6,400 voter signatures were turned over to an evasive, uncaring, untrustworthy city of Sioux Falls government and what happens? The majority of the City Council on September 13, 2016 essentially said go home and leave us alone.
The April Council had been played like a cheap fiddle by the administration and their leadership by postponing the bonding date to October 1. The 5 to 3 July successful repeal vote of the Council was dramatic, successful but short lived when the mayor vetoed the action the next week. The repeal leaders had given up.
One idea was floated by members of the 5 but who could do an impossible thing like a 5775 signature petition drive to force a vote? The petition drive was born at the only moment it could have. When there was an action to fight. Any sooner and it would have been in conflict with everything else already in action.
The effort to collect the signatures was fought from the moment of the Mayor’s veto on July 27 by the town’s administration. The lack of support from the city clerk shows how little he understands about the rights of citizens. Even with the issues petitioners received, 6,400 signatures were collected in less than 20 days with more than 95% verified. Bravo Sioux Falls voters for caring!
The citizens of Sioux Falls are continuing to learn how little those encased in the power process care about the future of the town or population. As long as they can borrow money without oversight, who cares? Every time the power group seduces another member to do their dirty work, it shows another reason why a corrupting system needs to be fixed.
We brought in new Council members this year who used this project and the fight against it, as center pieces of their reform of process campaigns. At the one yard line, all suited up, with several more plays available, our strongest players collapsed when hit with feathers. Looks like we brought pillows to a game instead of footballs. Asleep at the wheel of power with one yard to go? Nice play.
But how do you feel?
The campaign was a success. A few of us were aware of city corruption but now the whole city realizes. Of course, certain Councilors are finished politically if not personally. The best way to move on is with dozens of new petition subjects. Separate elections will be expensive but money is better wasted on elections than Huether projects. Now, it’s important to have the court mandate and supervise a legal petition process. The city will appeal. It’ll take years to get through SD Supreme Court but (eventually) they’ll supervise a new constitutional charter and disbar the city attorney. It’ll not be hard to have Huether IRS audited. His next position should be in the kitchen at federal prison. I already know our next mayor. His name rhymes with star.
I will be looking for 2 new councilors to support in the next election, ones who are committed to the people and the ideas of democracy.
The disturbing, distorted excuses offered as rational for a vote change are laughable…… such as protecting the uninformed voter from the feeling of hopelessness when the uninformed voter grasps the meaning of an advisory vote….or the defeatist attitude of predictable failure.
Did Americans embrace a defeatist attitude in WWI or WWII? Hell no, and we surely do not embrace that attitude locally today in Sioux Falls.
We obviously have more house (council) cleaning to do in the next election cycle.
Let me add a bit to that sentence.
Hell no! This is war; it is our money; and we demand our right to a vote!
This issue with the petition has really muddied the waters regarding a potential city administration building.
Mr. Danielson made the decision to cobble together a petition using language from both the municipal and the state forms. His lack of due diligence in not having both a private attorney and the SD Secretary of State review the language of the petition is his sole responsibility.
Let the Court decide the validity of the petition on September 28th.
In the interim, Mr. Danielson’s rhetoric is really getting old. Every time I hear him give public input, I ask myself, is this about his personal grudges with the city and the mayor or is it for the public good?
anon- you ain’t kidding about muddy water. There is a bigger back story here you are not hearing from the propaganda wing of the administration. Call me sometime and I will fill you in.