Sioux Falls City Council accomplishments over the past year

Stehly writes a great letter about the council’s ups and downs over the past year;

1. A majority of us stood together against building the $25 million administration building (now more than ever, this is a problematic project). The mayor vetoed our efforts to find a more cost effective solution to city space needs.

2. A council majority supported Christine Erickson’s efforts to video/audio record the Sioux Falls Parks board meetings. (We have other citizen boards recorded and broadcasted). This board meets the same time and day as city council meetings and deals with a multi-million dollar budget. The mayor vetoed our simple ordinance.

3. Four of us supported the Police Union, voting to give them their budgeted 1.5 percent raise retroactive to the contract date of Jan. 1. The mayor disagreed by breaking the tie not to give them the back pay. We were told that we needed to “teach the police officers a lesson.”

4. Over the objections of the administration, we all supported Councilman Pat Starr’s efforts to bring the Glory House project and the abandoned Sioux Falls Ice & Recreation Center together to benefit our community. Thanks to public support this project is moving forward.

5. An amendment was proposed by me to prohibit city employees from contributing to our election campaigns. The Mayor supported my amendment and it passed.

6. An amendment offered by me to last year’s budget allowed for the purchase of solar speed signs to calm traffic in residential areas. Public works director Mark Cotter wanted time to try them out. He recently informed that they are purchasing eight more for our residential areas.

7. I also made efforts to reach out to many citizens and help them to have their “day in court” in front of the council. Annexation, ambulance failure, zoning, dog bites, snow gate service, invasive weeds, garbage handling issues, dangerous road situations and many more topics have been resolved because the citizens stood up, spoke out for their rights and received good customer service from our city government.

Ironically where they met failure wasn’t because of opposition from citizens but because of the EGO of one man.