City Council Informational Meeting • 4 PM
Presentations on CARES Act Funding, Floodplain regulation ordinances and a Bump Back ordinance proposal by councilor Soehl. There are no supporting documents (as usual) because this council and mayor HATE transparency. But as I understand the Bump Back ordinance is it would allow a director who resigns that position or asked to resign can go BACK to a civil service lower position instead of leaving all together. Dumb.
City Council Regular Meeting • 7 PM
Item #18, 1st Reading, Raise property taxes by 1.7% (yearly option to increase). Isn’t it ironic that in the middle of a pandemic, a down economy and a record unemployment rate that the city council is considering a property tax increase. Just putting this on the agenda proves they intend to pass it, and I have no doubt in my mind it will probably pass 7-1 with little discussion. I don’t think it has been voted down in at least 15-20 years. The irony is that the council likes to say they are looking out for the citizens and have financial restraint, but any chance they get they raise taxes and fees, than turn around and hand out TIF’s, tax reductions and corporate welfare to the very people who own their sorry asses, the banksters and developers in town while the rest of us working (and non-working) stiffs foot the bill. And mark my words, if Mr. Sanford is indicted (which he has not been yet), we will be footing the bill to tear that sign off of the Denty.
Item #27, A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO THE JOINT PUBLIC SAFETY ANSWERING POINT AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS AND MINNEHAHA COUNTY. This is also ironic that we are agreeing with the County to build a new Metro 911 facility yet we can’t agree on how to put a ballot drop box in front of a library. Mayor Stoneless has claimed it is a matter of state law saying ballots need to be delivered to the election manager (Auditor Litz) – which is true. Bob hasn’t asked the city to manage the ballots in those boxes, in fact he doesn’t want the city to touch them at all, he just wants the collection system to sit on city property that is also funded by the county via the Siouxland Libraries (which in some respects gives the county some jurisdiction). I’m not sure if Paul has ever TAKEN any law classes, but my interpretation of the law is pretty clear, and once again his ignorance of law and leadership shines thru, blatant voter suppression. And that folks is against the law, if only we had the capital to prove it.
Items #28-29, Resolutions for Police and Fire union contracts. As I understand it the Police are getting a 6.5% raise and Fire is getting 2.5%. So what is missing on the agenda? All the other union city employees under AFSCME. I have heard that members voted down the city’s offer of a 0% raise and rightfully so. We will see how they dance around this Tuesday night.
Item #30, a resolution to reinstate the Municipal band funding. I’m hearing some councilors will be proposing an amendment to make it a 5 year contract. The amendment is strangely not on the agenda.
Items #31-33, Greg Neitzert’s public ethics hearing is set for 6 PM, Thursday, Sept 10 at Carnegie Hall. After months of folly and foot dragging, Greg will finally get his day! Yippee! I can almost guarantee this will be some of the greatest municipal theater we have ever witnessed. I can tell you how this will play out, Greg will claim there was some grand plot to take him out (by a single retired dude) who colluded with some mysterious group of people (who shared some publicly owned public documents (emails). And another grand scheme that this retired dude had a publicly posted ordinance/chapter number slipped to him in the dark of the night. So his defense will be people colluded with Mr. Cunningham to give him public documents. The shame! The shame! Who dares to bring the public along on the ride! Which is funny, because Neitzert is the one who violated the ordinance, so his defense is to kill the messenger. Kind of reminds you of the golfer in chief in D.C. I hope he says during his hearing that it is a witch hunt and a hoax. Icing on the cake.
Neitzert’s affirmative defense will most likely be Russian interference. The “retired dude” and Paul Erickson both have domiciles at the same apartment complex. One new a sparrow, while the other is singing like a canary with public info. The only thing Russian about it all, however, is that it takes a lot of Vodka to blur the distinction…. Or, is that Russian gin? #RussianVaccination #RussianGinger #RedNRA
“Sioux Falls should monetize its debt. Create its own currency. So, there would be no need to raise our property taxes on an annual basis. I am sure this municipal currency, obviously known as a Sanford, would be very credible.” #ReserveCurrency #CountYourDennies
#CanUSpotMeADenny?
Not a good time for any kind of a tax increase. No raise for regular city workers is a good method for encouraging them to quit before there are layoffs from budget shortfall. Increasing police pay helps to guarantee public safety during the economic pandemic downturn. How about make it 10% if they agree to full time body cameras. Cameras will prevent choke holds and knee deaths. All lives matter here. Keep it that way. Video prevents defendant lawyering up and shortens litigation.
Property tax at least is not regressive like sales tax, or SS.
give to Denny what is Denny’s
I’ve noticed Lloyd sale or lease signs. It had been lease only until recently. West 12th is empty strip malls. Much of Minnesota Ave. is empty retail. There’s still residential construction but it’s slowing. Are these signs of a serious economic downturn?
No new taxes. It’s used to keep developers solvent. Property tax increase can be enough for a wave of citizen bankruptcy. There are fewer jobs, no wage increases, and accelerated inflation. The Fed is printing money without a base. Equity is disappearing because everything costs more.
Mr. Spin – on good authority from a long-time home-builder friend – the slow down in housing construction is due to the scarcity and greatly increased PRICES of building materials – primarily lumber. Cannot invet 2-3X the amount in materials and expect to profit on a new home at competitive prices. THAT, btw, is also why the housing market is so “hot” despite other economic problems. New construction would be vastly over-priced vs. buying a “used” house.
We will soon be seeing the mind-ending combination of a booming and high priced housing market, a lot of empty homes/apartments, and a hiuge rise in the numbers of homeless. Thanks Trump.