It takes a foreign journalist to call out the Trump B.S.
l3wis If this video wasn’t so sad, it would be hilarious.
Below is the uninterrupted interview;
2020
Mayor TenHaken’s employee mask proposal
When I heard about the mayor mandating city employees to wear masks a friend said to me, “Looks like he found his stones.†And I replied, “Huh? I thought city employees were already mandated to wear masks?â€
And am serious about that second part. I guess I just felt that from the beginning of this pandemic that the City Manager (Mayor Paul) would have naturally mandated mask use from the beginning for city employees. During the middle of our largest spike in months isn’t really the time to go, “By the way, we might be able to put the fire out quicker if we stop pouring gasoline on it.â€
I will give credit though to the city employees. For the most part, I have seen them wearing masks (this is why I just figured it was already happening) not to mention, unless you were a cop, fire fighter or parks/public works employee, you were working from home for months which didn’t require a mask.
My last dig is something I have been b’tching about since Paul was inaugurated, DO YOUR JOB AS THE CITY MANAGER, MANAGE THE CITY AND IT’S EMPLOYEES! I’m amazed it took 6 months + into this pandemic for Paul to find the chapter in city charter that lays out his job duties; run the city by managing your directors and employees. Pretty simple.
And while I’m on the soap box, where were you for a week? Conducting city business . . . or conducting 5G business? Inquiring minds would like to know.
3 Weeks and still NO accident report from AG Jason Ravnsborg’s fatal crash
A good Republican friend told me when I proposed blogging about the correlation between Jason’s crash and him being printed on the ballot as a presidential elector as a nothing burger.
I am starting to think more and more that I may be on to something.
I still believe, and as the clock ticks, that we will not see an accident report until after the election.
I also still believe that since early voting has already started and the ballots are printed, that this all about appearance.
How can you drop a case or indict a presidential elector only a few weeks away from a presidential election? Well you can, they can even replace him. But that wouldn’t look good? Would it?
While the governor and some on the legislature have no desire to mandate mask wearing, they seem to be putting an awfully large mask over this investigation.
Just when you see state officials do something corrupt, they always out do themselves, and this one is a WHOPPER.
Reverberations from the Greg Neitzert Board of Ethics impeachment ruling
Guest Post-Cameraman Bruce
The reverberations from the Greg Neitzert Board of Ethics impeachment ruling is still causing waves in the Board of Ethics schedule. On Tuesday, October 6th, 2020 at 9:00am, of course at a time where few can attend, there are two Ethics requests. Remember, Greg Neitzert was impeached (or indicted) by the Board of Ethics probable cause letter sent to the City Council causing the recent quasi-judicial hearings by the body.
The first ethics agenda item is an advisory request from City Council member Janet Brekke. Brekke is asking for clarity in the accusations leveled at her by the impeached Greg Neitzert. If you remember, Neitzert claimed John Cunningham had compromised her when he asked Brekke (a former city attorney) for clarity on the ethics process since the Board of Ethics and the city attorney refused to explain the process and their decision to him.
Brekke, like all city council members are able to assist their constituents where possible. Come to think of it, if they do not assist their constituents, then what good are they?
During the process, the soon to be impeached Neitzert sent ex parte communications to council members, attorneys and the Board of Ethics members in efforts to sway their actions and besmirch the integrity of Brekke and Cunningham. There should be another ethics complaint against Neitzert for this attempt to improperly attack Brekke. You notice in the packet, a threatening email from Neitzert, sent to Brekke and Pat Starr, promising retribution, as council chair, if they did not recuse themselves from the process.
How stupid is the impeached Sioux Falls City Council Chair Greg Neitzert? He is making some sort of threats of retribution against other members of the panel and letting the members of the Board of Ethics in on his plan? What is ethical or where is integrity in his planned attack?
