South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

January 2012

Sioux Falls

UPDATE: The Charter Revision Commission wants to turn the city of SF into a dictatorship

l3wis 29Comments

UPDATE: This information was sent to me by a reliable source, but I have not verified it as of yet, but thought it was some food for thought;

Dennis has had at least 4 contracts if not five since the late 90’s. One of his contracts led to a dispute between he and the City. The City tried to get out of the contract and he threatened to file a lawsuit. The City paid him $67,273.66 in 2005 so that he wouldn’t sue the City. He then had another contract in 2006, contract number 2006-0024A. This contract was to supply coin operated copiers to the libraries. The City didn’t pay him, but allowed him to keep 50% of the profits from the copiers. This contract expired in June of 2011 after being extended twice from its original contract expiration.

Dick’s firm Woods Fuller has had multiple professional services agreements since 2000. Most recently his firm was retained to represent the City with the Event Center. They have also been on retainer for general legal services. Dick himself billed the City last for services he supplied to the City in Dec of 2009, which was a time period when he was on the previous Charter Revision Commission. I didn’t see any recent billings with his name on it, but his firm is still on retainer with the City. One note, if you go back and watch Council meetings from sometime in 2008 or 2009 (I can’t quite remember when) there is at least one if not two meetings where he testifies in front of the Council as the City’s legal counsel in the condemnation proceedings against Bob and Shirley Phelan. He offered other legal services during this time frame, but that case was the one that was before the Council.

ALSO, as I understand it, since they have no current contracts (or so it seems) and they are appointed by the mayor, filing an ethical complaint against them may be difficult, that and the fact the ethics board is appointed by the mayor to.

Another one of the Mayor’s Tools, Dennis Aanenson (image: Chamber News)

As South DaCola reported on Monday, the commission was pushing towards giving the mayor more power, a lot more power. As you can see in this video (worth the watch, FF 1:17 and follow thru to 1:33) and summary in this article by Ellis, the commission, or at least one member thinks the mayor is king;

“From my thing, the city should be ran as a business — it should be ran as a business, and the mayor’s in charge,” said Dennis Aanenson, a member of the commission. “I deal with boards, councils, all the time, and it’s a nightmare. That you’ve got different opinions from different people. And yeah, it’s the public dollar, but at the end of the day the mayor is responsible. That’s why everybody voted on him and put him in office.”

Well guess what, Dennis, IT IS NOT A BUSINESS! And if I hear one more person say this I am going to puke. You collect taxes from the taxpayers and we are ultimately in charge, not the council, not the mayor and certainly not some douchnozzle who was hand picked to be a puppet for the mayor. It is people like you who scare the living shit out of me because you want to strip all transparency and checks and balances in government and give that power to one person. That is called a DICTATORSHIP not a DEMOCRACY. And as for your ‘business’ comments, since when does a city make a profit and function on it’s own? If the city wants to run as a business, fine, stop collecting taxes and only depend on fees . . . oh that’s right, they would fail. Not a very good ‘Business’ model is it?

For his part, Jamison said he was disappointed by how the commission conducted the hearing. Jamison had five proposals of his own for the commission to review, but three were rejected in a parliamentary move without an up-or-down vote, and the commission adjourned before voting on the other two proposals.

Let me sum up this part of the meeting. The commission dropped their drawers and took a gigantic crap on Greg, and made no apologies for it. In fact they basically chastised him for even testifying. ‘How dare someone question Joe Kirby . . . uh . . . I mean the commission.’

Jamison pointed out that Mayor Mike Huether appointed the members of a commission that is recommending more power for the mayor. “The council has no oversight in their selection,” he said.

And in that statement lies the root of all evil.

For the record, Mr. Aanenson runs A & B Business Equipment . . . wonder if he has any city contracts?

UPDATE: Both Dennis and Dick have received city contracts. Can you say ‘Conflict of Interest?’

SFPD Sioux Falls

Does the SFPD have a department of internal affairs?

l3wis 27Comments

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLsg0EvZozI[/youtube]

One wonders after watching this public input tonight (FF: 8:35) I guess this is something I have been suspicious about for awhile, and after my day, I came to the conclusion that city government uses the SFPD to do their dirty work because if they mistreat people, there are no consequences. The day started with me taking Sodapop to the vet for some shots and his city license (I don’t have a problem with licensing him) but they force you to buy a 3 year license. Does that mean if Soda passes away in the next 3 years, do I get a refund? I know this has little to do with the SFPD, but it is an enforcement issue. I had lunch with someone considering running for city council, but he has his reservations. Of course family approval was mentioned, but I think he fears working with some of the current councilors and the way they manipulate their powers for their benefit. I would have to agree. Also not a SFPD issue, but an issue of abuse of power. Later on in the afternoon I met with a wonderful gentleman who has a ‘little’ project going on, he is rebuilding/remodeling his house (on his schedule) and he has been harassed not only by his neighbors, code enforcement and even police officers. Apparently they have a problem with a home owner working on their own home on their own schedule. After watching the above video, it got me thinking. Does the Sioux Falls police department have too much power, since, it seems they can do whatever they want to without anyone investigating complaints. Every major city has a department of internal affairs. We don’t. I’ve been told it is Human Resources, that is hardly an investigative body. I will say our police force does an amazing job keeping us safe, but when they make mistakes or abuse their powers, which they do, there should be recourse for citizens.

Thune

Ironic Johnny Thune-Bag is really in a state of denial when it comes to his endorsement of Romney

l3wis 15Comments

Thune labels Romney as a ‘job creator’

Protesters interrupted a Mitt Romney campaign stop outside Des Moines, Iowa last night, chanting that the former Massachusetts governor is “of the corporate one percent” and admonishing him to “stop the war on the poor.” The protestors were quickly shouted down by Romney supporters.

ThinkProgress spoke with Sen. John Thune (R-SD), a prominent Romney endorser, after the event to get his take on the dust-up. Thune disagreed with the protesters, saying there is “no” merit to the idea that Romney, whose net worth is estimated at $250 million, is part of the corporate 1 percent.

KEYES: Do you think there is any merit, they’re charging that he’s of the corporate 1 percent?

THUNE: No. I think that this is somebody, if I’m somebody in this country who is worried about my job or is looking for a job, I want somebody out there who knows how to create jobs. […] Obviously tonight these are people who are going to protest, that’s fine. That’s a democracy, we welcome that. I thought he handled it well.

KEYES: The charges are off-base though?

THUNE: They are. I think it’s all what you’d expect from a campaign like this. The other side’s got their people out there. I’m very happy with where his campaign is, with how he’s addressing the issues, and what I think he can do to get people back to work.

A good Christian teaming up with a Morman; Trouble every time.

 

Event Center

Let’s build a new Events Center for more conventions . . uh . . What conventions.

l3wis 4Comments

This was a fantastic WSJ article about the dying convention business (H/T – Traub);

Take Illinois, an industry leader,where officials have invested heavily to keep Chicago’s McCormick Place, long one of the three most-used centers in the nation, on top. They spent $1 billion in the early 1990s to build a 840,000-square foot expansion financed by fees on auto rentals, a hotel tax and a surcharge on restaurant meals in downtown Chicago. In 2007 they opened a new building, McCormick West, at a cost of an additional $900 million. The result? According to the Chicago Tribune, the center operates at 55% capacity.

Sorry, I can’t post the entire article, because of WSJ’s subscriber policies, but you get the jist.

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