing schemes you are cooking up for this great city, and we have a right to the cook’s names and their recipes.

No one is helped by this lack of transparency, and Huether actually is undermining his own position by unnecessarily breeding suspicion that there’s something to hide.

This is where I disagree with the ED Board. Mike doesn’t think he is breeding suspicion, because this is how they operated in private industry, something he said he would bring to government (something I thought was a bad idea all along because private industry doesn’t have to deal with that pesky US Constitution).

Now that Huether is mayor, everything he does that affects the city ought to be as open and transparent as possible, and that includes the identities of the people on his transition team.

Making their names public would be a step in the right direction.

This was a guy who wigged out when the Gargoyle Leader published the name of his campaign consultant, do you really think he will give you the names of his transition team? Good luck with that. But you would think that at least one member would have enough integrity to reveal themselves . . .

Potholes Sioux Falls

Pothole City, USA

l3wis 3Comments

Of course the city denied the claims, they wouldn’t have it any other way. Don’t you know, the citizens of Sioux Falls are innocent until proven guilty;

Seven drivers asked the city of Sioux Falls to pay for vehicle repairs they said were caused by hitting potholes on city streets.

The formal claims to the city involved popped tires and damaged rims. The bill totaled $2,700 from the five drivers who listed the cost of their repairs.

The city’s risk management director, Regan Smith, said the city investigated the claims and decided it was not liable.

The city received four claims of pothole damage last year. Drivers whose claims are denied by the city can take their case to court.

Yeah, and spend $40,000 fighting the city in court for $2,700 in damages. There is only one reason these claims were denied; they would have set precedent.

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