2018
Lalley Show; Guest Brooke Blaalid talks about public input and local government
Brooke Blaalid, Co-Director of Ready to Run who Prepares SD Women to Run for Political Office was the guest on Patrick Lalley’s show today. (FF: 35:00)
She talks about her resume and background, and one of the fascinating stories she brings up is serving on the Yankton City Commission. She makes some great statements about local government;
“Sitting at the city level is the most important part of government, I believe, we see change happening first and quickly, at the city level. There’s not a lot of citizen participation, unfortunately.â€
Then she talks about the value of public input.
“Sitting on the City Commission, I thought there would be more social interaction from the community. I think I got maybe one or two emails while serving . . . that’s where all the great ideas come from, public input . . . I think when you have policy developed by people who are not at your educational level or social economic status, they have no idea how to create that, I think that’s where public opinion is so important, because you get good policy than.â€
She also touches on being an Independent and how that makes you more approachable as a (female) candidate instead of being an extremist from the Republican or Democratic party.
DaCola @ Pheasant Fest
SouthDaCola went to look at Dogs and Guns and Pictures of pheasants and Food made of ingredients we never heard of and saw lots of people talking about stuff we never thought possible. Where were we? At Pheasant Fest in the Sioux Falls Denty on February 18, 2018. It sure was fun getting the bling to make the trip seem worth it.
We do compliment the Sioux Falls Area Chamber and all the organizers for bringing all these fine out of towners here. Jason Ball of the Chamber was great fun to talk with. We hope we get more of these organized events to out town.
We kept an eye out for da Mayor of all he knows but he beat it out of there when we showed up (or something like that). We kept an eye out for falling panels and oozing mold but the place stayed together for us.
Another falling wall after city building services department was warned
Here we go again, except this time, fortunately no one died.
The city building department was warned several times about a possible wall collapse, and ignored it;
In a string of emails between her and Warrington, Roti expressed her concerns, repeatedly asking whether a structural engineer had looked at the wall.
Warrington assured Roti and several others included on the email — multiple times over two months — that the situation was being handled appropriately.
One thing I have heard from a lot of contractors and citizens during this latest campaign season is that the city employees need to get better at customer service. Whether that is police, fire, code enforcement or building services.
The next mayor needs to support a renewed agenda of bringing customer service back to city hall, before more people die or get hurt.
Poetry Reading this Saturday @ Monk’s
I went to the last one, and it was fantastic!