B & G Milky Way franchise owner DiAnn Burwell said “I’m here from open to close, every day, making sure the stores run right. I do my own accounting, I do my own ordering, I do my scheduling,Ii do everything. If I could afford to have somebody do that for me, I would, so $8.50 an hour scared me to death.”
Dropping the minimum wage for teens under 18 a dollar, from $8.50 to $7.50 an hour, may help some small business owners like Burwell.
“DiAnn gave a big sigh, it eased the pressure off me somewhat,” Burwell said.
It seems the only thing she was worried about was her bottom line, which seems to be doing just fine two years later;
The franchisee, a Sioux Falls couple, will operate the new location along 41st Street just east of the Harmodon Park entrance, said Bruce Bettmeng, who owns B&G with his wife, Pam. The Bettmengs will own the land and building, and lease it to the franchisee. The couple isn’t ready to announce their ownership yet, Bettmeng said. The wife worked for him at the B&G on West 12th Street about a decade ago.
If there is any argument behind raising the minimum wage, it should be it’s GOOD for business. I find it hard to believe they can continue to sell this successful franchise if the franchise owners were struggling to pay employees.
Is this a portrait of Harry and Meghan or Bryon and Kristi? Well the Republicans have made a habit of turning Pierre into their own little Kingdom.
The only thing Kristi has publicly said about repaying the city for her private fundraiser security detail is she ‘appreciates the generosity of Sioux Falls’. Awwww, that makes me feel so much better about giving you $20K for your private fundraiser that you pulled in $500K on.
Ironically, Kristi’s silence is funny since a majority of Republicans, some who even supported Trump and Kristi have said the right thing to do is pay back the city, even if the SFPD was Federally mandated to provide security to the President.
I do know that Councilor Stehly has had a followup call to the Noem ‘team’ and they gave her the runaround on it. I think they are hoping this just goes away quietly in the night. Notice SD’s #1 Political Blog (LOL) hasn’t said a peep about it. Usually he would be carrying on and bashing the RINOs in the party like Stehly (which he has taken the liberty to do several times) yet he is mysteriously silent about the issue. “Yes Master Kristi, I won’t say nuthin’ I will be as quiet as a church mouse.”
Maybe Kristi can hire Donald Ross to paint her Royal Portrait.
I shot off some questions this morning to city councilors about City Link contracts with some of their NON City employee on-air personalities. The Q & A Below with my thoughts, with answers from Jason Reisdorfer Director of Innovation & Technology with the City of Sioux Falls. I would like to thank Jason for getting back to me in a timely manner.
Q: I noticed the city will be paying Pinny Consulting (Michele Wellman) a FLAT fee of $10,000 a year for her assistance (I’m assuming) with the 25 minute, once a month, city link show ‘City Scene’.
I’m wondering if I can see a break down of her charges and how she came up with this ‘Flat Fee’ and what she all does for that, and how much time she spends per month on her services for the city.
A: This is incorrect, it’s not a FLAT $10,000 per year.  The contract MAXIMUM is $10,000.  Our agreement with Michelle is $50/hour, with a max of $500/month.  She rarely charges us more than $250/episode. Year-to-date through 12/17, we’ve paid her $2750 for 11 episodes.
MY THOTS: While $50 per/hr is a pretty reasonable rate, I’m not quite sure she spends 5 hours a month on the episodes, when her last appearance on the show lasted a total of about 90 seconds.
Q: I’m also wondering if we have a similar contract with Madeline Shields who hosts the once a month, 25 minute show, Inside Townhall on city link, and what that contract looks like.
A: Madeline’s contract is a flat $200/episode.
MY THOTS: Madeline also does a pre-game with her guests usually over the phone, in an email and before the show. She also prepares questions for the show and moderates it. Q: I’m also wondering what the contract looked like with Jolene Loetscher who was the last host of ‘City Scene’.
A: Jolene received a flat $500/month, which included pre-production meetings & other production services.
MY THOTS: I also believe Jolene did the full production of the show, because it seemed more polished to me than a normal City Link production.
Q: And since full time Staffers Colleen Moran and Reid Holsen also host shows on City Link, I’m wondering if they get an extra stipend for those duties?
A: Neither Reid, nor Colleen receive additional Stipends. (Nor do any city employees that I’m aware of). This would fit under the ‘other duties as assigned’ as part of their job descriptions.
MY THOTS: This final answer proves my point completely, with a very capable staff at City Link, why are we using OUTSIDE, Non-City employees to produce these shows (at an extra cost)? The on-air personality can be anyone, it could even be a voice over on the City Scene show and Council Operations Manager Jim David could easily host the Inside Town Hall show. This is publicly funded media, and needs be done in the most professional and fiscally responsible manner. Use city staff.
