2018

Railroad Redevelopment Project Secrecy plays out like the old administration

Funny how some things don’t change in community development even with Jeff and Mutt gone.

There is a big announcement on Monday about the first project in the RR Redevelopment area, and mums the word. (Rumor has it that members of the Billion family who own the adjacent 8th and RR building won the RFP. Not sure if this is true, it could be a myriad of developers, but I do know they were very interested in the property). But like the former administration, the council was left out of the negotiations. In other words, they have NO idea who was picked, or why they were picked, but need to vote to approve the selection.

Apparently we haven’t learned much about the RFP process and how secrecy hurts that process.

I also find the timing of this announcement interesting after hearing TenHaken’s COS, Beck, talk in the news about better ‘educating’ the public about the value of TIFs. Sorry, Erica, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. It has been proven time and time again, all a TIF really is, is a tax rebate for the developer building the project, and by the time the TIF matures, that developer has sold the property and moved on, while getting a massive discount.

Sioux Falls School Board Member Cynthia Mickelson says some interesting things about open enrollment and the school bond issue

The first thing I found interesting was she was out promoting the bond issue before the school board has even voted on the special election (They vote on it July 23). She talks about the problem of re-districting and how it will be done AFTER the schools are built, which is putting the cart in front of the horse. It should be done before the bond vote. She shows how some of the schools are under utilized. She continues to mention that re-districting is hard and will come with some challenges. She talks about how they may use the school for the deaf area for a new Whittier (but says that is off the record). She also talks about losing housing in the ‘Poorer’ neighborhood if they build Whittier in current location. One person in the crowd asks an interesting question, “Where will the money come from to staff the new buildings?” Cynthia really didn’t have an answer except that “They hope not to have another opt-out.” She than goes on to say, “They will have to figure it out.” So basically they are asking for around $300 million to build new schools without a plan to staff them. Speaking of the $300 million number, Cynthia never mentions the principal + interest with the bond. It seems to be the dirty little secret about this bond issue, NO one will talk about the total cost of these bonds. Should this be considered lying by public officials? NO. But it certainly is very dishonest to not give the voters these numbers.

Sioux Falls Police ‘Report to Work’ stations will be called P.R.E.C.I.N.C.T.S but they are NOT Precincts

The city of Sioux Falls has come up with a clever name for these stations, P.R.E.C.I.N.C.T.S, short for Police REquired Check IN Community Time Stamps. But the Police Chief and Mayor want us to know they are NOT precincts;

Mayor Paul TenHaken is quick to emphasize that these report-to-work stations are not police precincts, which he opposed in the mayoral race earlier this year.  Instead, officers would report to an office at a busy area of the city and receive their daily briefing before heading off on their beat.

Remember, the city doesn’t want you to confuse P.R.E.C.I.N.C.T.S with Precincts. They are different.

City of Sioux Falls ODDS & ENDS

Not the ‘Official’ Flag of Sioux Falls, but pretty close

PROJECT TRIM TO BE SUSPENDED FOR ONE YEAR

Because of the Emerald Ash bore the city of Sioux Falls will suspend Project TRIM for a year. I think this would be a perfect opportunity for the city council to re-vamp the program and make it into a partnership between homeowners and the city. In other words if you want to trim your boulevard tree, the city will give you that opportunity, otherwise they will take care of it, at no charge and no fine.

STATE VETERAN’S CEMETERY ON HOLD

For some odd reason at the city council meeting Tuesday night the Veterans cemetery land gift was withdrawn by councilor Kiley instead of just deferred. He mumbled something about not getting the right people together to finalize paperwork. I find this incredibly suspicious. The local vets have been fighting for this for over a decade and now all of sudden they can’t get together for a simple meeting to finalize things? I have a feeling the Feds or the State are dragging their feet and Kiley didn’t want to say anything since the donations have started to come in already. Funny how we have so many resources for dead soldiers just not much for the survivors.

WE NEED AN INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF FALLS PARK SAFETY

Before blowing our wad on $300K on viewing decks at Falls Park councilors Starr and Stehly have suggested that an actual safety study is done by a 3rd party after Starr took several photos of adults and kids dinking around on the rocks.

SOME CITY DIRECTORS AND COUNCILORS THINK PUBLIC AMBULANCES ARE FUNNY

While I was promoting Public Ambulances at the Informational meeting I was told that the City Health Director Bride of Franken was laughing it up with the manager of Paramedics Plus. Apparently they found something hilarious about public ambulances, something that works fantastic across the country in thousands of US cities. I also caught councilor Kiley (who is turning into Rolfing Jr.) laughing at me when I pointed out the super secret operations committee. Surprised that so many people in city government hate public input, seems to me it’s like a comedy show to them.

IT’S NOT A PRECINCT (EVEN THOUGH IT REALLY IS)

Recently on KSFY, Mayor TenHaken, his Deputy COS and the Police Chief have been talking about ‘Report to Work’ stations. But Burns and TenHaken have been adamant that they are NOT precincts. LOL. But they will work JUST LIKE precincts. But we can’t call them that because we need to save face after the fiasco before the mayoral runoff election.

Whatever you want to call them, tie them into the fire stations with a public ambulance and you take care of many birds with one stone.

NEW SCHOOL IN WHITTIER NEIGHBORHOOD MEANS BYE-BYE TO 43 AFFORDABLE HOUSES

Let’s talk about progress. In order to upgrade the Whittier Elementary they have to tear down 43 houses. Why not just move the school and put it on an already empty lot and sell the current location. As we saw with the old Longfellow, these old schools can be repurposed, quite economically (funny how the school district hasn’t figured that out).