February 2019

Janet Brekke Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls

Mayor TenHaken apologizes for ‘Whipping the Vote’ comment

l3wis February 21, 2019 6Comments

During Tuesday night’s city council meeting Mayor TenHaken asked councilor Brekke to ‘Whip the Vote’ (FF: 1:02). It didn’t go over well with Brekke. She made it clear to him that’s not how things work (in municipal government). The council has the right to bring legislation forward before the meeting or to ask for a reconsideration during the meeting. Brekke had already talked to her fellow councilors about the plurality ordinance in advance, when it failed she tried to amend it. This happens on the fly.

While it is a positive thing that PTH realized he was in the wrong and apologized to Brekke (I guess in a public setting) it still doesn’t change the fact that we have a very partisan City Administrator. City government doesn’t work like Washington, there are distinct differences. It is a non-partisan form of government set up to serve all involved, the taxpayers of our city. We don’t want them to vote on ‘party lines’ because there isn’t any, but seems for the last several years the councilors belong to either the Developer Class Party or the Citizen Party – a terrible divide.

This goes back to the mayor not knowing his roles and duties under charter. He is the city administrator in charge of making sure the city operates smoothly within the budget set forth. In other words, he is the employee manager. It is NOT his job to set policy. He should not even have voted on the ordinance. It should have just failed on a tie. I think if the mayor wants to get involved in policy votes he needs to explain his vote. He knew well in advance that he might have to break the tie, he also expressed to the media he would probably vote NO if the opportunity did arise. So tell us why? I don’t think he knew why, because it was just another vengeance vote with the other 4 councilors. A horrible way to set policy, I’m sorry to say.

Christine Erickson SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Chickensh*t vote of the night; Sioux Falls City Council Chair Christine Erickson

l3wis February 19, 2019 16Comments

There are two kinds of animals on the city council, Reindeers and Chickens.

With zero explanation or discussion, councilors Selberg, Kiley, Soehl, Erickson and Mayor TenHaken voted to leave the 50+1 idiotic election practice former councilors Rolfing and Erpenbach pulled from their butts. While I understand 4 of the votes (elitists who want to keep regular folk off of the council) Erickson changed her vote from two years ago WITH NO EXPLANATION TO THE PUBLIC! I also found it funny that Rolfing Jr. (Kiley) was Chatty Cathy all night about the Philosophy of Rick but said nothing about why we need to keep this silly ordinance in place. Sorry Rick, while some reindeer can fly, chickens cannot.

She receives the Chickensh*t Vote of the Night award. She can CHANGE her vote if she wants to, but when you do it without explanation you move quickly from ruling the roost to just another peckerwood in the farmyard.

Congratulations on your ignorance and obvious vengeance on fellow councilors, because really without an explanation, that is exactly what you were doing tonight. Maybe you can get a job with the Noem administration? Not sure though if she would let you yell out “Oh My God” during a public meeting in your hot microphone. Funny how you had to call out God’s name when your personal business was questioned by a fellow councilor but you had ZERO to say about switching your vote tonight.

BaWch! BaWch! BaWch! but NO Cockadoodle-Doo!

UPDATE: Here’sÂ her grand excuse;

Following the vote, Councilor Christine Erickson, who opposed raising the election threshold in 2017, told the Argus Leader she voted against reverting back to the old standard because changing election rules so frequently would be a disservice to voters and office seekers.

“It’s confusing for voters and candidates to continue to change this year to year,” she said.

Christine, I think I would have said nothing instead. There has been only ONE election since the rule changed, and in case you didn’t notice, the rule change wasn’t even used (Soehl and DeBoer would have to still have a runoff under the old rules). Most voters would not even have noticed it changed back. But nice try. Let’s call a spade a spade, it was a vengeance vote.

5G SF City Council Sioux Falls

Another snag with 5G, it’s all hype

l3wis February 19, 2019 1Comments

Just when you think the 5G debacle couldn’t get much worse, the hits keep coming;

Wireless carriers are working hard to talk up 5G (Fifth Generation) wireless as the future of broadband. But don’t be fooledâ€”they are only trying to focus our attention on 5G to try to distract us from their willful failure to invest in a proven ultrafast option for many Americans: fiber to the home, or FTTH.

A recent FCC report on competition found that the future of high-speed broadband for most Americans will be a cable monopoly. Without a plan to promote fiber to the home, that’s not likely to change. In fact, because the 5G upgrade relies on fiber infrastructure, even 5G will be possibly limited to areas that already have FTTH â€“ meaning, they already have a competitive landscape and, therefore, better service. The rest of us get monopolistic slow lanes.