The Sioux Falls Parks Board has been famous for jumping their meetings around to different locations and different dates and having the meetings on Tuesday’s at 4 PM at the same time as the City Council Informational. The council has taken issue with this since they cannot attend the meetings which in the past have not been recorded until now. The suggestion has been that one of the most powerful boards of the city (besides planning) should meet at Carnegie and have their meetings in front of the cameras, which just might happen.
During the last (recorded) meeting they talked about how the meetings will now be held on Wednesdays on the 3rd week of the month (I believe starting in 2019). So will they record the meetings in front of cameras? Who knows, since no one at this point has discussed this except in a Friday meeting that no one knew about, and the audio hasn’t popped up yet.
And why the mysterious change of the meeting date last week?
I guess I have never really understood the high level of secrecy and elitism surrounding the Parks Board. But I’m sure for those who serve on the board they don’t understand why transparency and openness is important.
I often tell people it’s the ‘Little Things’ in the meetings that stick out. This week’s meetings are NO exception. The regular council meeting is chocked full of interesting tid-bits.
Presentations on November Financials, the 85th & I-29 Exchange (That should be interesting). We also get an update on the licensing agreement with Verizon on 5G cells. Read that piece of work, looks as though executives from Verizon wrote this gem;Â Verizon-agreement
The city is spending $247K on after school programs;
While I think this programming is needed, should it not be the responsibility of the SF School District? I know the CC has argued about this in the past. While I don’t have a problem with my tax dollars funding this, the money should come from my school funding taxes. Not only that, the SFSD is set up to get grant funding for these programs. Instead of paying administrators 6 figures and having private restaurants do fundraisers for FREE and reduced lunches, maybe the SFSD needs to scrape the money together for these programs.
We are spending $40K to ‘foster a servant leadership attitude’
I have NO clue who this is for, but like I have said already, we should be electing leaders, why on earth would be spending taxdollars on ‘leadership training’.
We are paying a the host of the city link show ‘City Scene’ $10K a year;
The consultant, ‘Pinny’ is Michele Wellman who used to work at the Pavilion. She narrates the once a month, 25 minute show for $833 per episode. Even if she did more than speak, like write the show, produce it and edit video (which I doubt) It still is a lot of coin. We have full-time media services people (I believe 3) that can handle this show themselves. Especially if they have time to do crap like this;
There is NO REASON we need to pay a NON city employee to do this show. As a city councilor pointed out to me, she makes HALF of what a city councilor makes in a year, which do a heckuva a lot more than narrate a show. I think the city council needs to request Wellman come before the council on Tuesday night and explain what she does for $833 a month.
Item #24, transfer of a liquor license to Village on the River. I find the last sentence interesting ‘Pending Final Inspections’ from health and FD. I guess that will be in two years when they open the place. So what will they do with the license until than? I guess sit on it like a golden goose egg.
Item #35, Resolution to approve the SFPD Union Contract. I find it interesting they are moving forward with this without the approval from the FOP. I wonder what kind of testimony we will get on this?
Item #37 A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS’ LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES FOR THE 2019 STATE LEGISLATIVE SESSION. (Doc: Legislative-priority)
Besides the fact they keep pushing TIFs with ZERO evidence they produce economic impact, this little gem that got put in without pre-approval from the rest of the council;
My first thought besides WTF? was, what does this have to do with the CC? Isn’t this a State, County or AG issue? As we all know (or maybe we don’t) our new brainiac Attorney General, the Cookie Monster Muppet wants to eliminate presumptive probation. It seems our very partisan Republican Council Chair, Erickson has decided to slip this in at the last minute to help out the new AG. It’s sneaky, slimy, and sloppy all at once. The council would be wise to not get into the Pierre Reindeer games and strike this from their priorities along with TIFs.
Item #38, Appointment of Citizen Board members.
First the good news, Greg Jamison is getting appointed to the BID Tax board. Bravo.
Now the bad news. Mike Begeman, an executive with Sanford, vice president for public affairs, is getting appointed to the Parks Board. While he does live in the NW part of the city instead of the SE side, it is further proof as councilor Stehly has pointed out many times that the Parks Board is an elitist organization of special interests and the wealthy and connected in our community. It’s time to bring back the district ordinance for Parks Board members.
Minerva’s, 301 S. Phillips Ave., Sioux Falls, SD (This is a dinner the city councilors have with each other, each year. Since it is a public meeting, the public can attend).
l3wis 
