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.