February 2020

The Legislative Research Council should be rejecting bills before they make it to Committee

At the Legislative Coffee today, Representative Barthel (Former SF Police Chief) said this;

“In spite of what you hear on the news about a lot of the controversial bills, and things that are introduced, frankly a lot that stuff never even makes it the Governor’s desk. But a key part of that is because of the feed back that we get from the constituents and people we work for that’s how a lot of that stuff dies. And sometimes without that input we may not know what the feelings are of the people of the state.”

First off, maybe you would know what people actually want you to do if you hold some coffees, forums and townhalls BEFORE session instead of in the middle of session. Of maybe knocking on doors and talking to constituents face to face in the off season when the weather is nice.

While it is nice to know that Doug actually listens to constituents, these bills should never be written to begin with, and if they are, the LRC should be rejecting them based on the unconstitutional nature of them. Isn’t that their job? To ‘research’ the viability of these bills? To make sure they are ‘legal’?

Secondly to Barthel’s comment, everyday people have to take time out of their busy lives to drive to the barren wasteland of Pierre and testify against these ridiculous bills in committee hearings, wasting valuable time, energy and personal capital. If the legislature and LRC were doing their jobs, these bills wouldn’t see the light of day. So yes Doug, we do criticize the legislature for these moronic proposals, even if some of them are killed.

UPDATE: Is Count Jensen setting up a hurdle track race?

UPDATE: This sign is placed in the boulevard which is a violation of political sign placement, but here’s what makes it even more ironic, it is in front of a house that is owned by a former city director.

Well, at least he isn’t putting them illegally in the boulevard. People in the neighborhood told me that showed up in the middle of the night, well duh (snark).

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, March 3, 2020

Council Operations Meeting • 2:30 (3/3/2020)

• Review of Draft Edits to the Policies and Procedures Manual (mostly to do with public input).

• Committees

• Use of Electronic Devices

Council Informational • 4 PM (3/3/2020)

Presentations on,

Neighborhood Connect. It appears the Planning Department is rolling out some new software to do the following;

• Transparency
• Extend business hours
• Alerts
• Reduce inquiries
• Easy user interface
It integrates with the City of Sioux Falls Land Management software

While on it’s face, I think it is a good idea, over the last couple of months the city hasn’t had a very good track record with their online presence. Their videos have been crashing, the CityLink live stream has been taken down, the search engines are complicated and a mess and the pilot program for on-demand transit may not get off the ground. I guess if the city wants to be innovative, maybe that innovation should work.

Also presentations on the upcoming election and 2021 Budget Prioritization.

Regular Meeting • 7 PM (3/3/2020)

Item #45 & #60, 2nd Reading, Supplemental Appropriations. Not sure how this vote will go, or if it will be amended, but I have a feeling it will get at least 4 votes to pass (Mayor tie-breaker). They really should censure him for violating the charter and proposing budget changes.

Item #54, 1st Reading, Supplemental Appropriations of $355K to Pavilion for planning the repair of the roof.

Item #55, 1st Reading: AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, REPEALING SUBCHAPTER SIOUX FALLS VETERANS PARK ADVISORY BOARD OF CHAPTER 95: PARKS AND RECREATION OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF SAID CITY. (I’m not sure why this board is being repealed, hopefully there will be more details Tuesday night).

Item #56 (57-58), 1st Reading: AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, AUTHORIZING INTERIM WATER RATES FOR CERTAIN CUSTOMERS OUTSIDE THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS. (Prairie Meadow Area). This has to do with a future annexation agreement.

Item #64, A RESOLUTION ADVISING AND GIVING CONSENT TO THE APPOINTMENT OF MEMBERS TO CERTAIN CITIZEN BOARDS. (once again the biographies are missing, I have requested from some councilors to ask the administration why the BIOs are no longer listed on agenda).

Planning Commission • 6 PM • (3/4/2020)

There have been a lot of strange changes lately to the city website and agendas. The latest is in the Planning agenda, instead of numbering the items, they are now using this labeling system; Ex: REZ-011688-2020. More confusion for no reason.

Sioux Falls Municipal Election Roundup

Here is what we know as of 5 PM.

• Cynthia Mickelson seems to have a challenger, Sarah Stokke is a nursing instructor at the University of South Dakota. I am not familiar with Sarah, but I have heard her name before in certain circles. This will make two races for the citywide ballot, but the interesting twist is that NOT everyone voting for this race can vote in the city election because the boundaries are different. In other words there will be people who can ONLY vote for school board or ONLY vote for At-Large council. I know, complicated.

• Marshall Selberg (SW District) and Pat Starr (NE District) do not have challengers, so they will get 4 more years.

• Greg Neitzert has a challenger, Julian Beaudion (NW District). This is a district seat only and not city wide.

• Theresa Stehly and Alex Jensen will challenge each other for the At-Large position. Since there are only two, their will be no run-off election (The ‘Stehly Rule’ won’t be used again). This will be the ONLY city-wide position on the ballot besides the Charter Amendments (and those living in the SFSD who can vote for school board).

I suspect a very low voter turnout of about 5%. The interesting part is this will be one of the most expensive elections in city history for only having two horse race. All precincts will be used, and the money Jensen plans on spending will probably be a record for a council race (the rumors going around are $200-250K). I’m not even sure how you can spend all that?

But this will be fun to watch, because all the attention will be on the At-Large race. This will give Stehly the advantage, besides her incumbency.

Let the Games Begin!

Sioux Falls City Councilor Stehly turns in over 1,000 nominating petition signatures!

City Councilor Theresa Stehly collects over 1,000 signatures in 10 days. More than 35 volunteers helped to ensure that Theresa Stehly has secured her place on the ballot. These volunteers collected the signatures of their neighbors and friends to start their effort to return Theresa Stehly to the At‐Large City Council position. 

Stehly gratefully states “The response from the public has been overwhelming. Many people have expressed their appreciation that I am running, to continue the representation of the Sioux Falls residents.”

Citizen advocate Theresa Stehly is seeking a second term as member of the Sioux Falls City Council in the April 14, 2020, municipal City Council election.  

Contact Theresa Stehly  605‐929‐8783  theresastehly@yahoo.com 

Towards the end of this interview today with Belfrage, Mayor Selfie talked about the upcoming election and made some ‘veiled’ references towards Stehly and how the ‘council needs to get along’ and ‘build consensus’ which is code for rumber stampers. We will find out on April 14th just how happy the citizens are with how Stehly conducts council business.