2017

Updated Campaign Platform for 2018 Municipal Election

l3wis November 30, 2017 1Comments

If you are running for mayor or city council for the 2018 Municipal election, you should have your work cut out for you. This is my UPDATED list of what the next mayor and council should focus on.

• Crime: While crime in Sioux Falls hasn’t gotten out of control and is manageable, the increasing violent crime rate over the past 5 years should concern us. The candidate(s) that come up with a leading solution(s) while making the public still feel safe will garner attention. I have suggested concentrated patrolling, more neighborhood watch programs and educating the public about what to look for when it comes to suspicious activity (drug dealing, domestic violence, etc.) Also an increased social media presence.

I would also like to see the police department to receive several national certifications, use body cameras, incorporate a stringent officer fitness program and create a drug task force with Federal assistance from the FBI, CIA and DEA so we can stop playing whack a mole.

• Transparency: This is just a given. We have had one of the most secretive administrations to date. Trust me, Munson and Hanson were not much better, but Huether has taken his dictatorship (home rule charter) to heart. Heck, our local paper had to sue in Supreme Court to get a contract. The next council and mayor need to open the books and communication, and it shouldn’t even be a fight, it should just be done. A healthy democracy depends on it. This means opening communication with the city council and working together with them and the mayor on the budget and legislation.

• Affordable Housing: It is probably the NUMBER ONE issue affecting Sioux Falls right now, but it is closely tied into with crime. When people don’t have a decent place to live or a decent job to pay for it, it breeds crime. I suggest the next mayor and city council take away focus from big development and TIFS (urban sprawl) and concentrate on the core and proper of Sioux Falls. First off, big development will survive, they have plenty support from private investors and banks. Plus urban sprawl only hurts our infrastructure budget (building more NEW infrastructure means more to take care of). We need to concentrate more on community development loans to private homeowners and landlords of small apartment complexes. Not only can they be helped with NO or LOW interest development loans, there are plenty of Federal grants they can apply for. This of course will take bigger staff to go door to door in these neighborhoods and promote this kind of revitalization. It will also have to come from the real estate and mortgage banking industry willing to invest in first time home buyers and young families to rebuild these older neighborhoods. Another measure tied into this would be passing a city ordinance minimum wage within SF city limit of at least $10-11 an hour. I would also suggest a city ordinance that eliminates wage collusion by requiring employers in Sioux Falls to print what their starting salary is in their employment ads.

• Homelessness/Poverty/Food insecurity: While I think our city does a great job with housing the homeless and helping people with food insecurity, I think we fail huge with transitioning them out of homelessness and poverty. Besides our low-wage culture in South Dakota the lack of good mental illness treatment really holds back people transitioning back into real life and self-sufficiency. I’m not sure what all the answers are, but I think it will take a stronger relationship with our county governments.

• Shared services with Lincoln/Minnehaha counties: Not only would this save tax payers millions, working together to solve our public safety issues and public mental health needs would make us a stronger community. I see a lot of overlapping between the 3 governments and inefficiencies. If we can build a library system together, we can certainly do a lot more.

ODDS & ENDS

• Create a Public Ambulance service: Besides the fact we would save taxpayers money and create a more affordable service, let’s look at the obvious. Our fire department is already showing up for medical emergencies, most of the time faster than the private ambulance. Our fire fighters are already trained, some better than the private ambulance. The only real cost initially would be adding the ambulances to the fire stations. Public ambulance service would pay for itself thru billing the consumers, because right now, all we are doing is subsidizing the private service with no monetary return.

• Fix the worst streets first: I would focus a lot of our 2nd penny road money to fixing our core’s worst streets. This would encourage more people to move back to the core of our city, fix up the older neighborhoods and slow urban sprawl which only costs us more and more in new infrastructure that we have to maintain.

• Sell the Railroad Re-development land to highest bidder, ASAP: Let FREE enterprise develop the land without trickle down developer welfare. The best plans will stand on their own without handouts.

• Stop the revolving door of businesses Downtown: Create a Downtown retail/restaurant development plan that strategically focuses on aggressive diversity of businesses.

I’m sure I will add more to this closer to the election. What are your ideas?