Sometimes it helps to speak up and uncover the shananigans that go on at Carnegie Hall;
SIOUX FALLS, SD – After about an hour of public input and discussion, the Charter Revision Commission unanimously voted to table a possible amendment that would have given the mayor more power on things like contracts and employee discipline.
“Madame Chair, I’d like to motion to rescind since there is so much debate and we need time to take more public input on the section 3-01 about the executive power until later notice,” Charter Revision Commission member Dennis Aanenson said.
As you can see, the CRC made the wise decision to table their amendments. This doesn’t mean they can’t bring them back in the future, but they sent a strong message that they are listening and that is a good thing. Part of me wonders what kind of pressure was put on them by the mayor, if any, to rescind the items. I could not attend the meeting because I was out of town. But as you can see the meeting is not up on the city website yet, and probably won’t be until Monday. I did speak with people who attended, and there was an apology extended to the city council and Greg Jamison.
Take that Joe Kirby.
Do you think it made him fall out of his beach chair?
Perhaps Mr. Kirby does not have as much influence in this town as he thinks!!
Once again the local media (both television and print) failed to report another very significant outcome of Friday’s Charter Revision Commission meeting.
It was public input from Tracy Turbak, Director of Finance, and Interim City Clerk Sue Roust on a proposed amendment to eliminate Section 5.09 of the Charter. (see Agenda 4 – D and view on SIRE at 1 hr. 26 min.)
Regarding Director Turbak’s request to eliminate Section 5.09:
He states, “It has been in the Charter for many years and serves no particular purpose. As I mentioned to you last time, I don’t have any strong feelings one way or the other, I don’t believe that it serves any purpose, but at the same time it does no harm to leave it in there. I don’t have a strong position on that, but my recommendation is to remove it.”
I was at both the January 4th and last Friday’s meetings. Both times it appeared that Director Turbak was working far too hard to downplay 5.09!!
Every SF citizen owes Sue Roust a “Big Thank You” for speaking out against putting this on the ballot!!!
It was her decades of experience with financial reporting that caught this!!
She begins her testimony by expressing concern over the elimination of 5.09 Administration of the Budget.
Quote: “This is true, it is a one sentence passage within the Charter, but I don’t believe it is there for no reason. I believe, in fact, it is very significant. There are two standards for financial reporting that South Dakota cities follow. The first one is specified in state law. It is the Municipal Accounting Manual mandated by the SD Dept of Legislative Audit. Most cities use that, but there is also a higher standard, it is the Government Accounting, Auditing and Financial Reporting Standards that are published by the Government Officers Association and Governmental Accounting Standards Board. These are commonly called the GASB standards. These are national standards that provide for more transparency in reporting the city’s finances to the citizens whose money we are spending. GASB requires that information be given in narrative form as well as in numbers. It gives an indication of how well the city is maintaining its infrastructure and includes reporting on long-term liabilities for post-employment benefits such as pensions and health insurance for past employees.”
“Reporting to GASB standards is necessary if an entity is to bond for projects like our upcoming EC because the ratings agencies, S & P and Moodys expect to see that level of financial reporting before giving us a bond rating. Mr. Turbak said it does not appear that the current Council has ever followed up on this Charter. He is true, but the reason for that is that we have a long-standing ordinance that was in fact adopted in 1957 by a prior city commission that does put into effect the direction of this Charter. That is Ordinance Section 2-51 Accounting Publications Adopted. In short, it says that the most current edition of the municipal accounting manual, the one that is put out by the SD Dept of Legislative Audit and the Government Accounting, Auditing, and Financial Reporting Standards that are put out at the national level are both hereby adopted by the City to govern its financial procedures. So, you can see that while the Charter came in in 1994 and said that the Council was to provide procedures for administering the budget there was no separate action taken because those ordinances were in place, but that Charter gives us the authority to continue having those ordinances. I do believe that the ordinance and Section 5.09 of the Charter are clearly in accordance with Charter Article II, Section 2.01 which states that the Council shall act as the policy-making and legislative body of the City.”
“I can’t think of anything more important than to set the policy for financial reporting that says the standards that we would expect of our financial reporting and that our City Finance office has been providing to the citizens for years. Based on that, I feel that this is not a do-nothing sentence, I think it is an important one and I hope that you will consider opposing this move to put it on the ballot.”
At this point the Chair asked Tracy Turbak if he had any further input. He gave no response.
***5.09 had been approved “in concept” by the Commission at the January 4th meeting.
At the completion of the City Clerk’s input, Commission member De Knudson made a motion that in effect eliminated the possibility of 5.09 being placed on the April 2012 ballot.
The Question Is……..why were the Mayor and the Director of Finance pushing to have 5.09 eliminated from the Charter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, I think we know why.
Oh snap!
The mayor will sneak what he wants in. He’ll do it later when nobody is paying attention. Doesn’t really matter anyway. City government is not democracy until Home Rule is repealed.
There is a CRC meeting today, I encourage you to read the proposed ballot language;
http://docs.siouxfalls.org/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=1656&doctype=AGENDA
[…] A very strange meeting, and a pretty lazy CRC. But when you get your ass handed to you, you tend to be a little gun shy. […]