November 2019

Meeting Updates

Just in case you haven’t been over to our YouTube Channel, here are some meeting link updates. Enjoy local government nerds!

Minnehaha County Commission Meeting, Nov 5, 2019

Inside Town Hall with Theresa Stehly

Sioux Falls City Council Informational, November 5, 2019

Sioux Falls City Council Meeting, November 5, 2019

Joint City of Sioux Falls & Minnehaha County Planning Meeting

Joint City of Sioux Falls & Minnehaha County Planning Meeting

Minnehaha County Planning Meeting

Patrick Lalley Podcast

Pat’s guests this week were councilors Starr and Brekke. It was a great discussion about the lack of transparency and communication coming from the Mayor’s Administration and how it reminds us of the last administration’s lack of it also, even though there is different players.

Pat Lalley also rips on the councilors for not standing up to Video Lottery in our community, and I agree!

Sioux Falls City Councilors defer $1.5 Million in additional spending to the Bunker Ramp

Apparently we are all out of extra money, go figure. The money is needed to fill all the ‘holes’ in the building. It’s too late, the money has already gone down the tubes 🙂

The administration waited until tonight at 10:40 PM to give the information. Erickson suggested they defer it to digest it more and she said it was unacceptable to not get the information last week, saying they knew the numbers then.

Councilor Stehly railed on them about ramrodding this project and asked for an audit of the parking department. She also asked for a deferral.

Councilor Brekke also raised concerns about last minute information and is concerned about the continuing trend of inadequate information given to the city council. She also wanted a deferral.

Councilor Soehl suggests they just approve it and it doesn’t matter if they are ‘pissed’ at the administration about the information. (yes it does).

Neitzert agrees with him, and admits he got information in advance this afternoon. He also says the councilors are being ridiculous by acting like engineers. He is right, they are not engineers, but they are in charge of the purse, and should be watching how money is being spent.

The deferral passes 5-3 (Neitzert, Selberg and Soehl voted against it).

Brekke said it best, “We have this false sense of urgency all the time, and it needs to end.”

Dusty Johnson proposes idiotic legislation on plant based meat patties

As you can see from the label, it already says ‘Plant-Based’. It’s actually a selling point to people who don’t want to eat meat, but Dusty doesn’t think it is enough;

Representative Dusty Johnson is co-sponsoring a bill aimed at labeling plant-based beef as “imitation” meat.

The Real Meat Act proposed that beef not made from cows, be labeled “imitation” before or after the name of on the front package.

In a statement, Rep. Johnson says, “a plant-based creation isn’t the same as South Dakota beef. It’s a benefit of consumers and producers alike when folks have a better understanding of where their food comes.”

I’m wondering when Congress is going to finally pass and implement country of origin labeling and make it stick for beef? (It was passed in 2013 and repealed in 2015/16). If COOL was still in effect it would have a HUGE impact on sales of SD Beef (they would sell MORE), but Dusty seems to be concerned that people that are eating plants shaped like burgers are being duped.

LMFAO!

I propose we start labeling our lone representative in DC as an ‘Imitation’ Congressman.

Sioux Falls City Councilors Erickson and Kiley propose ridiculous amendments to Beekeeping ordinance

And one of them passed . . .

First they wanted to have inspections every three years. That failed and was changed to the hives being inspected whenever animal control gets a concern or complaint.

They wanted signs posted in the yards of people who have hives to warn people. This amendment passed, and is completely ridiculous. If I had to put one of these signs in my yard, I would put another sign next to it that says, “Councilors Erickson and Kiley made me put this sign up because they are paranoid nanny-staters.” I would go even farther to offer my design skills to design the signs and send you to a printer that can provide it.

The last amendment was to have physical barriers of the hives on the property (like walls or solid fences) instead of just forage. This also failed.

The whole ordinance passed (amended for signage), but Erickson and Kiley voted against it. They were concerned about bee allergies.

As I have stated before, bees are already here, and they can sting people whenever they want to, adding hives won’t increase or reduce this risk. 

It amazes me that the people who proposed these ludicrous amendments are the same people who voted for the fraudulent bunker ramp downtown. Maybe we should put a sign in the yard of every city councilor, mayor and city employee that supported the bunker ramp that says, “I voted for the bunker ramp, even though I had mountains of evidence it was a bad idea and I have yet to apologize for my monumental mistake.”