And what about all that rural service Ironic Johnny talks about;

Without a comprehensive plan for fiber infrastructure, 5G will not revolutionize Internet access or speeds for rural customers. So anytime the industry is asserting that 5G will revolutionize rural broadband access, they are more than just hyping it, they are just plainly misleading people.

In other words without the cable in the ground, they cannot put up the antennas in rural areas. And the speed? Laughable;

5G will also not be competitive with wireline Internet services. In the early Verizon home 5G broadband test cities, where the connections were marketed as faster than your cable broadband, it turned out that speeds average around 300 Mbps with some peaking to gigabit speeds. By comparison, cable networks had already deployed gigabit download networks earlier in 2018 and have plans to upgrade 10-gigabit networks (which they comically call 10G, because why not). In other words, 5G’s peak speeds match broadband speeds that are already in the process of being topped.

In other words, if you are hooked to the ethernet like I am, you are already getting the best internet speeds that 5G will never even come close to. Hopefully with all the lawsuits and congressional investigations this whole 5G scam will end before they roll over on us.

MIDCO Aquatic Center SF City Council Sioux Falls

Midco Aquatic Center subsidized $625K in 2018

l3wis February 19, 2019 2Comments

A presentation will be made today at the 4 PM Sioux Falls city council informational meeting.

Ironically, while there was 10,000 fewer visitors in 2018 than in 2017 that operational expenses jumped $100K. 2018 made $1,000 less than 2017.

It also interesting to note that many sponsorships expire next year and need to be renewed. We will see how that goes.

I have often argued if there is the NEED for a public sporting facility in the community, it will at least break even or come very close. As I mentioned before the vote, besides being a bad location (no room for expansion) there are plenty of other indoor swimming opportunities for folks in the private sector, and many of these facilities offer other fitness options at their locations, some even include bowling and golf passes.

We will continue to be in the hole for years to come on the MAC, because it simply really wasn’t needed and was built in the wrong spot. I still think we should have partnered with Sanford on a pool at the Sports Complex. There is a still a rumor floating around that they intend to eventually build an Olympic competition pool out there, and once Slaveowner High goes in it will be utilized.

Denny Sanford Premier Center Event Center SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: How did the Premier Center do in 2018?

l3wis February 19, 2019 7Comments

UPDATE: I just checked the calendar of events for the Denty. From 2/22 until the end of October there is 31 events booked. Only ten of them are major concerts, the other 21 are mostly local sporting events (Storm and HS and College sporting events). Obviously there will be other concerts announced, but as of right now that is 3.5 events per month. Ouch.

I have been wondering for awhile, is the honeymoon over for the Denty?

Recently we found out that the long time GM was terminated and now the Marketing Manager is moving to another market for SMG.

With new management moving in, it would be a good time to crunch the numbers from 2018. I will be honest with you, I don’t follow what concerts and events go on out there. After spending almost $200 (ticket and beverages) to see the Foo Fighters, my hunger to attend shows there isn’t high on my priority list.

With the EC Campus Book Club meetings going on, even if they are meeting in private, I think that information would be important to their decision making. It’s even more important for the city council that is moving on the 2020 budget to know how the place is doing. Not only revenue sources, but ongoing sponsorships, economic impact, and as it seems, very expensive maintenance costs of the entire campus (parking/SF Stadium, Convention Center and Arena).

My guess is that 2018 was down from the previous two years. But the bigger question is how much and why? General Managers don’t just get fired on a whim. I have a feeling SMG knows the numbers and are concerned. I also think that the Mayor’s office knows the numbers to, this is probably the reason they want to hand the Orpheum contract over to the Pavilion.

I asked a couple of city councilors to make a request to the city’s finance department with a 2018 audit update of the Denty. We will see how long they stall.

Mayor TenHaken apologizes for ‘Whipping the Vote’ comment

UPDATE: Chickensh*t vote of the night; Sioux Falls City Council Chair Christine Erickson

Another snag with 5G, it’s all hype

Midco Aquatic Center subsidized $625K in 2018

UPDATE: How did the Premier Center do in 2018?

You Missed

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda (Jan 7, 2025)

Is this proof that Mayor TenHaken is actively pursuing closed government?

Welcome to Push!

UPDATE: Why is the City of Sioux Falls offering 0% interest loans for Historic Homes?