The second agenda item on the BOE agenda is a REQUEST FOR INVESTIGATION (attachment 3) filed by David Zokaities. Zokaities is asking the Board to investigate and release the evidence, with all information, the Board found to make their statement in the Sioux Falls Board of Ethics’ Report on complaint 20-B and recommendations to City Council:
c. The Board finds other incidents of past travel by City officers for which a third party paid expenses. While the Board did not thoroughly investigate or determine the full extent of such practices by City officers or officials, the practice appears to be common. The Board did not determine whether attendance at any prior event(s) was specifically improper.
Zokaities is now asking the Board to do their job, to finish the investigation, they alluded to and expose the violations. If the city officials and staff are making secret trips, we the public must know how they are using their positions to possibly corrupt our government. Are they getting more illegal free trips? Are they getting more illegal free meals? Are they getting boats parked in their driveways or Rolex watches for doing their gifters work? We don’t know since our administration was hired by the people in 2018 by promising transparency. If it was happening before 2018, we also need to know. The Board made the accusation in writing, so let’s see the evidence and then, let the prosecutions begin?
If a librarian can’t accept a meal or honorarium to serve on a national board, the cops could not receive discount gift cards or the Planning Director had to give up his conflicting corporate advisory position in recent BOE hearings, then we must know who is taking 3rd party paid for trips or meetings. If the officials are not taking the trips, then the BOE must clarify what they are talking about.
No evidence related to this statement was released to the public or Council to complete the Council’s impeachment process. There is a gap in public knowledge. If city officials who are elected, appointed or staff are making illegal trips, we the public have a right to know. The impeached Neitzert in his only “report†to the council was an email sent while at the meeting proudly told of the group’s mission on certain issues. Funny thing is, he never let anyone know what he was going to attempt to do on the group’s behalf. Zokaities wants to know as we all do, what Neitzert and the rest of the “offending†city elected, appointed or staff have been doing.
Sioux Falls does not have any other method to find out this information. The Board and Council has been derelict in their duties up to this point to tell who and what they were accusing the get to this answer. Who and where are they traveling using the city credentials they have been secretly using.
The Board of Ethics and the Sioux Falls City Council have, through these recent actions, shown we might as well shut down the public’s right to know and also hold the officials responsible for their actions. Shame on them and shame on us for letting this happen.
Thank you to Janet Brekke and David Zokaities for helping the rest of us clarify the issues raised in the impeachment of Greg Neitzert. The public must show up, if even to just listen and watch. These meetings seem to always be at a time few people can attend. By showing up we let the Board know we care about the corruption possibilities this entire scheduling process and the resulting decisions create.
Vote Yes on Amendment A & 26
I’m encouraging everyone to vote for these two items on the ballot in November.
My endorsement probably doesn’t mean a hill of beans, because I think most people have their minds made up about legalization.
The South Dakota Chamber has been leading a Bullsh*t campaign from the beginning. Why? Because rumor has it that internal polling done by the Chamber shows Medical has broad support. I’m not sure what Rec is polling but my guess is if Medical is doing that well, Rec probably is also.
So why the fight on one and not the other? Besides the polling, even if 26 passes, it is just an initiative and the Legislature can overturn it. If Rec passes, the legislature cannot touch it because ‘A’ is a constitutional amendment.
But what probably scares the Chamber even more is that the Amendment dictates how much of the the tax revenue goes towards education. In other words, the legislature can’t raid the fund like they did when they increased sales taxes for teacher pay.
Whether you use or not, here are some important things to consider, and one of the main reasons I support both measures; It will save taxpayers millions each year in justice and legal costs and will generate millions in tax revenue, not just for education but for the general fund. Better Schools. Better Roads. Better Courts.
The ‘social cost’ of usage probably won’t change much under our current system of black market, instead as taxpayers we will finally reap the benefits of making it legal.
Don’t be fooled by a bunch of pencil pushers at the Chamber. Decriminalization is sweeping the country, it’s only inevitable nationwide, we might as well get a jump on it now.