The Sioux Falls Democratic Forum invited Elizabeth Skarin to talk about Voter Rights, Political Rights and what to consider when electing officials including the Attorney General of South Dakota. This Friday noon presentation was at the Royal Fork temporary location on July 20, 2018.
As we see, the Vote Yes campaign is co-chaired by Vernon Brown (Who was the co-chair of the Envision Task Force with Nan Baker) and has Stephanie Gongopoulos as the Treasurer. While it seems Nan is not involved (probably because of the bonds) it seems that conflict hasn’t changed much. It is NO secret that the bonds MAY go through First National Bank which is owned by the Baker family. Well guess what? Stephanie is Nan’s sister-in-law with the maiden name BAKER. As I have said before, if the bonds DO NOT go through First National there will not be a conflict issue, but if they do, it seems now they have TWO conflicts. There is also the question if the School District does any business with Vernon’s employer SDN? It looks like they do. This is something that should also be disclosed.
While I support new schools and bonding for them, we have a ton of unknowns; What is the final payoff of the bonds? $300 million? How will we pay for staffing? How much will our taxes compound over the 30 year payoff period? How will we vote (precincts)? Who will tabulate election? Who will handle absentees? Where will the precincts be? What are the locations of the new schools? Why are we not redistricting first? It seems to me they are looking to get a pile of money and figure it out later. A better approach would be to do this with the general election in November. This would give us time to redistrict and pick locations. This would also give us a more realistic number (I think we should scale it back to $100 million and ask for more money if we need it later). If you can’t trust the process, you can’t approve these bonds.
It’s hardly worth re-publishing, but according to the Argus, some councilors were unaware that Legacy was so closely tied to Hultgren construction.
Give me a F’ing Break!
It was blatantly obvious that they were two in the same when we saw the haggling over the LLC’s and the asbestos removal. Ignorance is NO excuse. Several in the public knew about the relationship between Legacy and Hultgren, and I find it extremely hard to believe that people on the council, people in the planning department and the mayor didn’t know the relationship was extremely cozy.
IMO, the lying is breach of contract and I would stop construction immediately. I would have it rebid to build a stand alone parking ramp (that we can actually use and has more spaces) and if someone with their OWN money wants to develop next to it and lease space (parking and land) so be it, but moving forward NOW after this has come to light is almost criminal towards the taxpayers. Doing nothing is unacceptable!
Hey, this isn’t such a bad thing;
Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken was selected by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative to participate in a yearlong program focused on leadership, City management, and innovation.
As a participant in the Initiative’s 2018 program, Mayor TenHaken is part of a class of 40 dedicated mayors attending the program delivered by faculty from Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School, as well as world-class experts from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ global network.
The program launches with three days of classes and seminars in New York City. Each day of the gathering, mayors will attend classroom sessions focused on the latest management and leadership practices, using case studies and workshops developed at Harvard.
“Harvard University and Bloomberg Philanthropies’ investment in Sioux Falls and our leadership team is quite the honor,†said Mayor TenHaken. “I look forward to networking with mayors from across the world, exchanging ideas, and working on solutions to the challenges our city faces.â€
Collectively, Harvard University and Bloomberg Philanthropies aim to help mayors and their leadership teams manage the complexities of running a city, and to have opportunities to learn from one another. The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative will connect Mayor TenHaken with some of the university’s top educators, coaching from experts, a network of peers, and technical assistance. The program provides an opportunity to share best practices and learn from fellow mayors about the promising ideas that are already helping to enhance the quality of life in cities around the world.
Classes for both mayors and senior leaders continue throughout the year via a state-of-the-art virtual classroom. The Mayor’s participation in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative —including tuition, accommodation, meals and airfare—is fully funded by the program.
The only thing that would concern me is that it is sponsored by Bloomberg’s elite and the fact he didn’t bother telling anyone ahead of time (I guess he is there right now).
Listen HERE.
Bruce continues his media tour on KELO AM;
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) — Democratic activist Bruce Danielson and Republican activist Paul Erickson–who is now tangled in a drama with accused Russian spy Maria Butina–shared a love of politics and the Farber Center at the University of South Dakota.
Danielson, who is frequently involved in civic issues in Sioux Falls, says he’s known Erickson, a Sioux Falls businessman, since the late 1970s through events with the late political science icon, Dr. W.O. Farber.
Even back in the late ’70s and early ’80s, Danielson says Erickson was a schmoozer.
“Paul was one of those people who always tried to stay connected with people of all different sorts and types,” Danielson said. “He was always trying to get hooked into you somehow so he could always come back and talk to you again. He always wanted to be a mover and a shaker.”
Danielson never talked about Russia with Erickson or about Erickson’s former girlfriend, the federally indicted Butina.
“He’s always been a very interesting character,” Danielson said. “I just found that as time went on, it was better to just keep things on a real level field. I’ve always kind of steered clear of political activists like him.”
But the two did share an appreciation for both politics and Farber.
“We met down at Dr. Farber’s house in Vermillion,” Danielson said. “Dr. Farber was the political science guru based out of USD.”
Danielson said he knew Erickson had worked to try to defeat South Dakota Democratic U.S. Senators Tim Johnson in 2002 and Tom Daschle in 2004.
Thus, he said he avoided talking politics with Erickson because “no matter where I was at, he was going to have an opposite direction.”
Erickson formed an LLC with Butina in June. National media outlets suspect Erickson as “U.S. Person 1” in the indictment against Butina. The federal indictment claims that Butina utilized her personal relationship with Erickson to use his connections to infiltrate Republican and conservative groups.
l3wis