Maybe it’s dumb luck, but the next scheduled podcast is for Monday April 9th, the eve of the municipal election. My featured guest will be Joe Metro, municipal reporter Joe Sneve from the Argus Leader. We will hash out the election and probably dive into a bunch of other stuff. Thank goodness this is a podcast, I wouldn’t want Joe to stare into the camera 🙂
I have heard Superintendent Maher say several times that he would like the community to vote on a new school bond opt-out, but it seems the school board has a different perspective, at least two of them do.
When asked in a candidate forum tonight, the two incumbents and the 3rd candidate didn’t see it necessary to vote on it. This is troublesome. I have a feeling the bond is going to be well over $100 million, and if they won’t allow the public to vote on it, it will set a very bad precedent. We already allowed a $117 million dollar bond pass on the Denty in a non-legally binding advisory vote, essentially allowing the city council approve the bond.
What they said;
Todd Thoelke said he thinks the school board passing opt outs on their own creates opportunities. He feels the school board members are responsible enough to pass them without a vote.
Kate Parker also doesn’t think a public vote is necessary because the school district holds open houses and has public input at school board meetings.
Peter Pischke agreed with Todd Thoelke
Sorry folks, an opinion by a handful of people at an open house isn’t enough reason to raise taxes over $100 million dollars on thousands of hardworking and retired Sioux Falls residents. We must have a public vote on the new school opt-out.
FF: 2:19
Let’s say you are a city councilor and a deadly accident occurred in one of our city parks. Similar accidents have occurred over the years. Let’s also say that the public would like the issue looked into. As a representative of the citizens, wouldn’t you look into it? I would hope so. That is exactly what councilors Starr and Stehly have been trying to do. Than you find out that a safety audit never happened, it was actually a ‘training exercise’. Wouldn’t you be concerned about the information you were receiving? So Starr and Stehly asked for the information through a resolution. IMO, a last resort. When cooperation from staff was NOT helpful, they went to the media and my blog, sharing an OPINION of the city attorney. This IS NOT confidential information. It is simply an opinion of a city staffer who wages are paid for by the public, which makes it ‘public information’.
Some think that councilors Stehly and Starr do these kind of things to boost their egos. Maybe they do, I could care less. I really see their main objective is to get information to the public which should be one of their top duties as a city councilor. I really think Starr and Stehly understand that concept, that duty, and do whatever they need to, to attain that objective. They should be applauded for it. And that really is the irony of the ass chewing they received from the 6 other councilors. I think the public does appreciate Starr and Stehly, and when other councilors choose to publicly chastise her and Pat for doing their jobs, it only emboldens them and makes them even more popular with the citizens.
I recently spoke with 3 different council candidates on 3 separate occasions. Of the hundreds of doors they have knocked on collectively all 3 of them told me the #1 issue citizens bring up is transparency and secrecy in local government. Citizens are not naïve, they get it, this secrecy is corroding our local government. The secret siding settlement, the Copper Lounge Collapse and the approval of the DT Parking ramp has infuriated the public. They see the corruption and it is VERY real.
The other thing that was sad about the incident (Item#77, last agenda item Tuesday Night) was this seemed like an orchestrated effort by the 6 other councilors either thru a series of phone calls or emails to attack a fellow peer. One other thing that makes this hypocritical of them is while they cry about respect and decorum from the citizens who pay their wages who speak at public input, they throw any ounce of decorum out the window with this very public attack. I guess you could say ‘leading by example’.
I applaud Stehly for what she said in response to the attack, “I will not collaborate with corruption.†She also said she was elected to represent the citizens, not the administration or different department heads.
And the hits keep coming.
FF: 34:00
If Greg would have actually watched the meeting, he wouldn’t sound so ignorant. I actually called his producer this morning to inform her that a large chunk of the discussion that led to Sierra’s outburst was edited out of their radio clip of the meeting. Let’s talk FAKE NEWS Greg. Yellow journalism at it’s best.
What led up to the incident actually had to do with Stehly calling a ‘point of order’ on the mayor. She asked him to NOT editorialize about what the commenters were saying. She made a good point, she said since the council can’t respond, he shouldn’t be able to. She was voted down, but not after Rolfing tried to call a recess that was actually seconded by Pat Starr and ignored by the mayor and council chair Rick Kiley. Rolfing stormed out of the room for the remainder of public input.
As the mayor tried to continue his comments, I calmly, but loudly stated while sitting. “This is public input time Mike. Our time. Not yours.” Something he has trouble getting thru his very thick skull. This is when Sierra had her curse session. I really wish she wouldn’t do that. I won’t defend her. All you have to do is talk down a bully, and you don’t have to curse to do it.
As for Belfrage’s comment “Parade of Kooks” he claims (but he doesn’t know because he didn’t watch the meeting) that NONE of the commenters talked about city business.
PUHLEEZE.
Here is a rundown;
Thor Bardon (candidate for city council) talked about the great care he got from Falls Community Health.
Janet Brekke (candidate for city council)Â talked about the Executive Order on Confidentiality and the City Clerk.
One lady talked about the city helping the homeless.
Sierra talked about the difficulty of working with the Chief of Police.
I talked about the city not having a good record of building 100 year buildings.
Bruce did a presentation on the train derailment.
Tim Stanga talked about public input.
David Z (former candidate for mayor) talked about the upcoming election.
Another gentleman talked about his treatment from Falls Community Health.
Another lady talked about getting a street light fixed. As she put it, “It took 3 Norwegians and and a German but we got it done.” In which the entire council and crowd burst into laughter.
Guess what? All city business, all pertinent for public input.
As many of the callers into B-N-B’s show pointed out, it’s the mayor that is causing these episodes. And like I said, I wish Sierra wouldn’t react the way she did, but she certainly didn’t start it. The mayor was attempting to chastise us and our testimony, yet NONE of it was out of order in any way. Was some of it a hard pill to swallow? Sure. But this is what public input is about, airing our grievances. If I wanted to tell a city councilor, the mayor or a city employee they were doing a good job, I would tell them to their face or send them a card.
Even Radio ‘Lifer’ Chad McKenzie decided he would weigh in on the topic. While Belfrage is just ignorant because he doesn’t bother to watch the meetings, McKenzie should really stick to talking about donuts and coffee, or whatever his show is about. Not sure. But he really has NO CLUE what the purpose of public input is. I suppose I could break down his diatribe paragraph by paragraph, but some of it is so ridiculous It’s not even worth my time, but I will comment on this;
We’re to the point where it’s become blatantly obvious that it’s now “personal” with this group. Over time they’ve become vindictive and downright mean.
It’s NOT personal with me, I just believe in open and transparent government, a right afforded to all Americans. As for turning off the cameras during public input. Go for it. We will just bring our own, as we have been, post it to YouTube which will just give us more traffic anyway.
But it is personal for a few people. I guess if you were jailed for 6 hours on a penny bond over a stack of shingles in the yard by the mayor (a case the city lost) and then later on during a public meeting at Carnegie the mayor physically assaulted you, breaking your tooth, you might have some ‘bad feelings’ towards the man. Just saying.
PHD. Check.
Out of a High-Profile state job soon. Check.
Needs a Golden Parachute. Check.
Squash the Gear-Up scandal. Check.
Has a fill-in if he leaves early. Check.
Once peeps heard that I was talking about MMM again for USD president, the moles started to squeak. The rumor going around is that Daugaard will take over the job this summer and he will have Matt Michaels finish out his term. Which makes sense (not the USD president part) but another high profile Republican representative on a state level not finishing their term.
l3wis