Once again our esteemed Sioux Falls city administrators have bungled an event. If da mayor ain’t there, the kids even screw up the use of the only recording device they are allowed to play with, the city’s baby monitor. Do they think we will not notice their lack of transparency? How does da mayor think it’s alright to take away property rights as long as they do it with a baby monitor?
We have a prime example of why we bring our Handicams to Sioux Falls city meetings. If the administration isn’t physically assaulting citizens who attend meetings they are doing it to their sensibilities. This meeting was called after Council members started rejecting the illegal manner the Sioux Falls Planning and Zoning department was pushing through annexations.
• First the meeting was held at 2:00pm on a Tuesday when citizens can’t leave work.
• Next the meeting is planned for the downtown main library where everyone who attends has to pay about $1.50 in parking meter fees, and $10 for a ticket.
• While they were at it, they originally set up a room for 25 people, as if they could hold it in secrecy or in a room so small the peeps would just leave when they couldn’t get in.
• Who on God’s green earth thought this was a good idea, to use the room without microphones and the overhead speaker system? It is one of the worst rooms to hear anything in.
• To make the event very transparent, da mayor of all mayors needed the CityLink cameras for a retirement BFF ceremony in City Hall, so the kids who put on this meeting got only one baby monitor to record the event.
You can kind of guess by now, we showed up and so did about 200 more because Councilor Theresa Stehly let those affected by the 60+ annexation issues know the meetings were happening. The room had to be increased and it was still standing room only with people outside the door trying to get in.
In the end, the baby monitor failed just like the event planners. This is the only full recording of the event. Cameraman Bruce thanks the Sioux Falls citizens who showed up with their own recorders and caught the action he was not able to. The April 11, 2017 library meeting was a joke in so many ways but the citizens were there in such force the powers that pretend to be, had to pay attention.
Theresa Stehly the citizens thank you for your hard work. If not for your hard work talking to people ahead of time, this meeting would have been a sham like so many others.
This incident exemplifies the passive-aggressive mission creep that characterizes present day local & national politics. It’s a mantra of “We leaders are more informed & better equipped than the public to make policy decisions. We alone have the big/long range vision in mind. Don’t encourage or welcome involvement by the masses – their real life considerations will just sidetrack our important work.”
Blasphemo,
I think you have also identified the major reason why Senators Thune, Rounds, and Representative Noem are unwilling to hold bonafided town hall meetings in South Dakota as well.
Noem prefers last minute announced K-Mart style “Blue Light Special” town hall meetings. Thune likes to hold a town hall at a police station in a town that is smaller than western Sioux Falls. While Rounds goes for the “Pie and Coffee” scene in towns like Murdo and Faulkton…..
Representative democracy needs to be seen by our political leaders as a responsibility and not a right, and that they serve at the privilege of the electorate and not because they are some how a self-ordained privileged class….
I found this comment in the SPAM cue from Warren Phear;
First, would like to say thank you to whoever provided this video. For ninety minutes of input only twenty was given to the public. Not a lot of time to try and decipher cooper city planning logic and lawyer brown forced annexation logic. The most interesting point of the discussion was at 1 hour 9 minutes into the video. A pony-tailed gentleman asked if there was any way a group could stop a city initiated forced annexation. Lawyer Brown responded that group could come to meetings, protest it, and once the city forced annexation moves forward, that forced annexation can be challenged by referendum if you get the requisite number of citizens on petition. When the gentleman asked if that meant the 75% of affected residents, Brown smugly replied it does not work that way. I guess I was always under the impression that that was the way it works. Further reading of the documents provided at Siouxfalls.org go on to say if within 20 days after the city land grab is filed with the municipal finance officer, a petition form with 5% of city voters can bring the issue to a municipal vote. Greg, I know you read this blog, Is this correct? If so, isn’t this the same dog and pony show Bruce went through with the petition drive to put the admin bldg to a vote?
EC, reminds me of a Noem story I heard a few years back (6 years ago?). A friend of mine was telling me about his daughter’s BF that got in trouble with pot possession and how it happened. Apparently, he was a poli-sci major at USD at the time and called Noem’s office wondering what her schedule was while she was back in SD out of session and he would like to talk to her in person. I think he got into an argument with her staff after they told him they couldn’t give him that information. I think within a day or sooner the secret service (or Federal agents) showed up to his home and searched the place, while he didn’t get in trouble for the phone call, they found pot, so he got arrested for that. I always warn people, be very careful what you say to these right-wing paranoid kooks. They are such big chicken shits they would probably call the cops on you for sending them a Christmas card.
Warren, it was me who put the video together with the help of others who were seated in other parts of the room. It really takes a team to discover the things this group of guberment employees tries to do to the rest of us.
l3wis, when Janklow was governor his home phone number was in the white pages; and not to mention that he never feared a town hall meeting either (i.e., Springfield, South Dakota, 1984, after announcing that he (Janklow) would close USD/S and turn it into a minimum security state prison).
Todays South Dakota Republican leadership is not living up to the Janklow Republican standard, when it comes to town hall meetings. I was never a Janklow fan, but I definitely miss his engagement, when today we are left with Republican leaders who call having pie and coffee in Murdo a town hall meeting.
And you are definitely right about your final advice. One must be careful but vigilant. Back in my college days, I, as a student leader, and a friend of mine who worked for the college paper at the time were told by a Republican “Big Cheese” back then, that he would make it a point that we could not find jobs in South Dakota after graduation…. What is this place? A Banana Republic? Who wants or needs this stuff?