February 2020

UPDATE: Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, Feb 11, 2020

l3wis February 9, 2020 10Comments

Presentations on;

â€¢ 2019 Sales Tax Update, 2020 Capital Projects and Bond Funding Update by Shawn Pritchett, Director of Finance; Don Kearney, Director of Parks and Recreation; Mark Cotter, Director of Public Works; and Brad Goodroad, Fire Chief

â€¢ Washington Pavilion Parapet and Cornice Condition Assessment and Study by Liz Squyer, Principal Architect, Architecture Incorporated.

While there is NO supporting documents yet online, the rumor is the project will cost around $6 million. This is for removal of the badly deteriorating pieces now, repairing the roof and replacing them with fiberglass replicas. And here’s the kicker, only one company can make them. Any councilors willing to support this extravagant expenditure should be taken to the wood shed. The pieces should have been removed at the time of the remodel over 20 years ago and never replaced. Also, they are NOT a part of the original building, they were added in the 1930’s, and NOBODY will notice they are gone. The council should budget for removal and repair (which I’m sure will be expensive also) but not for replacement. I’m sure he Pavilion will be just fine without Parapets and Cornice. If they really want to replace them, they can take on a private fundraiser.

Regular Meeting â€¢ 7 PM

Item #7, Approval of Contracts, Sub Item #5, $35K to the Sioux Falls Arts Council. While I think this amount should be more, like a cool million, I think this item should NOT be hidden in this document.

Sub Item #11, Ice rink joint replacement at the EC, $178K

Item #13, 2nd Reading, Ordinance, $300K for coppers running parades. I support this despite my sarcasm. The rumor going around city hall is that councilor Erickson is in the doghouse with Mayor Selfie over this, and he has left her out of the ‘special lunches’ lately. Oh Christine, you know it was only a matter of time before a woman in leadership was going to be tossed aside by the Dutch Mafia. Notice it is not called the ‘Dutch FEMALE’ Mafia’.

Item #14, 2nd Reading, paying more for parks. As a foot soldier pointed out to me yesterday, what is up with the Levitt fees? While I understand these costs have to be covered, taxpayers built this joint, maintain this joint (parks grounds) so why the crazy rental fees? Also, not sure why they are based on attendance. Whether 3 people show up or 4,000, the sound system works the same.

Item #15, another $300K plus in supplemental appropriations to the Pavilion. We really should rename this place ‘The Money Pit’.

Item #16, this is the one where Mayor Selfie has decided he is going to tell the city council, the legislative branch how to spend money. If I was a city councilor, I would make an amendment to file an ethics violation against the mayor for his abuse of power.

Developers Development SF City Council Sioux Falls TIFs

There is nothing ‘Gutzy’ about approving TIFs

l3wis February 9, 2020 4Comments

Similar to Donny T’s touchdown victory dance this past week, the receivers of an unneeded TIF downtown for the Sioux Steel Development couldn’t resist their own little victory lap, via the paid media (I’m not sure if this piece is paid for or not, because it looks like Jodi’s weekly column);

It takes guts to decide to forego certain property tax revenue for 20 years. And to approve the largest incentive of its kind in the city’s history. And to tackle another parking ramp project â€“ even though it’s significantly different â€“ while many are probably still stinging from the last one.

Sorry folks, it takes zero courage to approve a 20 year tax rebate. ZERO. I have seen this travesty across the nation, developer welfare run amuck. Courage would have either been denying this all together, or as I have suggested, at least amending it so we gift them the greenway and limit the TIF to $10 million.

Leadership is Courageous, going along to get along is NOT leadership, it’s a mamby pamby pitty party at most.

â€œThe City Council took it very seriously to sit down with us and talk through it,â€ said Jake Quasney, executive vice president for project development at Lloyd Cos.

Of course they did, everytime this company has asked for a TIF, the city council has rolled over like old dogs and gave it. Heck, the city even held onto to property for over a decade, tax free for the last Lloyd project and gave a TIF to boot. When this company asks, they receive, 100% of the time.

But these two votes really mattered, and it was reassuring to see the fairness and logic that all council members used in approaching them.

