March 2015

Does our mayor even understand Free Enterprise?

l3wis March 22, 2015 6Comments

Just another private-public partnership that makes our city so freaking great!

Yeah, I know, reading an interview with our mayor in Free Enterprise magazine is kind of like reading an interview with Gordon Howie in High Times magazine, but let’s get started with his words of wisdom;

What’s the structure of the Sioux Falls government?

We have a “strong mayor” form of government. I am basically the C.E.O. or the president of a large company, and that company is the City of Sioux Falls. We have roughly 1,200 city employees and 12 department heads, and a substantial budget. We’re responsible of running the day-to-day activities of a city with 170,000 people, and a metropolitan area with about 250,000.

He fails to mention the legislative body of city government, the city council, which shouldn’t surprise any of us. His disdain for them is evident in every city council meeting, where he shorts them on information, then cuts them off when they ask leading questions.

Economic development is probably one of the biggest challenges that I wanted to tackle when I was first elected. In corporate America, I was a growth and development guy,

You were a ‘seek and destroy’ marketing manager for the worst credit card company in the nation. Twist that how ever you want, but your practices in ‘corporate America’ were to prey on the fiscally ignorant, and stick it to them. That’s not economic development, that’s highway robbery.

Why has the city’s healthcare sector seen such impressive growth over the past decade?

Well, there are a number of reasons. For example, we’ve got a gentleman, Denny Sanford, who invested significantly in Sanford Health. So, he’s helped infuse millions of dollars into finding a cure for juvenile diabetes or breast cancer at that health center, and he wants to build one of the best and most respected research institutions in the Midwest. Then, at the same time, we have another organization in town called Avera McKennan, which is also investing millions into their research, infrastructure and vision.

This all ties into what happened during the recession: Though financial services, construction, and manufacturing were slowing down, other industries like agriculture, research, and healthcare were just kicking tail. These sectors really provided that balance that we needed to keep our head above water during the recession, and they also enabled us to get out of that water faster than anybody once the recession came to an end. We have recently been called “America’s Next Boomtown.”

Did you know that Sanford and Avera are some the lowest wage paying healthcare networks in the nation? And that is just the beginning of their issues, I could go into patient care and services. As for staying above the recession, that couldn’t be farther from the truth, we have remained stagnant in wages in SF since the recession, even with the low unemployment rate. More kids are eating free lunches in the schools, food banks are expanding, and the common worker just can’t keep up. I know the hilltop that Mike lives on may be doing well, but the rest of Sioux Falls is struggling to keep their heads above water.

And the ending couldn’t be any better;

What’s your secret to success?

There wasn’t much confidence in this area back in late 2009, early 2010. Now, we have a confidence level that is off the charts. When you go in confident, there are amazing things you can accomplish.

Really?! Quite honestly, I accomplished more in Sioux Falls before 2009, then after. In fact, the road has been a bit rough since 2009, and I ask myself everyday if I will ever have extra money for emergencies.

We also tackled some quality of life obstacles that had been eluding us for generations. We built a $117 million event center we had been talking about forever that opened last fall. We just recently passed a $24 million indoor aquatics center we’ve been debating since 1951!

Who passed the aquatics center? It wasn’t on the ballot. In fact the last two times it was actually on the ballot, it failed.

Additionally, through a public-private partnership, we just opened an indoor ice complex, and in March is the ribbon cutting of an indoor tennis facility.

Without mentioning he had the audacity to plop his name on a facility taxpayers gave $500,000 to.

Once again, Hubris.