Once again, the mayor skirts the rules and uses city resources to campaign;
Mayor Mike Huether sent a letter on Friday to the City Councilors regarding the state of the City of Sioux Falls. The letter is attached for your review.
In his letter, the Mayor writes that the City of Sioux Falls remains on solid financial ground as we continue to integrate sound business practices into City government. The City’s General Fund reserve ended the year well above the Council’s policy target of 25 percent of annual expenditures. The local economy experienced solid economic growth with the key economic indicators of taxable sales, construction permits, job growth, and unemployment all showing positive trends throughout 2013.
Director of Finance Tracy Turbak will present the preliminary 2013 City of Sioux Falls financial results during the 4 p.m. regularly scheduled City Council Informational Meeting.
Both of these are annual presentations… how exactly is this campaigning?
Cheerleading perhaps, as historically speaking the “State of the City” presentations have always focused upon the positives and accomplishments rather than on anything perceived as negative, but is a normal annual event and routine task now automatically considered campaigning merely because it occurs ahead of an election?
If so, Mike’s afternoon trip to the restroom should now be classified as a campaign stop. You can make your own jokes about which of the two events is responsible for more…. (you get the idea).
What’s wrong here is the mayor is taking credit for the robust economy in the upper midwest. It happened from economic geographic circumstance, not because of him. When there’s a blip, it’s going to be hard to service bond debt. What’s scarier is new bonds proposed for more indoor sports.