An Activist to Learn From
l3wis Just watched an amazing doc about this man who took his life due to the idiocy of our government. We owe him much when it comes to freedom of information on the internet.
August 2017
It only took this newcomer 3 years to figure out Huether
I just wish the rest of the city would figure this out;
Since that time, I have come to learn much about this little town on the prairie to include the juvenile and preposterous acts and actions of the mayor, Mike Huether. To me, still an outsider, Sioux Falls now presents itself as an abstract of many failing autocratic cities around this country – read Chicago. It is governed by a ruling class that publicly decries their support and service to the electing populace, yet regularly and routinely act in a manner that is completely devoid of said sentiment.
That was plenty apparent when Mayor Huether TOOK, with the help of the rubber stamp council, $500K from taxpayers for a tennis facility he put his name on. Or how any developer holding their hands out gets a TIF to build luxury condos.
It is now common knowledge within my household – all the way down to my 9-year-old, that the upper class southeast side of Sioux Falls “rules†city hall. Their streets are smooth, their pavement uncracked and their private bike path entrance to their greenbelt park system is unrivaled by anything in the city. With his recent “no†vote on the creation of a democratic park board, Mayor Huether proves, yet again, who he serves – and it is not the majority of us.
That’s why he decries free bus rides and swimming for the poor kids or rams all the social services into the Whittier Neighborhood. Now roundup the homeless on Friday afternoon;
Huether should heed this advice, along with his backroom cronies, I will not be ruled over by anyone. Nor will I sit by idly and allow the mayor to continue to administer his authoritarian style of government. I will put forward any effort necessary to bring fair and equal governance and democracy to this city and pledge my support to the candidates that come forward intent on dismantling this once and for all.
WOOT! WOOT! Another Foot Soldier for the South DaCola army. As Ruby said in Cold Mountain, “You need help, here I am.”
The difference between County & City budget hearings
The only thing on the Sioux Falls city council agenda this Tuesday is the joint budget hearings with Minnehaha county.
I was astonished by the 42 page budget presentation from Siouxland Museums. (Full DOC: Â SX-Museum-budget-2018) Their total yearly budget is about $1.1 million!
What surprised me was with such a small budget the amount of detail in the presentation. They even figured out that each catalogued item in the collection cost taxpayers about $1.58 a year.
Why can’t the city present such detailed presentations to the public? I know that the council is probably privy to the big book, but why can’t we dig deeper? It often troubles me when councilors ask department heads questions about the budget at the meetings and they don’t have answers. Do they even read their own budgets? Do they know what’s in them? Could the director of Central Services tell us what the city pays for a roll of toilet paper?
Another reason the council should be involved with the budget process from the beginning and not at the end.
It really comes down to pinching pennies. While the county has to go through their budget with a fine tooth comb, the city is awash in so much money it seems they don’t care about the ‘little things’ like spending over $400 per episode of the mayor’s ‘Shut Up and Listen’ sessions.
I have often said the next mayor needs to be a fiscal hawk on day one and take a microscope and scalpel to the current budget on day one. That really should be the main job of the mayor besides employee management.
I’m a little weary that a motorcycle salesman could really look at those finer details.
And you thought I was harsh on Doug Morrison
This letter writer rips the hypocrisy of his new position to threads;
It is with absolute disgust and bewilderment the very quiet announcement of past school board president Doug Morrison, now hired on a full-time basis by said Sioux Falls School District in a newly created role that doesn’t seem to have even been known to the general public until after the fact. On face value, this doesn’t pass the smell test. It reeks of cronyism, corruption and a good ol’ boy network system. It shows even more that the education system is truly corrupt.
OUCH!
Another Republican entering the Mayor’s Race?
Pitty Patt thinks he is on to something;
My spies are telling me that within the next two weeks there will be an announcement made of an unexpected but very serious Republican contender jumping into the race for Sioux Falls Mayor
I’m really puzzled by who this person could be.
First off, Jamison seems to have the support of the Republican establishment in Sioux Falls and Entenman is angling for the Business Community. That doesn’t leave many crumbs for a third Republican in the race.
Erickson said she was going to sit out this mayoral race and the only other prominent Republican has said they were probably NOT going to run, Paul TenHaken.
I did some digging last night and couldn’t really find much. I guess we couldn’t rule out Mark Mickelson, Steve Westra OR Craig Lawrence, but at this point that is just a guess.
I was approached by a prominent Indy last year that has close ties to the business community, but he hasn’t said a single word since. I also haven’t ruled out Darrin Smith or Hildebrand for a run, but they are both Democrats.
I guess we will see.