City Council Informational Meeting
The biggest agenda item is discussing if or how they will spend the $3.3 million surplus from 2017. Since the administration already got their way on writing up a resolution that will have to be amended, I have a feeling a majority of the council will choose to use the money on paying off debt. This isn’t a bad thing, and it will save taxpayers a couple of million in interest. It’s just the process was manipulated by the mayor, once again.
They will also be discussing the redevelopment of the 7th and Weber old firehouse and some program by the SFFD that I have no clue about since there are no supporting documents posted in SIRE.
There will also be a visual presentation of SculptureWalk 2018. Another mix of contemporary, modern, abstract and boring feel good sculptures of kids, dogs, cats and cows. As I told one local SW artist recently about his contributions, “You make art to sell beer and pizza downtown.” He didn’t like my critique to much.
Item#1, Contract Approvals, hopefully we will find out the reason why Paramedics Plus was sold to a different investment company. I think a councilor will be pulling that item.
Item#5, the first recipients of the SIOUXPERHERO award will be announced. I see the co-founder of the Roller Dollz made the list. Woot! Woot!
Item#31, 2nd Reading on contract review timeline to 7 days. Like I have said before, while this ordinance doesn’t hurt anything, it certainly doesn’t solve the problem of the city council approving POLICY changes in RFPs, before the RFP goes out for bid.
Item#38, 1st Reading, Council notification of litigation. Not sure what this is about. It may be a continuation of Item#31?
Item#45, Resolution on spending the $3.3 million surplus.
Theresa obviously knows the deadline is Friday, so she will need at least a couple of days to get signatures to turn in by Friday at 5 PM. So if she does decide to run, we will know by Wednesday for sure.
I know she has been mulling this over for a couple of months and we have had several ‘difficult’ discussions about the possibility.
She told me today, “I have had several citizens approach me asking me to run.”
Obviously if Stehly runs she is probably a shoe-in for the run-off. She would also probably be knocking out the chances of other candidates like Anderson and Loetscher.
I guess we will see what she decides.
What do you think? Can Stehly break the 50+1 threshold in a run-off?
While Sioux Falls Finance Director is correct that over the past 3 years the financial report has not come out sooner than the beginning of April, it hasn’t always been a strict timeline. In fact if you look at the last three reports it has been all over the map.
In 2015 it was created on May 29. In 2016 it was created on June 27 and the 2017 report was created on April 6 (the earliest).
In other words the administration could have easily released the numbers by now. We already know they are available from the State Department of Revenue, and since there has NEVER been a strict timeline, and with an election year, why not release those numbers by the end of February? The state has figured out how to put those numbers together (before the legislative session) probably with a smaller staff than the city.
This is just a game the mayor is playing that doesn’t have to be played.
Watch him closely, he will be playing games with city finance and budgeting all the way to the end.
I have had an idea for awhile that a percentage of the Entertainment tax (3rd penny) should be put towards local arts projects and local artists. Community theatre would be a perfect recipient of these monies;
After 15 seasons, the Sioux Empire Community Theatre is making a plea for donations to stay afloat.
“The reality is, community theatre can no longer survive on ticket sales alone,†board president Kimberly Jacobson and producing artistic director Patrick Pope wrote in a post on Facebook.
Rumor has it that SECT even asked the city to write-off rental debt last year. Not sure if that is true, but if it is that’s not good.
Right now the 3rd penny has been used for building upgrades to the Pavilion after the bonds were paid off. SMG has asked to get some that money also to use towards the Orpheum and Canaries Stadium. I have often argued that since the 3rd penny brings in around $6.5 million a year, they could easily split off $1 million of it to go towards local arts organizations and projects. Besides, it is a local tax we pay, shouldn’t it go towards local projects?
The Pavilion has been in turmoil for a long time, and the multiple terminations at the end of 2017 shows there is a major restructuring going on at the institution. The Sioux Falls Arts Council is also seeing some major changes. This would be a perfect time for the new mayor and city council to take a hard look at how this money is being spent. It’s obvious the money is there, it just needs to be spread out better. The board members of the Pavilion need to be reigned in and shown there are other artistic opportunities in this city that contribute to a more diverse economic impact. Diversifying this funding would help the community as a whole.
You have to realize not everyone is into going to a concert at the Denty or a musical at the Pavilion. People want local artistic options also, let’s give it to them by spending the LOCAL tax on LOCAL arts.
l3wis