August 2012

“We were looking for a portal to make sure we could make a difference in how successful this thing was. I don’t remember one meeting where we sat around and thought about naming rights, because I don’t think we need much more of that. This was the portal that made our involvement possible.”

First Premier is the majority investor, and it didn’t take long to consider using the name of noted Sioux Falls philanthropist and First Premier founder T. Denny Sanford, who also is title donor to Sanford Health.

These two paragraphs are contradictory. You didn’t think about naming rights but it didn’t take you long to come up with a name? Kinda sounds like you thought about it pretty hard . . . and fast.

And what about the councilors being let in on this ‘deal’?

“We don’t have transparency on this at all,” Councilor Kermit Staggers said. “The mayor used to work for First Premier, and people in the community are closely associated with Sanford. We should have had openness … Maybe we really got a good deal, maybe we will. But we’ll never know because we never had any bidding going on out in the open.”

One councilor told me yesterday he didn’t hear about the announcement until after the press release was out. Talk about keeping our elected officials in the loop.

The contract between the city, First Premier Bank, Premier Bankcard and Sanford Health has been signed but hinges on City Council approval. Chairwoman Michelle Erpenbach said an executive session is scheduled for Tuesday with city attorneys to further discuss contract negotiations and ask questions. The full council will vote during a public hearing and regularly scheduled meeting Aug. 21.

So now that the cat is out of the bag, we still have to go into a secret meeting to discuss the contract? This should be an open meeting to the public, not behind closed doors.

“We believe strongly that the agreement presented and details shared will go a long way toward ensuring financial viability of the facility, giving every chance to operate in the black and be successful,” Smith said.

Who is ‘WE’ Darrin? You, Huether and Sanford? When you use the word ‘we’ in relationship to government, it should be ALL of our elected officials, not just the ones that agree with you and Huether.

Councilor Greg Jamison thought the council would have been briefed on contract details in executive session before the public announcement.

“That’s what’s funny about this process, it’s all out there … we don’t even know what the dollar amount or agreement is, we learn that (today),” he said. “When it’s the public’s money, there’s a higher threshold to do it in such an open way, so open there could never be any (question) of behind-the-scenes, under-the-table deals. This wasn’t done that way.”

But, Greg, you are not a part the elite ‘We’ group at city hall, just trust them. 🙁

But let’s go a little deeper and talk about Kelby’s involvement in this ‘Deal’. He pretends his hands were not on it, but he sure seems to know a lot of details about the naming rights deal;

As Sioux Falls goes, so goes its most prosperous companies. So a little bit of propping up can go an awful long way over time.

“That’s why we do these things, like donating 40 acres to the city for football fields,” said Krabbenhoft. “The more we have these kinds of things, the more I can recruit better physicians and lure more talent, because they see a full community. I’ve gotten my heads kicked in a lot of times for doing this stuff, but we’ve stuck with it, and now the virtue of it is right there for everyone to see.”

Yup, Kelby went there.

Donating 40 acres and in exchange you got millions in a TIF deal that set precedent in the city. Thanks for the donation, but you really should be thanking the city for all the perks you have received over the years.

But let’s look at the timing of this ‘deal’;

FARGO, N.D. (AP) – Sanford Health is starting construction on a $541 million medical center in North Dakota’s largest city.

Groundbreaking for the Fargo campus was Tuesday. Sanford President and CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft called it a historic day. The facility is to open in 2016, serving more than 4,200 patients daily.

The 10-story medical center will include 460 hospital beds, 32 operating rooms and 51 emergency department bays. By 2018 it is to be staffed by more than 260 physicians working in 48 different specialties.

Sanford already employs more than 7,500 people in Fargo and neighboring Moorhead, Minn. The new medical center will create an additional 2,000 full-time positions.

Sanford is based in Fargo and in Sioux Falls, S.D. It has a presence in more than 100 communities in seven states.