It seems the Brown family finally sold their property in the NE part of Sioux Falls and they are having a big rummage sale. I don’t know the details of the land sale, but am happy that this chapter is behind them. Hopefully it can be developed to the benefit of all the neighbors.
City Council Informational, 4 PM
Presentations on August Monthly Financial Report & Village on the River Update.
City Council Land Use Committee, 4:30 PM (after informational meeting)
Citizens Planning Academy. I attended this last year, but only went to first meeting where Planning staff pretty much admitted that Sanford can destroy affordable housing in the central neighborhoods because they have a lot of money and power. I learned all I needed to know about how planning works in Sioux Falls.
COS Erica Beck will give a presentation on street vacations.
Regular City Council Meeting, 7 PM
Item#1, Approval of Contracts.
Another $157K thrown at the Pavilion
Another $304K to upgrade the HVAC at the brand spanking new Events Center
$0 to move the Pavilion Café from City Hall to City Center. I’m sure they are really happy this at City Hall.
Item#27, Property tax increase.
Item#38, Resolution, Adopting the Budget
Item#41, Appointing Jason Reisdorfer. This will likely pass with only one dissenting vote of Stehly. I still take issue with Jason for many reasons. It will be interesting to hear the testimony as to why he deserves this appointment.
I have often told people, in Sioux Falls the best way to climb the corporate ladder is to kiss a lot of ass and meet a lot of people. It is WHO you know, not WHAT you know.
Just look at the appointment of Darrin Smith in the previous administration. He was appointed to run the parking department than community development without any planning experience, and now he runs an arts center. At least he had a college degree.
Notice that after Mayor TenHaken terminated the Central Services Director he said he was changing the name and purpose of the position. Could he also be changing the job description and requirements? Most city (if not all) directors and management have to have a college degree or a degree in their chosen profession. In fact, the HR director has said in public meetings that is how pay scales are determined. Many government jobs work this way. Agree or disagree, it is just the way it has been done.
So how is it that a ‘NEW’ position is being created, at the top of the pay scale ($147K Salary) for a person without a degree?
How do you think the other city directors feel about this?
While I don’t have a problem with people succeeding in the private sector without a college degree, in the public sector, a director should at least have a degree. Public Works director, Mark Cotter has an engineering degree, for example. The person running Falls Community Health has a medical degree. The recently appointed city attorney has a law degree and is a judge advocate for our armed services.
You get the picture.
Wouldn’t you want the person running our IT services for the city to have a computer science degree (even an associates)? Or something similar.
Maybe Jason has a degree, but all I have seen so far is that he attended Augie for 3 years and studied mathematics.
When it comes to the person that is securing the data for the city, the school of hard knocks just doesn’t cut it.
Mayor TenHaken tried to downplay Jason’s IT experience in a KELO interview;
“It’s less important to me that someone knows the difference between Server A and Server B but understands their impact.”
If you are managing a department, shouldn’t you have some knowledge what your underlings are doing? That’s a scary thought in itself.
I also take issue with the title. It sounds like something a corporation or marketing agency would create to generate more profit. When are we going to realize the city is not in the business of profits and losses. It is in the business of fiscal restraint and a high level of customer service to the tax payers.
We have had enough ‘salespeople’ in city hall. I want to be ‘served’ not ‘sold’ something.
I’m guessing the city’s wellness coordinator may have an issue with this.
Remember what TenHaken said in 2012 about employees sharing political views on social media;
Ten Haken said he is no stranger to a good political debate on his Facebook and Twitter, but airing out your political feelings online can be a social media ‘don’t’ because it can come back to haunt you. Rants and fights online can not only wreck personal relationships, but even put your job in jeopardy.
“It’s just safe to kind of walk the middle of the road and if you’re going to post about politics. There’s nothing wrong with engaging in politics, but just not in such a polarizing way,†Ten Haken said.
Paul went on to comment in the thread;
Paul Ten Haken on 09.24.12 at 6:50 am
The takeaway from the story is that employers (self included) don’t necessarily appreciate overly controversial bantor and talk that can create a rift in a company’s culture. Politics, religion, sports, etc. are certainly not taboo, but extreme left and right views can make an employer question the “fit†someone will be in a work environment that the employer has painstakingly built.
And who can forget his Deputy COS’s comments just months (7/11/17) before being hired to work for the administration;
It seems Paul needs to step back and take his own advice before hiring certain individuals to work for the city.
Nothing controversial about that, schools have been traditionally used as precincts in multiple elections, not only in the Sioux Falls and Minnehaha county but across the nation.
The school bond election will use several schools and community centers attached to schools as precincts in Tuesday’s election.
So why point this out?
Because for the last couple of years the SFSD has refused to allow the County Auditor to use schools as precincts due to ‘safety’ concerns of the children.
So I guess ‘safety’ isn’t an issue when voters are approving a $300 million dollar tax increase. Just more irony and hypocrisy from the SFSD surrounding this election.
l3wis