South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

May 2014

Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether SF City Council Sioux Falls

The clock is ticking . . .

l3wis 5Comments

IMG_0452

A graphic of how much time the citizens of SF have to put up with Mayor Huether.

Once again, Mike couldn’t resist to turn a run of the mill public municipal ceremony into a rah-rah session for himself and the city. I told someone it turned out to be the State of the City Address 2014 – 2.0

After the five officials were sworn in, Mike came down before the podium and put the above graphic on the big screen. Then he had to talk about how great everything is, how the RR will be moving, how ‘America’ will be talking about our city, and choked up when talking about the ‘sacrifice’ his family has had to make for his service (he even included his mother. Doesn’t she live in Yankton?) I guess he was talking about the sacrifice his wife had to make by putting her name down as an investor in a development that received a TIF.*

When he finished, he looked at the audience, and paused while the crowd gave a ‘polite’ applause. He seemed surprised he didn’t get a standing ovation. Then in front of the packed room, he gave his wife a kiss who was sitting front and center (I think I saw some smoke come out of her ears when he kissed her).

Only our mayor could turn a swearing in ceremony into a Dale Carnegie workshop.

*I got word from a South DaCola foot soldier the other day that Mike’s development investments in Sioux Falls are more widespread then we might think, and worth looking into.

Sioux Falls snow removal Snowgates

UPDATE: Why is the city hiring a broker/consultant to purchase snow gates?

l3wis 9Comments
UPDATE: At the council informational today, Public Works director, Mark Cotter explained that 4 bids were put out and that Titan was the lowest and Henke was the highest, even though Titan is purchasing the gates from Henke. We will be paying aproximately $6,750 a piece for the snowgates. I also found out that the city will own all the gates and loan them out to any private contractor that will be using them. I guess some private contractors have agreed to use them, so that is good news.
It was disappointing during the meeting that Rolfing had to make a big deal about how much there usage will cost us and demanded that Cotter gets the council that information in the near future. Ironic, even though an indoor pool wasn’t even on the ballot, when the outdoor pool failed at Spellerberg, the council and mayor felt they had to ramrod the project threw because the voters have spoken. Well, kind of. Yet snow gates pass by a landslide (which were actually on the ballot) and all of a sudden Rolfing is concerned about the cost of there usage. In Rolfing’s mind fiscal prudence only applies to public services like snow removal, but when it comes to unneeded recreation, spend, spend, spend away.
snow-hm
(Consent Agenda) Hydraulically Operated End Gates (Snow Gates) – Titan Machinery - $ 215,700
I find this a little disheartening, because during the snow gate petition drive, organizer, Stehly got confirmation from Henke (the superior snow gate manufacturer) to offer a discount and training to the snowplow operators in SF if they got awarded the bid. Are they so busy in Public Works that not one single person in the department could get bids and purchase snow gates directly from the manufacturer? We now have to have a middle man? That is SF city government for you, consultant happy. I have often wondered why we even have city directors and employees, we might as well just hire consultants to do all the heavy lifting for us. Imagine the millions we would save in salaries and benefits for all of these overpaid directors and middle managers.
Elections Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether Sioux Falls

Is Mayor Huether ‘Sad’ that over 40% of voters didn’t vote for him?

l3wis 2Comments

black-and-white-sad-face-md

Why doesn’t anybody like me?

A South DaCola foot soldier told me that Mike was the recent guest speaker at a USD political science class focusing on SD Politics (Apparently he has time for that, but not to defend himself against ethics charges). One of the students expressed that Huether seemed sad and disappointed that over 40% of the voters didn’t vote for him. I guess winning wasn’t enough for him, he prefers to annihilate his opponents. Shouldn’t he be more concerned that over 50% of the voters don’t like city councilor Jamison?
Developers Development Sioux Falls

Will the Prairie Meadows residents be able to afford annexation?

l3wis 2Comments
These numbers seem at bit daunting when it comes to cost of the annexation (DOC: PrairieMeadowsAnnex;
 Distributed on an individual lot basis per front foot.
 Sanitary Sewer – 3% for 20 years
 Water Main – 3% for 20 years
 Storm Sewer and Curb and Gutter – 3% for 20 years
 Surfacing, Sidewalk & Lights – 5.75% for 20 years
While the 3% interest rate doesn’t look to bad, the almost 6% rate seems a little high, especially for a neighborhood that may not NEED sidewalk and street lights. I will be interesting to see how this plays out.

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