South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

2018

Elections SF City Council Sioux Falls

Highlights from Sioux Falls City Council Candidate Forum

l3wis 0Comments

I attended the Forum today at NOON hosted by the Multi-Housing Association. Hope to have video up by tomorrow.

While I think most of the candidates did very well with the short time they had, I think Janet Brekke crushed it. She had quick, simple, intelligent answers to BIG problems. My biggest disappointments were with Kiley and Paulson who really didn’t address anything but boiler plate topics.

Here are some highlights;

Janet Brekke, At-Large A

Not a property owner but did formerly own a restaurant in Sioux Falls.

ISSUES: Council needs to set policy WITH public and mayor, NOT just the mayor. Too many regulations on the books that need to be repealed. Wants to study them. Council needs to set up Long Range Policy Strategies, community policing programs, embrace diversity, and cleaner neighborhoods.

Rick Kiley, SE District, no challengers

Does not own investment property.

ISSUES: Public Safety, Affordable Housing, Streets.

Clara Hart, At-Large A

Owns one Duplex rental unit.

ISSUES: Need to address the low wage culture in Sioux Falls to help with affordable housing. Better public trust in law enforcement, affordable housing for the working poor, better public transit system that serves ALL.

John Paulson, At-Large A

Does not own investment property.

ISSUES: Better leadership.

Christine Erickson, At-Large B

Owns several short-term rental properties, Air B-N-B

ISSUES: Should have a fiscal impact statement with new proposed regs/permits. Focus on public safety and drug prevention programs.

Thor Bardon, Central District

Owns home, rents to roommates.

ISSUES: Councilors should cite reasons they vote for or against an ordinance. (Tax) incentive program for maintaining investment properties or homes. Better ethics and city planning.

Tom Hurlbert, Central District

Owns several investment properties.

ISSUES: 1st and 2nd readings of ordinances are too late for the public to have input, should be done in advance. Should be a test or trial period on new permitting. We should elect an Architect (like himself) to council who understands building and zoning issues. Better council communication with public.

Peter Pischke, At-Large B

Does not own investment property.

ISSUES: Public input is messy, but worth it. CityLink is useless, needs to be re-formatted. Wants a more ethical city government. Thanked Stehly for working towards better ethics.

Zach DeBoer, Central District

Owns Gallery, rents studio space

ISSUES: Incremental Development, focus on smaller developers, proposed smaller mini-TIFs. Better city planning and infrastructure.

Curt Soehl, Central District

Used to own a rental, got rid of it because renters are a pain.

ISSUES: More public input during planning process. City Board meetings should be more open (ironically why we have been pushing to have them recorded, give CityLink a purpose). Focus on public safety and jobs.

Nick Weiland, At-Large B

Owns Parker’s restaurant with Family.

ISSUES: Need to embrace technology more to help public in all facets of city government, upgrade CityLink. Better wages and better jobs.

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Is Sioux Falls City Hall, Finance and Attorney offices trying to pull a fast one on the council and public?

l3wis 0Comments

There was supposed to be a city council discussion next Tuesday about how to spend or not to spend $3.3 Million in surplus, but it seems the city attorney’s office with help of council leadership and fianance is looking to put it towards the bond refinance instead;

From: Bengford, Paul (City Attorney)

Mayor Huether and City Council,

On February 13, 2018, the City Council adopted Ordinance Number 12-18 that authorizes the issuance of Sales Tax Revenue Refunding Bonds.  The ordinance allows, but does not require, the use of unobligated available cash in the Sales Tax Fund to reduce the amount of new bonds issued.  I told you at the City Council Meeting on Tuesday, February 13, 2018, that the City Attorney’s Office would internally discuss how to get the issue of how much, if any, of the unobligated available cash to be utilized to reduce the amount of the bonds issued to be presented at the February 20, 2018 City Council Meeting.  The attached Resolution has been sponsored by Councilors Erickson and Kiley for purposes of discussion.  The resolution indicates that $3.3 million in unobligated cash funds would be utilized to reduce the amount of new bonds issued.  The maximum amount was placed in the Resolution to allow the City Council and public to know the maximum amount that could be potentially utilized to reduce the debt.  The City Council is free to utilize the resolution or amend the amount downward.  The City Council decision can be anywhere from $0 to $3.3 Million depending on what the City Council believes to be in the best interests of the City.

