South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

July 2016

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Admin Building Re-Vote, July 19, 2016

l3wis 0Comments

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GFnisLEyHA[/youtube]

The new Sioux Falls City Council has spoken and it was strong. Our newest members worked as a team with Christine Erickson and slammed the brakes on the administration’s new office building.

It looks like we might be seeing a Council working together to help forge a new vision of possibilities. Actions taken July 19, 2016 show the Council is the policy making body of the Charter. The policy is look and see what else we can do to do it better.

The administration decided to spring this building idea on the town and City Council April 14, 2015. With no warning and in the usual great secrecy, the mayor started swinging (with a PowerPoint). It appears his elbow surgery had been a success, allowing him to aggressively push his plans and knock out people’s teeth.

It took 15 months to get some sanity into the building discussion and sanity said stop until there is real dialogue with our other state and local governments.

With five years in this gig, the mayor and his staff were a bit off their game getting names confused and losing their places. It was interesting to watch city employees popping up like it was their spur of the moment decision to get into the fray.

1st Amendment Censorship Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether Rex Rolfing SF City Council Sioux Falls

Councilor Rolfing & Mayor Huether are planning changes to public input

l3wis 6Comments

censor

The key word here is ‘planning’. I warned councilor Rolfing last night in public input that he should be cautious about moving forward on changes because he would have a big fight on his hands.

He supposedly cooked up his proposal in the top secret operations committee meeting in the basement of Carnegie on Tuesday. I am unclear what is all in the proposal, but I heard it involves ‘comment cards’.

The plan is to have each commenter sign in with a comment card and write down the topic they choose to speak about. Then the mayor or Rolfing would sort through the cards and pick the commenters they wish to speak by calling them forward.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

While I am not opposed to signing a sheet to say I will comment (it’s good for the clerk to have the correct spelling of the commenter’s name for the minutes and the record) I am not in favor of being called up like I am in 3rd grade speech class.

Picking and choosing the commenters is a blatant disregard for the spirit of free speech and the 1st Amendment. Elected officials are in place to serve us, not the other way around. I often say if they have a problem with that arrangement, do us all a favor and resign.

As I have reminded the mayor and council in the past, if public input is disruptive or offensive, the commenter can be gaveled at that time and asked to stop or even leave. The chair has that power and I agree with that procedure. Some people do get out of control and can be frivolous.

But picking and choosing who can comment and about what is favoritism and goes against transparency and open government as a whole. Something the mayor absolutely hates with a passion.

I know that some other folks in the media are aware of the proposal and won’t stand for it either.

Like I told Rolfing last night, I welcome the debate about changing public input, bring it on, because you are going to lose, and lose big time, and in the process you are going to look very foolish, if you don’t already.

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

In the dark of the night?

l3wis 2Comments

Will Huether veto the admin repeal in the dark of the night, or is he really taking his time to decide whether or not he wants to waste his political capital on a veto? He could also be just dragging his feet to as close to the October due date so the council couldn’t try to stop it again;

On Wednesday, Huether issued a statement saying he will hold off on responding to that vote, though he did not give a specific timeline.

Huether said he “recognizes the interest and importance of the project and also celebrates the due diligence and sacrifice put forth by the city’s project team and the city council.”

Don’t expect a press conference either way.

Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether

Potty Mouth Mike?

l3wis 1Comments

The Argus published a story online Tuesday about Rapid City’s mayor, Allender’s move to make his emails and other correspondence transparent with the public;

He’s opening up (some) of his emails for public scrutiny. According to South Dakota Public Broadcasting, the city’s elected leader Steve Allender said he will share any “official correspondence” between his office and the city council, be it email or written letters.

The Argus reporter encouraged our mayor to do the same.

(brief pause for intense laughter)

Besides the fact that Mike probably hides a lot of inside deals with his correspondence, his verbiage of choice may surprise a few citizens, especially those who thinks he actually understands the teachings of Jesus Christ or even Dale Carnegie.

While I have never been able to get hard evidence, because people chicken out, I have heard that the mayor has a favorite word that starts with ‘F’ and it isn’t Folks.

There’s been rumors about city employees, road contractors and events center construction workers being on the opposite end of the mayoral ‘bombs’. He garnered the nickname ‘Mayor Meltdown’ at the worksite.

But I think the height of his ‘F-wordery’ was when a former city councilor (term limited) spoke ill of the mayor on a popular local political radio talk show. The councilor, and rightfully so, was upset because the mayor had promised a national search for a replacement for a recently retired department manager, then bailed on it. The councilor unloaded on the show, but mostly because they felt the mayor was their friend and was upset they were lied to. Well it only took a matter of seconds for the mayor to send him a ‘bomb’ littered threatening text message while the councilor was still in studio. The councilor was so upset about it, they felt they were being harassed and asked fellow councilors what kind of ‘action’ they could take against the mayor.

This councilor would not give me the text (I begged, and begged), but I did talk to other councilors who saw it and verified it’s contents.

I have yet to be delivered one of Mayor Huether’s special ‘bombs’, but maybe this is why we will never see Huether’s correspondence.

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