Let’s not kid ourselves, there was ZERO fairness and logic going on. 1.) Everytime this developer asks for a TIF they get it 2) There has been no hard evidence that ANY of the TIFs given to them have had significant economic impact, and no studies to this day to prove it. Sorry, but ‘logic’ is based on ‘Facts’ and ‘Fairness’ is based on making decisions based on those ‘Facts’. The only FACT here is that this developer has a perfect batting average when it comes to TIFs.

It’s another to stand up, vote on what could be a politically sensitive issue and thank the business for investing in the community.

There was NOTHING politically sensitive about this issue, this was just another walk in the park for the city council. They always approve this stuff, the public knows or cares little about it, the ink dries on the rubberstamps, and the developers smile all the way to the bank.

There are other developers and other businesses looking at investing in Sioux Falls.

Investing or bilking? Isn’t that the question here? When I think of the FREE enterprise system and investment, that investment is coming from them privately, and they get to reap and keep the rewards. In the TIF system we have set up, we require the taxpayers to pay more to invest in these schemes and get nothing back but higher taxes and mediocre jobs. If you make a great investment, and you do it all by your lonesome, you deserve the booty. If the taxpayers have to supplement you, and you make money, you should share. And that is the tragedy of a TIF, they never do.

They say all politics is local. In this case, some higher-ups could take a cue from Carnegie Town Hall last week.

I think I’m going to be ill.

SF School District Sioux Falls

Guest Post (anon); Sioux Falls Middle Schools are currently SEGREGATED

l3wis February 8, 2020 29Comments

The facts are in the numbers provided by the South Dakota Department of Education on the SFSD’s website: PDF OF DOCS.

*Look Closely At:

Race/Ethnicity

Economically Disadvantaged

Student Performance

The last time the boundaries were re-drawn in the SFSD was 25 years ago. The demographics of our community have changed dramatically in those 25 years.

The process to re-draw the boundaries for ALL schools in the SFSD has now begun. A 30-member Task Force of community members has had 2 of 3 meetings. Their third meeting will be February 19th from 5:30 to 7:30 at IPC. The District will then hold five community input sessions at multiple locations.

Sioux Falls Taxpayers have committed 190m (capital costs only) to build three new schools and make 40m of improvements at existing schools. NOW is the time to make certain our public schools are NO LONGER segregated.

Part of what School Board President Mickelson charged the Task Force with is Quality Education For All Students by balancing the economic status across secondary schools. This was emphasized by Doug Morrison, “We try to make our schools as reflective as possible of the community we live in.”

At both TF meetings, several members have suggested moving specialty programs (Spanish Immersion and the Challenge Center) from Edison to George McGovern. This would move approximately 500 students TO McGovern and 500 students OUT OF McGovern to aid in the effort to balance the socioeconomic and ethnicity numbers. There would be no additional cost involved for transportation. McGovern students are currently 100% bused and students attending all specialty schools in the SFSD are required to provide their own transportation or pay to be bused.

Each time this has been brought up, Doug Morrison, the District’s TF facilitator,has shot the suggestion down. His argument is that the District wants to keep these programs centrally located. With a close look at where the District’s specialty programs are located, This Response Does Not Hold Up.

Currently there are multiple specialty programs located in the:

NW Quadrant:

All City Elementary at Jane Addams

CTE

New Tech High

Dual Immersion at Hayward (*this program is in its first year, an additional grade will be added each year)

Additional Specialty Programs not located in central SF:

Rosa Parks Dual Immersion (mirrors the program at Hayward)

Lincoln High School (Challenge Center)

Look closely at the numbers provided by the SD Department of Education. Sioux Falls Taxpayers have committed almost 200 million dollars in order to provide a quality education for all of our kids.

NOW is the time to desegregate Sioux Falls schools.

Parody Satire Sioux Falls South Dakotans State Legislature

South Dakota State Legislator from Sioux Falls proposes a bill for mental health evaluations for his colleagues

l3wis February 8, 2020 7Comments

I spoke with the legislator last night about his proposal, and at this point he wants to remain anonymous, but promises me that he will have several sponsors for the bill.

The bill, if passed would implement a law that requires all current and new legislators to undergo a mental health evaluation and IQ test. They will also have to take a UA (drug test) and undergo an addiction screening.

