Make the Events Center ‘Great Again’
Mayor ‘High Crime’ Mike was on the Greg Belfrage this morning (podcast should be up by early afternoon).
He started out by blabbering about the pool and how he got a lot of flack for wearing a shirt while diving off the high dive. He said he wore the shirt, because his secretary, communications director and wife told him he needed to wear it in the name of ‘decorum’ and he commented that he wasn’t ‘Putin’. I guess you have to take off your hat while talking to the council and mayor, and put on a shirt while swimming with them. While I can understand his wife asking him to wear the shirt (she has seen him shirtless, maybe) I’m wondering when his secretary and communications director have seen him shirtless . . . Funny how he was concerned about ‘decorum’ at the pool during public appearances, but the day before he lied to the public about voting for the indoor pool. I guess good decorum doesn’t include telling the truth. As for not being like ‘Putin’ I disagree, they have similar leadership styles 🙂
He also had a moment of ‘honesty’ and told the good folks of Sioux Falls that the pool wouldn’t run in the black.
Duh, Duh & Duh.
But he continued by saying ‘unlike the events center’ (running in black). It often amazes me how the mayor can go from saying something truthful to saying something false in a matter of seconds.
Let’s go over this again for the kids who were late to class. While the EC may cover its operations costs with revenue, the maintenance and mortgage on the facility are about 3x the revenue taken in. In other words, while SMG and Ovations are making money, the tax payers of Sioux Falls are footing the mortgage on the EC out of the 2nd penny, not revenue from the EC. Hardly ‘operating in the black’. In other words if you ran your personal business the way we run the EC you would be bankrupt in less than a year.
The mayor also touched on the Administration Building, and peddled the silly notion that Rex Rolfing’s 10 golf buddies told him they supported the building, and that was enough to defy the citizens and the city council 3 times to spend $25 million on a building we don’t need. Funny that the mayor didn’t bring up the ‘buzz off’ letter he received last week from the Minnehaha County Commission reminding him that they are absolutely NOT interested in leasing space at the building, ever.
The next caller got the mayor’s gander up a bit. He talked about working with the traffic engineering department and the police department to reduce speeding in his neighborhood for the safety of the children (he lives near Endeavor School) and after several conversations with them he was wondering why ‘nothing’ is being done. Mikey doesn’t like it when citizens accuse city employees of doing nothing, besides, it takes effort to lean on a shovel or belly up to the Avera Hospital lunch line. But you know what doesn’t take effort, Solar powered speed signs, as the caller suggested. They also are very inexpensive and effective at reducing speeds. The mayor said he would do some checking into why we are not using them. What a short memory our mayor has, a few short weeks ago, councilor Theresa Stehly made an amendment to the city budget to buy some of these signs to ‘experiment’ with them in high speed problem areas (FF: 1:19:30). The council voted her down after Public Works Director Mark Cotter said they don’t have the ‘staff’ or ‘time’ to move the signs (they are simply held to a post with brackets). I think Stehly is going to be on the Belfrage show sometime this week, hopefully she can explain how the signs work, since our mayor is doing ‘nothing’ to promote them.
But the highlight of this morning’s show was when a caller called the mayor ‘High Crime Mayor’ and said crime has ‘gone through the roof’ since he has been mayor. Like Donald Trump, Mayor Mike interrupts the caller and says ‘Wong’. I will defend the mayor on one level, the caller could have worded it a little less rudely, but his premise of the increase in crime is true. In the previous mayoral election, the increase in crime rates was a topic of discussion, at least in the Jamison camp, the mayor was in complete denial of the crime increase, and his previous Corvette Convertible driving police chief had his back and wasn’t concerned about it either. Fast forward a mere 3 years, different story. The mayor rambled on about how he is tackling the meth problem in Sioux Falls by having a ‘press conference’. As I have mentioned before, meth or as we called it ‘crank’ has been prevalent since I have lived in Sioux Falls (1991). For the mayor to claim that he is being tough on crime while giving SF police officers dismal raises and ignoring an epidemic that was around long before he showed up on the scene is ludicrous.
He was so pissed about the ‘high crime mayor’ comment he couldn’t stop talking about it the rest of the show.
Truth hurts I guess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNp_37RueCQ
Speaking of public safety, I guess now the SFFD is now saying (mostly the chief) that his employees don’t have to go through the same diversity training as the police officers after the transgender incident at the jail. I will update you on this as soon as I get more information.
UPDATE: The mayor also bagged on the referendum and initiative process saying it was too easy to get things on the ballot. Hey Mike, it is your party that is putting these initiatives forward.