I joked with someone yesterday when asked what I thought about all the turmoil in Brandon (no police chief, no mayor) that it seemed the city is just on cruise control and about to pull a Ravnsborg and hit the ditch. I’m starting to wonder the same thing about the City of Sioux Falls and Minnehaha County.
Remember all the endless road construction on the road in front of the jail last year? The road construction was supposed to be in conjunction with the new jail, but apparently when all is said and done, when it rains the road causes water to run down into the jail’s door. The price tag to fix it? $500K. There also seems to be a debate about who should pay for this colossal f’up? County or City? The county says they over budgeted for the jail so they have the money to fix the screwup the city caused and they don’t want anybody with the city to get angry with them. While the city was responsible for the road, I am curious why the taxpayers should foot the bill? What about our anger? Shouldn’t the engineer and contractor fix their mistake at their expense? That’s how it works in the real world. I had a friend a few years ago that had a leaky roof after her roof was re-shingled. After wrangling back and forth with the contractor he agreed to fix it at his expense. That is how these things work. But it seems like these days when contractors screw up roofs, windows, siding or HVAC systems for city owned facilities, we the taxpayers have to foot the bill and our cruise control government just says ‘oh well’.
I’m starting to think the Mayor’s office, the City Attorney’s office, the HR department, the Health Department and the Public Works department seem to all be on cruise control these days. I think everyone went to work from home at the beginning of the pandemic, fell asleep and never woke up.
l3wis 