I had to blush a little this St. Paddy’s Day when a long time friend and executive in the media in Sioux Falls told me that my blog is driving the conversation in local politics.
I’ve known this for awhile, and while I have a big opinionated mouth, I try to stay modest about my popularity. Mainly because the praise also comes with the retribution. And I have seen my fair share of both. I have lost many job opportunities, friends and business opportunities because of my opinion. But I also believe my advocacy has always been more important than keeping up with the Joneses or my prosperity.
The top issues in the latest municipal election are things I have been talking about for over a decade;
• Transparency in Government
• Affordable housing and living
• Crime and drugs
• Rebuilding our core
Let’s start with the first one. Many may not remember, but one of the reasons Jodi Schwan was hired to work for former Mayor Dave Munson was because the city council felt that his administration was not communicating well with the council. In fact the transparency was so bad that Dave broke city ordinance by approving a 100% cost overrun on Phillips to Falls without council approval. Mayor Huether did not invent government secrecy in Sioux Falls, he only perfected it. That is why Bruce and I pushed so hard on the faulty siding on the Events Center and the eventual lawsuit of the secret settlement.
I have been a champion of our core for years and have thought that our city needs to do a lot more in lifting up affordable housing in our core. I recently attended a city course on planning, in which my theories were confirmed, that the big wheels and money in this town like Sanford are destroying affordable neighborhoods and driving development in this town by the people with the most money, they basically admitted it during the Q & A session. I did not attend the second course.
I even told a current candidate for the Central District who is a strong advocate for the core, “I moved here in 1991 and lived close to Minnesota Avenue. You know what it looked like then? The same as it looks now.” Administrations over the past 3 decades have ignored our core. Now all of a sudden it is an issue. Please.
I have also felt that a public ambulance and even a public garbage service would serve our community well. Until the latest conversation about the problems with our private ambulance service and the SFFD taking on ALS training no one has been willing to take it on.
Crime! Wow! We all know now that because of the poorly negotiated pension reform we have literally lost hundreds of years of experience on our police force that we are desperately trying to make up for now. Let’s face it, they are understaffed, underpaid and lack the experience, all because of cost saving measures by our current corporate snake mayor. What works in the private sector can have monster repercussions in the public sector. We are seeing this with our SFPD and the way they have not only been treated by Huether but by Munson.
While I appreciate our local media bringing up these issues and topics, I have been pounding on them for well over a decade. Long before Mr. Huether’s marketing practices at a sub prime credit card company forced a change in Federal Law. And long before a bunch of ‘Johhny Come Lately’s’ entered the race.
If you want to read about what is going on in the community and what needs to change, you can come here and read about it. I encourage everyone to dive into my archives that span over 11 years of city politics and then make an informed decision on April 10th. I’m not bragging, I’m just asking you to educate yourselves.
Ignorance of the topics only gives us the poor leadership we have experienced for way to long. It is time we truly move this city forward by putting the citizens first by giving them a government they can trust that is open and dedicated to transparency and integrity. Anything else is losing campaign.
l3wis 
