Not quite the Mexican Hat Dance, but close
Recently we have seen major issues across our city, county and state when it comes to the correlation between the lack of transparency and corruption, and still many unanswered questions. Heck, as I mentioned in the last post, the mayor of Sioux Falls said at Rotary today he wants to dispel those rumors. Well the first step to recovery Mike, is admitting you have a problem, oh and finding a higher power (check your sleeve).
In just a short period of time we have had these issues;
• Failure to release Benda’s death report putting a cloud of suspician over EB-5. I have often felt this is the linchpin to the EB-5 scandal. While they constantly are blaming the dead guy, they are not letting us see how he became dead.
• The Events Center siding, lack of reports to the public and the temporary occupancy permit. This is a quagmire. Why has the contractor accused of wrongdoing freely came forward to tell their side of the story while the city has remained silent?
• Minnehaha County Commission NOT releasing the names of the 29 commission applicants and planning to interview the 5 finalists in private, two of which have blatant conflicts of interest. While there are qualified people on this list, it would be nice to see who all applied, or at least make the interviews of the finalists VERY public, and better yet, let the public ask questions.
• MED-Star not being chosen as an ambulance service provider as a result of a questionable consultant’s bias report to a committee that met behind closed doors. The selection process should have been open to the public. And while ambulance service doesn’t cost taxpayers, we should be concerned with who is providing us this important service, and if favors are being handed out.
• Lack of audio, visual, testimonial, officer identification or forensic evidence in the Tuthill shooting incident. The public has not been told one single thing. Are we in danger? Would be nice to know.
• Tribal money missing. I can’t even wrap my head around one of the poorest area’s of the country missing millions of dollars in aid money.
• The Sioux Falls School board interviewing future superintendent applicants behind closed doors. This of course is no surprise. Propaganda Queen Homan and her staff have always made a great effort to remain non-transparent throughout her tenure. I can guarantee she had a hand in this. What amazes me is that not one single school board member has an issue with it. While I can understand keeping most of the applicants secret, I do think the public should be able to vet the finalists in a very open and public interview. But of course, this is coming from the same school board that would only reverse a decision after having death threats issued against them.
Now let’s all say the pledge of allegiance, while wearing blind-folds.
So, let’s say you were applying for a new position, while still employed at your current one, at one of their rivals.
Should your application process be a matter that is “public” – I.E., your current employer is fully aware of and can “sit in” on?
How many parts of the process would you “plead the fifth” on or otherwise refuse to answer/participate in?
As far as I am concerned, if you are applying for a ‘Public’ job like Superintendent of the largest school district in the state of SD, you have to realize your name may be made public.
Lots of irregularities. This happens when ‘checks & balances’ are removed. The tribal money is 25 million lost without accounting. Worthy of a federal investigation but probably won’t happen. I remember a time when any of the above mentioned was prominently reported in the media and there was in depth investigation. A time when government found the criminals and corrected the matter before there was major impact. A time when a majority of citizens went to the polls and voted their minds.
I respect how France reacted when ‘freedom of speech’ and terrorism happened. I respect how leaders of 40 countries marched and rallied with France. Obama or a representative was a no show.
We’re giving away our freedom and constitutional controls. When democracy fails, you may wonder what happened but remain sheep.
Sadly, $25 million is small potatoes in tribal auditing. One big scandal was in a Southwestern tribe where the tribe was unable to account for $4 BILLION in funds owing to inadequate recordkeeping. In that case, it turned out that none of the accounting employees responsible for the records had *any* accounting or business finance experience. NOTE: this doesn’t mean that $4 billion was stolen; it just means that it wasn’t adequately documented to determine what was done with it.
Well, if it’s all out in the public, then you need to be prepared to not get many applicants – let alone quality ones.
Michael, I can see your point, you are right, could be a matter of mis-management and NOT embezzlement.
Ruf, other school districts have used the open process with finalists and have said it worked fine, it was either Omaha or Lincoln who have done it recently. They liked that the public was able to ask them questions. I’m sorry, but this is a very public job no different then running for mayor, if you can’t put your name out there, I would prefer you didn’t apply.
Also, one of the main things people have been asking for in the new Super is more openness and transparency, so who start off on the right foot?
Because to be honest with you, I don’t think our school board is qualified to hire a good pool cleaner let alone a super.
Agreed on the Superintendent. This school board continues to do many things behind closed doors and they wonder why theu had an approval rating in the 40’s last year. If nothing else, when they get to the final three candidates, there should be some sort of open forum to meet these candidates. In the end, yes they get to have the final decision, but they should at least be smart enough to act like they give a crap about what the public thinks. Instead, we do another frickin’ survey about what the public wants in the new superintendent. I quit trusting what is “chosen” to come out of the building a long time ago.
when you have at least one free mason on the board, secrecy is to be expected.
What’s important regarding a school superintendent is someone who lives or will live in the school district. Also, someone who’s raised kids, taught, and/or has an education background. Political or paternal appointments must not be allowed when it comes to public education. I’d like to see someone more sociable and involved in the community than Ms. Homan.