Informational Meeting • 4 PM
Three presentations;
• EMS Annual Update and Rate Increase (notice in the linked documents there is NO mention of what they are asking for in a rate increase.)
• Senior/Disabled Municipal Property Tax Refund (not sure what the presentation is about, this is something that is already offered by the county. Maybe the city will start doing it now also?)
• Public Safety Home Buying Assistance Program (this is something that is done in other communities across the country with some success. Basically if Fireman and Police want to buy homes in lower income neighborhoods they would get assistance. While I am NOT opposed to the idea, as a realtor told me yesterday, this city is allowing the hospitals to eat up and tear down all the affordable housing in these neighborhoods and slumlords neglecting rental property instead of letting people buy these homes and fix them up themselves. I have felt for a long time we are neglecting our core, and we could easily implement programs to fix it up rapidly while providing home ownership that is affordable. But I guess that is some kind of far fetched hippy idea.)
Item #6, Approval of Contracts;
Sub Item #6, Health Dept, Agreement to grant funds for Operation Hope Fund for use in
public, charitable, or humanitarian purposes and accommodation. Grant funding shall focus on improving continuity of care for individuals served at The Link. Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation, $500K. (this seems like an interesting backdoor way of funding the LINK without having an additional subsidy. The city council will eventually have to do this because the LINK has been plum full since day they opened. This of course should be NO surprise).
Sub Item #28, Parks & Rec, Conditional Gifting Agreement for house renovations with other improvements to be located at the Tuthill House within Tuthill Park. This gifting agreement will provide for exterior and interior house renovations and hardscaping to be funded and completed by the Tuthill Neighborhood Association, Tuthill Park Neighborhood Association, $0.00 (As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is a rare one. The Association took care of the entire project with very little from the city, design, contractors, materials etc. The sad irony is that this place should have been taken care of to begin with and never got into such disrepair. Some people are starting to wonder what is the Parks Department doing with their money?)
Item #7, Change Orders,
Sub Item #2, Phillips Avenue Improvements, 14th Street to 18th Street; Additional quantities and unforeseen conditions, T & R Contracting, $223K (I’m not sure what this is about, but I have warned that with prices of construction materials going up, contractors will be trying to have that inflation covered. I would like to see a councilor pull this item and have the street department explain what ‘additional quantities’ is?)
Item #23, Application for one day liquor licenses. (Notice the applicant who provides beverages at Levitt is asking for all of the licenses at the first meeting of the month, good idea.)
Item #57, 61-63, 2nd Reading, Sioux Steel TIF, which used to be 22 magically becomes 24 with the snap of the city’s fingers, yet they can’t figure out how to follow IM 26 rules without a lot of consternation and unrecorded task force meetings.
Item #59, 1st Reading, Ambulance rate increase (when you look at the original contract, you will see they are going from a 3% rate increase to a 5%.)
Item #65, A RESOLUTION ADVISING AND GIVING CONSENT TO THE APPOINTMENT OF MEMBERS TO CERTAIN CITIZEN BOARDS. (Notice that former city councilor Erpenbach is getting appointed to the REMSA board, could this mean more transparency? LMFAO!)
Item #67, A MOTION TO PROVIDE ADVICE AND CONSENT FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF JONATHAN THUM AS POLICE CHIEF. (I told you the pretty one was going to get this appointment. Wonder if he will get any tough questions during his confirmation? Don’t hold your breath, that is NOT how cruise control government works.)
What if Public Safety Home Buying becomes a sophisticated method for taking more homes for hospital development? Isn’t this a federally untaxable income raise in compensation given the real estate equity? Shouldn’t it be only in high crime areas? Could this move safety employees from middle income high income areas? How about just give them a raise so they can afford and buy a home in Sioux Falls?
Sounds like reverse block busting to me. Give them a substantial raise ONLY if they buy and live in a high crime area of Sioux Falls where they can settle a local disturbance and be on call 24/7 and sooner in an emergency.
The intersection of 18th and Phillips wasn’t originally included in the project, so the City added it by change order. All I had to do to find out was to ask someone…lol.
Maybe that should have been in the Change Order notes instead of something cryptic. As taxpayers we shouldn’t have to ask someone, it should be there in black and white, it goes back to my argument of the ABCs of open government. Put all that information out there so we don’t have to speculate and ask someone. It also has to do with the massive ADA complaint against the city and now they are quietly replacing these sidewalk ends. Nobody in the local media has said a peep about whey a lot of these projects are going on, it is because the FEDS said the city of sioux falls had thousands of violations.