Don’t mess with the ‘Wizard’ of Sioux Falls (reader submission)
After knocking a few cans over, I finally got the torrid details of the pissing match that is going on between the mayor and the governor’s economic development office.
I must remind you that these events are ‘rumored‘ to have occurred, by an anonymous, reliable source. I have had two other people verify the events as I am laying them out.
It all started with a lunch meeting the governor’s economic development office was having with a company interested in moving to Sioux Falls. Now this isn’t your normal, run of the mill, strip mall retail center, this is a research facility that wants to spend about $60-$80 Million building a facility in Sioux Falls. Also in attendance at the lunch was an ED rep from the city, and MMM.
Huether seemed to be confused as to why there wasn’t an ‘executive’ from the company at the lunch. The governor’s ED office informed Mike, during the meeting, that the Governor has already had ‘several meetings’ with the company in the past few months.
Mike was not happy (a temper tantrum ensued), and Mike left the meeting.
Mike then instructed his ED office to stop working with the Governor’s ED office representatives, and went as far to tell the governor’s ED office to ‘reassign’ certain reps.
Would have loved to hear the laughter in the Governor’s office after that request.
As I understand it, the Governor’s ED office reps are very good at their jobs, they also dot their ‘I’s and cross their ‘T’s. They probably also don’t care who gets credit for this, though preferably, they would prefer their boss to get the credit, since it seems the governor’s office seems to be the one doing all the legwork on this project.
It seems MMM is a little bent out of shape, because the governor’s office is stealing his thunder on this project. What is unfortunate is that Mike could screw this whole thing up because of his ‘ego’ problem.
The company is close to making a decision. They also admitted that 60% of the jobs they already provide are already from this region (I believe they are an Iowa company that is in the region) But have vowed to of course fill the remainder of the jobs from this region also. The main reason they want to move to Sioux Falls is they plan expansion, and they know they can only do it in Sioux Falls. They will also provide good wages, remember, as I understand it, this is a research facility, not a Walmart.
*As I noted, this comes from a very reliable source, but this is all second-hand accounts of the events.