The Events Center, Sioux Falls’ version of the abortion debate, never resolved and never ending.
I don’t always agree with Mayor Huether, but this time I think he is right and Jamison couldn’t be more wrong;
Councilor Greg Jamison said bluntly that he thinks it would fail in a special election this year. And he suggested the council might want to have a “cooling off period.”
Do I think it could pass in November 2011? Maybe, maybe not. But like I have told Greg, 1) It is time to let the public decide already 2) A special election will bring out the passionate, informed voters from both sides, for and against, let them battle it out at the polls. When you throw something like a bonding issue in with other candidates you get a butt load of people who are uninformed on the issues. You make the Events Center vote a special election, and you will get a true count of what the citizens want. And maybe that is what the council is afraid of, a final decision. I also think there is another reason Huether wants the election this year, if it fails, it will give him a year to reformulate his plan. Let’s face it, we will be talking about an Events Center until it passes. If you think it will go away if it is voted down in November, you are crazy. Even though Mr. Conflict of Interest would like you to think otherwise;
Entenman, who supports building it at the convention center, participated in Monday’s conversation – at one point joking that he wouldn’t be able to help sell the issue to voters because it “might be a conflict of interest.”
And Entenman said that after 10 years of studying the issue, it might be time to turn it over to voters sooner than later. “If it doesn’t pass, it doesn’t pass,” he said. “The conversation is over with, and that’s it.”
Yeah, we will see.