I have been following Sioux Falls politics on my blog since March of 2006. The one thing I have often told people is that is is ‘very predictable’. It is also very corrupt and often rigged.
This is what happens when you have essentially one-party rule across the state, even in governments that are supposed to be non-partisan, they often are NOT. For example, there is only one Democrat serving on the Minnehaha County Commission and one on the Sioux Falls City Council and ZERO independents.
But often it is NOT about one-party, it comes down to the ruling class making the decisions based upon the greed of the elite in our community. You can call it what you want, but I call it corporate welfare. It flourishes in Sioux Falls and has been going on for decades. Former city planner Steve Metli is often praised by these people, they even built a courtyard in his honor under the Arc of Dreams. It doesn’t surprise me that people speak very highly of Steve, he made a lot of them very wealthy using taxpayer resources, and the tradition continues today.
As citizens, we have very few options to stop this, but one of them is petition gathering and voting (something the ruling class has been trying to take away on a state level). Well now they are trying to take it away on a city level based upon the ‘OPINIONS’ of a city clerk and city attorney who have ZERO municipal law experience, especially when it comes to Home Rule Charters. They are both from the military, and until someone called out the city clerk, he wasn’t even registered to vote before taking his job with the city. He has also NEVER received his clerk certifications (that I am aware of) (the two assistant clerks have more certifications) and the city attorney has admitted on the CityLink show ‘Directions’ that he had NO municipal law experience before starting with the city. So who assisted Mr. Kooistra and Mr. Greco with their ‘Opinions’? We have our guesses, and we highly doubt they are employed by the city.
I have never served in the military, but have had countless family members either volunteer or be drafted. There is an adherrant difference between running a municipality and running a war machine. A HUGE DIFFERENCE. In the military, you follow orders or people die (I know that is a corny line from A FEW GOOD MEN, but it’s true). In municipal government, you should follow orders also, but your generals are not seasoned military personnel, they are taxpayers. So when taxpayers are faced with a decision to petition their government, city employees should do everything in their power to listen, help, assist and follow the orders of those ‘generals’, the taxpayers.
Mayor TenHaken has started this program called ONE SIOUX FALLS. I still have no idea what it is, but I think when he first explained it, it had something to do with better customer service to citizens. Maybe that information needs to be passed on to the city clerk and city attorney. They should be making it as easy as possible for citizens to petition their government instead of setting up more hurdles based upon assumptions and opinions, that will ultimately only result in a court challenge that creates an even higher bar for these petition drives. Which goes back to my thing about predictability, we predicted they would make this complicated, because they can and always do.
ENOUGH!
I often get depressed watching government on all levels, but locally, I know I can make a difference. We must fight the elite in this community who have helped rig the system in their favor. I’m not always right, but I do know this, corruption is wide spread in city government, and has been for a very long time. We have had countless examples, too many to go into. We can end this corruption by demanding city employees work for the people and not the ruling class. I really believe by working to make our lives better, they make their lives better. It’s just unfortunate that a few at the top are making it incredibly miserable for the rest of us, and they should be ashamed.