South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

April 2020

Corona Virus Mayor TenHaken SF City Council

Is Mayor TenHaken and the Sioux Falls City Council considering a full repeal of Covid ordinances?

l3wis 15Comments

On FB today the mayor said there will be a press conference tomorrow at 10:30 AM about what is going on. The rumor is that he will be asking for a total repeal of the Covid ordinances.

Some are saying he is caving to Noem, business owners and certain councilors (those of which wearing pants are ‘optional’ at the meetings, as long as they wear high heels – I promise that wasn’t sexist, just tongue and cheek).

There has also been strong suggestions that Smithfield will open next week.

So while the city (mostly) is still peaking (our numbers are not going down) why would we want to reopen restaurants and bars and meat packing plants?

Well I have an angry answer to that question I will not repeat.

I think we should really wait until May 15th when we can see a real downturn. I also think the state is NOT testing as much as they should, so these statistics are really a joke and false hope.

Some say we are hurting the hospitality industry. Here’s the deal, most of the hospitality workers I have spoken to are drawing unemployment, and actually receiving more than they did when working. They have nothing to worry about the next two weeks. And as I said before, as a business if you can’t handle a couple of months of a downturn, you probably are already out of business, and two more weeks really won’t matter, your crappy Ayn Rand business plan doomed you, not a virus.

I have vowed I will not be going inside a bar or restaurant until I at least see an all clear for several weeks. I don’t care if you think I am an alarmist (I’m actually a realist).

As I said to a friend tonight, “What am I missing by eating out in this town? Ambience? That’s laughable. The last restaurant in this town to have that was flooded by the city.”

Folks, don’t take what our supposed leaders tell you with a grain of salt. Stay safe, stay home if possible. Your half-ass chicken finger, onion ring burger, cotton candy ice cream cone burrito joint will still be open in a couple of months for you to get your food hard-on over. I just hope the cardiologists can survive this.

Ethics Redistricting Sioux Falls

UPDATE:Sioux Falls Ethics board to meet tomorrow, April 30, 2020

l3wis 4Comments

UPDATE: The Ethics board threw out a complaint against councilor Neitzert today based on a technicality. The person who filed the complaint had the wrong chapter number listed for what he was accused of violating. He listed the employee chapter instead of the councilor chapter. Basically Neitzert was accused of taking money from an organization to go speak at a conference in Texas with mayor Paul. He admitted to doing it already to the council. The Ethics Board could have fixed the error in a motion and then proceeded with the hearing, but of course they didn’t. More to come.

Funny how Neitzert claims there was nothing wrong with what he did, blames the messenger, yet chose to keep the complaint ‘confidential’ until after the hearing. That’s because he was hoping for an April election, and the hearing would not have happened until after that. So who is playing politics?

Not sure what this is about because it is confidential, but you can guarantee it is about someone who collects a paycheck from the city and has obvious close ties to the city attorney (in other words not someone who puts out fires or mows the parks). The recusal of the city attorney by one of the leading attorneys at Lynn, Jackson, Shultz & Lebrun to replace him tells me that it is someone city attorney Kooistra advises directly. (You can figure out the handful of people who fit that criteria – I will give you a hint, it is less than 12 and more than 1).

While the person(s) being indicted have chosen to keep this confidential, that doesn’t mean after the decision is granted it remains confidential, it is free game for media consumption.

I also find calling this an ‘executive session’ interesting. Is that even legal? While I understand the meeting being closed to the public and media, wouldn’t the person filing the complaint be included to present evidence? I don’t know, this is all really suspicious.

But I can say something for certain, and I don’t even need a magic 8-Ball, whoever it is, they will magically (no pun intended) be found innocent. I also will guarantee you that that decision has already been pre-determined. But don’t take my word on it, just look at the record of this board going all the way back to Mayor Munson . . . patsies.

1st Amendment Open Government Open Meetings School Funding Sioux Falls

Democracy Dies in Darkness, this is an example of the sneaky games being played during this time by local boards and governments

l3wis 5Comments

I knew it would not take long for something like this to rear it’s head during this time of a crisis and social distancing;

A plan to separate the Tri-Valley School District by building a new school to handle overcrowding is once again causing controversy between residents and school district leaders. 

Parents and residents say a recent decision by the school board to build a $10 million kindergarten-only school in Crooks, miles from the current school in Colton, was done without transparency and without the chance for a public vote. 

They say the school board and administration took advantage of a time when no one could attend the school board meeting April 13 in person to voice their opposition because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The board meeting was conducted through Zoom, a video chat messaging system many have relied on to interact with others without risking exposure to the coronavirus in the meantime. 

A select few in the community who can afford the tax increases and want a new school took it upon themselves to pass something literally in the dark of the night knowing there was strong public opposition to the decision. The best way to quiet this opposition is by eliminating them. While legal (and I would go so far to say that is questionable) it definately lacked ethics and integrity and was at best a sloppy parlor trick.

But don’t be fooled by this ‘one’ instance. I have been following and taking note of several things our own city government has been doing behind the scenes. All the puzzle pieces are not in place yet, but once they are, I will be revealing the blatant sloppiness and ignorance our own city has been up to. Right now they are trying their hardest to keep these things tied up in a closet with a sock in their mouth, but that can’t last much longer, and it’s only a matter of time before it spreads like a virus at packing plant.

I will keep you posted, and several others in the local media have been also keeping tabs.

While none of it really shocks me, it will prove once again, when the cat’s away, the mice will play. Our local officials are taking full advantage of this crisis to put a death nail in transparency, and it makes me wonder how they sleep at night.

Kristi Noem Mayor TenHaken SFPD Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls Police Chief Burns gets an award? Huh?

l3wis 9Comments

Just when you think it is odd that the city revealed a new logo in the middle of a pandemic, now the Municipal League is giving an award to a police chief most of the city hasn’t seen in over a year. Chief Waldo I call him.

Oh but it gets better, while we are still peaking in Sioux Falls and the surrounding MSA, the governor and mayor think it is a good idea to start opening things back up. You know what this will result in? Another spike, and we will have to go back to square one. I personally think we should at least wait until May 15th and re-evaluate the situation. I think at least a week of no new reported cases in SF should occur before we even talk about lifting certain restrictions. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

I also think Smithfield needs to be closed for another two weeks. I hear a lot of crying about the farmers and the packing plant. Well folks, this is what happens when you create a monopoly packing plant and monopoly CAFO corporate farms, you create a monopoly distribution system that doesn’t work in a crisis. Back in the day, family farmers sold their hogs to the highest bidder and had multiple places they could sell them to. This creation of a monopoly system is only the fault of those who perpetuated it upon themselves, and I don’t feel one bit sorry for them. When you sell your soul to Walmart (the dairy industry) and Smithfield (hogs) than you wipe away your distribution options and competition. How did you think this was going to turn out during a crisis like this? The problem is that these corporate farmers most likely have strict contracts they cannot break. In other words, they have to euthanize the hogs before they can sell them to smaller packers or family owned lockers. It’s stupidity and greed on a whole new level. But I see Rounds is looking to bail out their stupidity with our tax dollars, while we bury the bacon in the ground instead of at least giving it away to food banks.

This crisis has shown us one thing – our system in America is broken, very broken, and we don’t seem to want to learn from it.

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