The Touch of Europe book is finally printed. I printed only 50 copies for first edition (I will number and sign) I may add pages for future printings. I don’t want to make this too complicated by running all over town to get you a book, so we are going to do this by snail mail. They will be $11 + $1 for shipping and handling. Just message me on FB or email me at fb.art@sio.midco.net with shipping/payment details if interested and I will get you my address. Thanks!
When I have people ask me advice about running for municipal government I give them one important piece of advice before even announcing, EDUCATE YOURSELF. In other words watch old meetings, attend current meetings, talk to present and past elected officials and city employees and get to know the issues and before announcing build a strong platform with solutions that encourage transparency and common sense government.
You don’t need to be a part of a party or group, in fact in city politics that is probably the last thing you want to be a part of.
I also advise to stick to the issues that affect all citizens. That means fringe or special interest social issues, faith and personal interests should be avoided. It’s okay to talk about these things, but when running for city government it is important to look at the big picture.
Also, be specific.
After looking at Mr. TenHaken’s website, I’m a little lost on specifics. He touches on some good issues but gives us NO solutions;
Crime Reduction, Fiscal responsibility, Affordable Housing, Workforce and Economic development, Moving Downtown forward and building consensus.
And if you look at his FB page you will see he doesn’t take many stands and asks readers to give him advice.
I hate to say it, but these discussions with the public should have taken place BEFORE you announced. If you want the city’s top job, you should know what you want to do in the terms of policy before announcing.
I’m not saying you can’t change some these policy ideas during your campaign, but you should have them written down to keep your message solid while campaigning. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
I don’t think Paul knows what he wants to do for us, it seems like he is just looking to win the race than figure it out later. I am NOT comfortable with that approach. You are building and managing a city NOT selling a website.
Having Faith, Being a People Person and wearing jeans isn’t a solid platform, it’s a starting point, and not a good place to be when you announce you are running for mayor.
I thought this was a wonderful historical perspective on the coliseum. This is the kind of programming CityLink should be doing instead of mayoral propaganda.
INFORMATIONAL MEETING • 4 PM
The fun starts at the informational meeting with little to go on because there is NO attached documents. That’s because our super transparent government can’t share until the big reveal.
The three topics are actually pretty interesting, because some good discussion could be had.
On the August financial report, one could ask about the financial impact of the Soccer tournament (from June) and besides a bump in hotel BID taxes, there wasn’t much of an impact (CVB predicted $17 million), I calculated about a $4.3 million dollar economic impact, but if you compare from the year before, it was about a $2 million dollar impact.
Speaking of the BID, head of the CVB will be talking about their BID Tax budget for 2018. Wonder if any councilors will ask about what happened to the Mayor’s committee on changing the BID tax? Oh, that’s right, he was told to go to H—.
The new building inspector will be in attendance to talk about his new role. I find it ironic that the building services department constantly says they are understaffed even though they have had thousand$ in software upgrades, a previous director who spent more time at a local watering hole than in his office and a planning department that has put a director and two staffers (paid by taxpayers) to help SELL the $4.4 million dollar TIF to the city council for a private developer.
REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING • 7 PM
The regular council meeting is going to be a longgggggg one. Let’s preview;
Item#1, Approval of Contracts. For some strange reason the city is buying $600K in property from Sweetman for the water department. We also find out the city contracts about $195K for outside cleaning services.
Item#2, Approval of Change orders. The beer coolers at The Denty are costing us another $32K.
Item#12, Protest Petition for Lacey Estate. Not sure how this will go, but expect lots of testimony.
Item#33, 2nd Reading. Property Tax Increase.
Item#34, 2nd Reading. Re-Finance on Bonds for Lewis & Clark.
Item#38, 2nd Reading. Lloyd Companies TIF. This one is sticky, because most of the council supports this. There has also been a question about whether or not councilor Selberg should vote on this due to his conflict of interest with being an independent broker for Lloyd. We will see if he decides to excuse himself. He has in the past on other Lloyd decisions.
Item #39, 1st Reading;
(a) No malt beverage retailer license shall be issued in the same building as an on-sale license or an off-sale license or another malt beverage retailer license, unless the licenses are intended for use by the same licensee and licenses issued are for the same licensed premise (or legal description) or there is provided
This one may apply to multiple casinos in the same building.
Item#51, 1st Reading. Changing the Design Standards of the DT PUD district.
Item#52, Final Budget hearings. Expect to hear some amendments.
Item#53, Bid Tax Budget for CVB.
Item#55-56, Resolution to form TIF for Lloyd companies, they waste no time considering the council will approve it the same night on #38.
Item#58. Permanent Easement for Arc of dreams (even though it was signed by the mayor a year before quietly in the night with the city clerk as witness).
Item#61. Resolution. 85th Street Pre-Annexation agreement. Yup, one item before the end of the meeting is a great time to submit an agreement that could cost the taxpayers of Sioux Falls over $30 million dollars.
*Recently at a OLLI (Osher Lifelong Living Institute) class, the Mayor was the guest to talk about city government. He told the class attendees that the council needs to ‘Stop listening to the minority voices.’ He was probably talking about the minority voice councilors like Starr and Stehly, but he also could have been referring to the CAVE people who show up to public input. Not sure, I wasn’t there, but found the commentary interesting considering the minority voices over the past two years have the best ideas for our city, that the mayor just vetoes.
As you may or may not heard, the city is considering new contractors to manage our city courses. It’s been a forgone conclusion that GreatLife will probably scoop up the contract simply because of the influence of it’s Whopper of a Founder, Tom Walsh.
I could care less. I don’t golf, use fitness centers, bowl or watch movies outside my home. As long as the next contractor can make the city some money from the courses, I’m happy.
But for a moment, let’s pretend that decision to pick GreatLife or Dakota Golf (again) was on the up and up. Who get’s to make the preliminary decision and pass the flaming football to council? Oh, the Parks board;
Following the calendar provided in the city’s official request for proposals, the park board’s committee set up to facilitate the process has been discussing the bids. Additional interviews with contending firms would take place Sept. 27-28, with “notification of conditional award†taking place Sept. 29.
I guess just reviewing all the proposals and bids and making a conditional award isn’t really that major of a decision. Remember when the Southside Snobs told the council during the debate over districting the parks board that ALL the major decisions were up to the council. Than why isn’t the council reviewing this RFP’s in a land use committee instead of letting a bunch of ‘unimportant’ volunteer board members do it?
Make no mistake, the Parks Board has a gob of power that they use under the direction of the Chief Lawn-mowing-Liar of the City, Parks Director Don Kearney.
Hopefully the next council will pass the Parks Board Districting ordinance. I would also make it go into affect within 4 years.
l3wis