I asked Legislator ‘X’ why he is proposing this.

“Well, do you need to ask? Every year we are faced with more ridiculous bills, in this year alone there has been bills introduced that would limit surrogacy, limit transgender treatment, allows people to avoid vaccinations for their children, and take taxes off of guns and ammo (instead of food).”

I reminded him of what Hunter S. Thompson once said about that, why would people want to hoard food for an apocalypse? You want to hoard guns, because the people with the guns will have the food.

After a brief chuckle from Rep. ‘X’ he continues, “Many times these laws are unconstitutional and that costs taxpayers money to fight them in court, which brings us to HB 1004 which would allow the legislative body to ’employ legal counsel other than the attorney generalâ€¦to represent the Legislature in any court of this state or the United States.’ In other words more kooky right wing groups interfering in our court system.”

So what do these bills this have to do with the mental health evaluation?

“Because the legislators that are proposing this crap are batsh*t crazy!”, exclaimed Rep. ‘X’ “They are either crazy, stupid or on drugs, and this bill addressed them all.”

Well you cannot argue with that.

So what are the repercussions if they fail one or more of the tests?

“If they are newly elected, they will be ineligible to serve to begin with, if they are already serving, they will be removed. In both situations they will also have to pay for the testing.”

I asked him how many legislators he suspects that will leave us with and Rep. ‘X’ said this, “A handful, and they will probably all be Democrats.”

So what would happen after this mass exodus of crazy folks? He said the first thing that would happen is we would have to increase the funding to the state hospital ‘significantly’ and secondly we would have to have a second emergency election to fill those seats. Rep ‘X’ is not certain how that would work, but he said in order to make the legislature viable we would probably have to leave ‘Republicans off the ballot’ in the emergency election.

Some have argued with Rep ‘X’ that this proposal is crazy and goes against personal choice of the electorate. “Yes, it does go against ‘personal choice’ and this may be why they just might support it”, says Rep ‘X’. “Because if the state legislature in South Dakota is good one thing, it’s taking away your personal choices.”

A majority of both houses just may be ‘crazy’ enough to support it.

*This piece is satire and only meant to inflame the nutty right wingers in Pierre.

Sioux Falls

Random Thoughts from Cameraman Bruce

l3wis February 8, 2020 0Comments

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

I’ve been researching the changes in Sioux Falls government since the 1970’s. Looking at the root causes for the disfunction we continue to have in Sioux Falls. Alan Ehrenhalt wrote a series of articles for Governing magazine and then books based on the Sioux Falls mess. Here is a 1991 Baltimore Sun newspaper review of his book, The United States of Ambition. See how much has changed or hasn’t.Â

But since the 1974 upset, stability has vanished. Old city commissioners have been ousted, their replacements tainted with scandal. Political power, once tightly held, has been ricocheting back and forth between organized labor, the local branch of the National Women’s Political Caucus and a conservative anti-tax league.

PARATRANSIT

The underlying belief is people who rely on public transit are not tech savvy or work, so why try? There is an attitude in the taupe house society people, in wheelchairs must be placated so the taupers can skim off their special share first.

For the price of a subway ride, a wheelchair accessible van would pick me up at my apartment and drop me at my destination anywhere within the city’s five boroughs. So far so good. But then she explained the fine print. I would have to schedule my ride one to two days in advance. My pick-up time could be an hour earlier or an hour later than requested. The driver would have a 30-minute window in which to pick me up before he would be considered late. I, on the other hand, had to be outside to meet my van within five minutes of its arrival or I would be counted as a no-show.

UPDATE: Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, Feb 11, 2020

There is nothing ‘Gutzy’ about approving TIFs

Guest Post (anon); Sioux Falls Middle Schools are currently SEGREGATED

South Dakota State Legislator from Sioux Falls proposes a bill for mental health evaluations for his colleagues

Random Thoughts from Cameraman Bruce

You Missed

The Smoke & Mirrors of the City of Sioux Falls recruitment efforts

The Year in Review, oh, and Merry Christmas!

UPDATE: Why is the city lending a religious organization $500K?

F’ing USD