April 2017

Sioux Falls City Council Clerk’s wife, Jennifer Greco is running for Harrisburg School Board

Well, unlike her husband, I hope she registered to vote before enlisting herself 🙂

As I understand it, Jennifer and Tom live in Sioux Falls but are in the Harrisburg School District.

Today, Harrisburg announced that the HS principal, Lein, resigned to take a job in Iowa, but it seems he may be embroiled with a little controversy stirred up by Mrs. Greco;

The next day, Lein was back at his desk, arm in a sling, hugging students and fostering the “Harrisburg Strong” mantra.

And Lein himself has been strong in the face of a group of Harrisburg High School parents rooting for him to leave.

The “Parents for HHS Change” Facebook group had about 150 members as of Wednesday morning.

The group is rooted in opposition of MOD classes and administered by Jennifer Greco, who is seeking a seat on the Harrisburg school board in the May 9 election.

“There is a little faction that exists of parents that were upset and certain folks that definitely had an ax to grind with (Lein),” Knudson said.

Greco said the main feeling among group members Wednesday was that Lein’s resignation was a positive for students who don’t participate in customized learning. She hopes to see change in what she calls a divided culture at Harrisburg High School between traditional and MOD students.

“Dr. Lein is clearly very invested in making customized learning work, and that’s fine,” Greco said. “But I just also want to make sure the traditional program works.”

Kind of wonder if Jennifer sent any middle of the night ranting email to Lein about her military service and sick kids like her husband did to Cameraman Bruce 🙂

She had this to say on her FB page about her opposition to CL;

Many know that my interest in running for a seat on the Harrisburg School Board was sparked by concerns about the divisive culture in the high school. After meeting other parents and hearing their concerns, I am afraid a similar atmosphere is permeating throughout the district as new curricula are being introduced in our other schools.

To run for an elected office focusing on ONE issue is never a good idea, but it seems South Dakota voters continue to elect those kinds of people (Republicans, Guns & Abortion). Hopefully the good people in the Harrisburg School District realize that ONE-ISSUE candidates are not qualified, kind of like a retired military official running a city clerk’s office, I’m just saying.

Proposed Rental Registry ordinance gets sent back to the drawing board

During the land use committee meeting today several councilors and citizens (landlords) questioned the intent of the proposed ordinances and sent it back to the drawing board. One of the major questions ‘what is the incentive’ for signing up. City Attorney Paul Bengford could only offer that they could get in trouble if they don’t.

Wow, and they are all scratching their heads wondering why no one wants to sign up.

How about offering incentives for sign-up, here’s a few suggestions;

• Lower interest rates on community development loans for landlords trying to fix up properties.

• A possible TIF program for landlords.

• Better and brighter lighting (LED) around properties that are being upgraded and registered.

• A priority on street and curb repair around said properties.

See, that was not so hard. You can catch more bees with honey then with vinegar. If you want landlords to come in the fold, offer them a little something besides punishment.

Sales Tax Revenue down EVEN MORE than last year

Click to enlarge.

Finance Director Tracy Turbak will be making his monthly report at the informational meeting at 4 PM. So far, the sales tax growth is even more dismal than last year. For the first 3 months we are at 0% growth. Ouch.

Since I am not an economics major, I really can’t tell you why this downward spiral is happening. Obviously the farm economy isn’t doing well, but with Sioux Falls having so many residents, you would think this would not affect us this much. I still kind of wonder if we really didn’t recover from the last recession. Wages continue to be stagnant, and that is obvious with all the food banks growing and the lack of affordable housing.