Stehly Report • Dec 2019
l3wis 
December 2019
UPDATE II: JazzFest Killed
UPDATE II: I’m hearing from a couple of sources that the executive director of SFJB actually resigned last week. I’m not sure if that is true, since he is still listed on their webpage, but it may explain why they decided to pull back. Most people may not know it, but planning for JF takes all year, and the most of the acts are already booked by January or February, they may have done no plans. If anyone knows differently let me know.
UPDATE: The story going around is that JF lost significant money this past year, which doesn’t surprise me. Having to pay for generators, bad weather damaging stuff, no major acts and having the headliner cancel probably did it in. I’ve even heard they are so broke from it that they may have to hand over the concert series they hold at the Orpheum to the Pavilion management, but we will have to see what happens. I think they ‘could’ bring it back in 2021 but would still need to do something like a small Saturday night concert this summer and bill it as a ‘mini’ JF just to keep it relevant. But with the money situation, I’m not sure if that is even possible.
I also have heard that people are blaming Mayor TenHaken because of the proposed ordinance to charge for police assistance. I guess he has been on the horn with certain people mad about the blame game. I won’t defend PTH on much, but it really isn’t his fault. Sure the proposal is stupid and ridiculous, but the city council hasn’t ironed out the details yet and may vote it down anyway IF it is even brought forward. So while the ordinance proposal is moronic, it hasn’t happened yet. I was actually surprised he was so annoyed with it, I would just blow it off.
As you have heard in the news, JazzFest has ended (but will consider doing it in 2021). I think once you go there, you can never recover.
It saddens me for several reasons, I assisted with JF for several years in different roles with graphic design work, helping to design the logo two years, and designing countless other items for them. It was always a tradition for me, for at least 20 years. I will miss it.
Some think it may have to do with the city council considering charging for police assistance, but I think it really has to do with all the problems from this past festival and low attendance, and former director Rob Joyce leaving. It of course has never been the same since Janoct Adja died 🙂 We may never know. I think that this city has been going towards more ‘family friendly’ festivals lately (not that JF wasn’t) and it is just hard to put on these kind of large events anymore.
I actually think the city council has the votes to either kill the police ordinance, or at least reduce the proposed fee of $70 an hour per officer significantly. I would like for them to pass an ordinance that only charges ‘For-Profit’ events for police assistance and leave the non-profit’s exempt.
As we know these events bring in huge economic impact that can cover the police costs, it is just a matter of the city budgeting for it and paying the officers for these duties. Which is easily done instead of continuing to screw the police union.
Isn’t ironic that our mayor was in DC yesterday bragging about how he doesn’t want to burden the FOR-PROFIT telecoms (who make billions a year) with high fees for 5G poles then turns around and depends on volunteers to clean up after tornados, doesn’t plow our streets and now wants to charge for police assistance (even though they have plenty of money in the budget for it). This administration’s priorities are messed up, and you will see that when the $21.5 million dollar TIF for a private developer gets passed with NO evidence or studies proving TIFs provide economic impact to our city. The arts and other non-profit events in Sioux Falls have already had numerous studies showing their impact, but who has time to read that stuff? For TIFs and telecom handouts we’ll just take your word.
UPDATE: Mayor TenHaken tells councilor Stehly he will block her from FB
Theresa played me a voicemail tonight that had our mayor telling her he would ‘block her from his facebook page’.
I heard the message. It was him. No doubt. It had something to do with water reclamation and posting comments on his FB page.
But he was on FB last night proclaiming he didn’t do it;
‘There are no mean emails, voicemails, or the like here.’
While I would agree he wasn’t mean (he was actually pretty calm) he did say he would block her. I guess as an elected official if someone was accusing me of something and I was in doubt about it, I would get on the horn and ask for the proof. Then if I truly did do it (the VM is from January I believe) I would apologize and move on.
“It’s Better to Beg for Forgiveness than to Ask for Permission”
Now this happened. I commented on the page this morning that they should remove SF Politics from FB and start a blog where they can moderate comments like I do here. Apparently they are taking my advice.
Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, Dec 10-11, 2019
City Council Informational • 4 PM • Tuesday, Dec 10
Update on Legislative Priorities for the 2019 session and a presentation on Walkability by Councilor Stehly (I’m not sure what her presentation is about). But I see they continue to peddle the perceived benefits of TIFs;
6. The Sioux Falls City Council supports tax increment financing (TIF), an economic development tool that has led to millions of dollars in increased property value, benefitting both the state as a whole and the local entities sponsoring the districts, while at the same time maintaining the integrity of the process.
I say ‘perceived’ because we have NEVER gotten evidence that it has benefitted us.
City Council Regular Meeting • 7 PM • Tuesday, Dec 10
Item #4, Annual city employee awards. This is always a fun one to watch.
Item #7, Approval of Contracts, Placement of MLK sculpture by Porter Williams at the refurbished Van Eps Park.
Item #15, 2nd Reading, Ordinance, $41 Million in bonds for wastewater. This is a series of several bonds over the next couple of years. I also want to remind people we should have started this process 5 to 10 years ago, but the previous mayor wanted to bond for play palaces instead and the public works director fell at his feet. I hope that at least one councilor asks him if he ever urged the previous king of Sioux Falls to get moving on this.
Item #16, 2nd Reading, Liquor license changes, This is going to be fun to watch. I have a feeling it is going to be a lively conversation. You know my feeling, we need to get rid of ‘lifetime’ liquor licenses.
Item #20, Pay Scales for City Council appointed staff. I won’t go into great detail, but it amazes me how much these people are being paid, and ironically, the staff that does the majority of the work is paid the least. I have said they could ‘trim the heard’ a bit and have less staff. I would first make the operations director the clerk also, and have only one assistant clerk. I would also eliminate the legislative/budget analyst since we pay the Municipal League already lobbying fees to do that job. Or maybe eliminate that fee and keep that person.
Charter Revision Commission Meeting • 3:30 PM • Wednesday, Dec 11
The hammer continues to drop at the CRC. As you can see from this graphic, they have been very good at killing stuff;
Oh, but they are going to get something done, making it more difficult to do a petition drive when it comes to the changing the Charter;
The petitions shall contain or have attached thereto throughout their circulation the full text of the proposed charter amendment and must be signed by registered voters of the city in the number of at least 5 percent of the total number of registered voters at the last regular city election, (change) or the number of signatures required by state law, whichever is greater.
When I talked to fellow city government nerd about this the other day, they said ‘If it gets on the ballot, we will make sure it doesn’t pass.’ The irony of it would be the mantra of the CRC and saying they don’t like to put stuff on the ballot because people just vote ‘YES’ on it without researching it. I will guaran-F’ing-tee you that if they put this on the ballot, we will make sure the public is VERY informed about what they are trying to do and it will be fun to watch the ONLY thing they approve for the ballot fails, or at least we hope it fails.
I also find this discussion curious;
Clarification of Duties of the Charter Revision Commission on its Webpage
Huh? This is what is listed on the city website;
The commission may deliver a report to the city election authorities framing and proposing amendments to the Sioux Falls Home Rule Charter. The commission holds at least one public meeting each calendar year for the purpose of receiving recommendations from the public regarding revisions to the charter and to take action upon any matters before the commission relating to proposed charter revisions.
It will be interesting to hear what changes they want to make.
Sioux Falls Arts Council has call for art
You can apply HERE. I think the call for art at city hall is a ‘paid’ exhibit.