Thank you for your consideration of this issue.

While they can amend the resolution at the regular council meeting, it seems they are jumping the gun by proposing the resolution to begin with. They should have had an open discussion FIRST about how to spend it, than write a resolution on the expenditure instead of farting around with a sloppy piece of legislation that they would have to amend.

Like the run-off resolution for council races, the council seems to like to negotiate on the fly instead of having a public discussion.

Once again, secret, secret, secret, RAMROD. Three months left of this CRAP.

Greg Neitzert SF City Council Sioux Falls Taxes

Lyft drivers should have just kept mouths shut about cash tips

l3wis 4Comments

Sometimes I just shake my head when people shoot themselves in the foot. Of course, not sure who did the shooting? May have been councilor Neitzert who is also a Lyft driver (according to Belfrage). Greg was proposing an ordinance change but probably can’t now since it would be a conflict.

Apparently city ordinance says Lyft or Uber drivers can’t receive cash tips (they do anyway). But now if ordinance changes they will have to claim on taxes. Now, since it is policy NOT to receive tips, though they probably do, they don’t have to claim those tips.

If I was a Lyft driver I would not have said anything about it. Oh well. More government regulation, less money for the worker bee.

Elections John Paulson SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls Council Candidate John Paulson’s resume isn’t that stellar

l3wis 1Comments

As I pointed out when he ran for city council last time;

So is Paulson NOT being transparent about his resume? Not at all, he did retire as VP of Administration, that much is true. But doesn’t it seem odd that a guy who started his career 30 years ago with SV/Sanford as a VP had to take another 26 years to get promoted to a similar position within the organization? Talk about coming full circle.

But this letter writer/supporter thinks that John may bring some civility back to the city council;

In response to the current political environment, I am supporting John Paulson for the at-large city council position in the 2018 Sioux Falls Municipal election. Paulson has an impressive resume as an administrator, planner and community volunteer. However, the characteristics I appreciate most about him are the ones that do not show up on a resume. His transparency, decency and respect for others make him a strong leader and are the characteristics that are much needed in today’s political climate.

As I have been stating over the past 7 years, there is ONLY one person responsible for the current ‘turmoil’ in city government, it’s the person sitting on all the secrets, Huether himself. No city councilor can ‘fix’ this problem. Hopefully after May 15, it will fix itself, and hopefully John won’t be sitting on the dais to take credit for it.

1st Amendment SF City Council Sioux Falls

Is Huether making one last attempt at killing public input?

l3wis 14Comments

There is no doubt that Huether and some of the councilors have been salivating for several years to kill public input by pushing it to the back of the meetings. This all became more clear when last week a frequent commenter called the mayor a stupid SOB.

There have been rumors circulating they are going to try to make this move using the excuse of ‘safety and security’ you know like the stupid fence they built between the audience and the dais, ironically a fence that was built for a man that is now dead.

Ironically, while sometimes the discussion gets heated and embarrassing for the council and mayor, it has never been threatening, and if it ever does, that is why the mayor has a gavel and Carnegie is staffed with security personnel.

The super secret operations committee of the Sioux Falls city council, that makes these decisions in secret probably have been in discussions on how to bring this forward. Like the stupid run-off election for city council candidates, I’m sure Rolfing and Erpenbach have been scheming to put this in place before they leave office.

We will stay vigilant at DaCola and fight any changes to public input tooth and nail. This is one boondoggle they will NOT succeed at. I will make sure of it.

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