Apparently some directors who thought lying was par for course in the previous administration are going to find out the hard way that doesn’t fly with the new guy.
I don’t have all the details yet of who they are, but we may have to do ‘process of elimination’ at the next council meeting.
The big drama last night at the city council meeting (Item#46) was a debate on whether or not the city could determine a patch of land behind the Huey building surplus property.
Since the mayor was not present he could not break the tie, so if it is a tie without him present it fails. I agreed with 4 of them that it is surplus and they should sell it. They can determine later IMO how it can be used. The plot of land is 33 x 110 Feet directly behind the Huey, the alley would still be available.
But there was some interesting things that happened. First off, no one mentioned ‘air rights’. The Huey developers could just build 12 feet above the property if the city didn’t want to sell to them.
Another unusual twist in the night was private lawyers on both sides of the debate. After they left and went outside to debate some more, cameraman Bruce reminded them it was because of us public input supporters they are now able to come to 1st readings and testify.
Some councilors were also visibly annoyed that our own planning director and assistant city attorney was trying to convince the council to vote for it as surplus. No surprise to me, I say it all the time, developers run the city and often get city directors to do their bidding. Makes you wonder just how many hours city employees spent over the past year helping to develop the Black Iron private development?
The rumor circulating is this item may come back once the mayor can come and break a tie. I still think it is surplus, but what do I know, I’m not a lawyer.
Remember when I was talking about the $200K parks study in the consent agenda? Well guess what? It was NOT in the 2018 budget. See, technically anything in the consent agenda it must be in the budget the year before. Somehow the Parks department decided to ‘scrounge’ money from other projects to come up with the $200K. That is not how it is supposed to work.
Last night at the council meeting, councilor Pat Starr thankfully pulled the item out of the consent agenda and had it deferred so the Parks Director could explain 1) where he got the money 2) why it wasn’t budgeted for in the proper process 3) why do they need this study.
Bravo Starr!
We will be hearing about the study in an upcoming informational . . . this outta be good.
Public Input is a night of real-time rolling commentary on the style and substance of your City Council meetings at Club David, a mere stone’s throw from the meeting’s locale, Carnegie Town Hall; (please, do not throw stones).
Join host Patrick Lalley (KSOO, the Patrick Lalley Show), for a City Council meeting viewing party featuring drink specials, Council meeting Bingo, substance and comedy on the live streamed big screen.
Tuesday, August 7th, Patrick is joined by blogger Scott Ehrisman and Disgruntled Former City Commissioner Matt Staab.
Inappropriate language, angry outbursts, and blue material permitted, encouraged, and possibly rewarded.
We MAY livestream a livestream of us livestreaming, check HERE between 6:30-7 PM
Before all the math wizards start freaking out, I want you to know the numbers below are approximates, but close. One of the numbers I had trouble finding was the SF School District current debt. From looking at past data I believe it is hovering at that $100 million mark, but I am unsure, it could be higher. I based the number on their yearly debt service of $13 million which would put them a little above that $100 million mark. I’m also spit balling the city debt a bit, because I am basing that on 2017 numbers minus some major payoffs.
The Sioux Falls Adult population numbers are very, very close.
Where it gets a little sticky is I am using the entire county of Minnehaha’s debt while only including SF adults. I also leave Lincoln county out (I would be surprised if they had any debt) and the fact that NOT all SF adult residents live in the Sioux Falls school district.
Yes friends, living in Sioux Falls is a ‘Hot Mess’ of taxes. In fact your neighbor just across the street could be paying a different property tax rate than you, it’s that weird.
But, I also think the enormity of the numbers helps people better grasp that if you live in Minnehaha County, within the city limits of Sioux Falls and the SF School District, your per capita (govt) debt could easily reach $10K in the next 4-5 years.
This is why I often shake my head when the school district talks about $2 a month tax increase, or the Water Department talks about $.30 a month water and sewer increases, they never mention the current and future debt we will be taking on. It’s a boatload.
Realistically, how many adult working SF residents could cut a check for $10K tomorrow without borrowing it or hurting their personal finances? My guess it is probably less than 1%. We don’t live our lives this way, why should our government?
The irony is that our debt is half of what T. Denny is worth. Hint. Hint.
We could finally put the Sanford Falls sign up.
l3wis