South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

December 2021

Mayor TenHaken Planning Commission SF City Council Sioux Falls

Reflecting on 2021 in Sioux Falls City Government, Part I

l3wis 3Comments

You will see a continuing trend in the current administration, a HATRED towards transparency and dozens of potential coverups;

• Mayor TenHaken said his goal for 2021 was to be the most inclusive mayor of all time in the city. I guess he has moved on in 2022 . . .

• The City of Sioux Falls got an ethics (violations) insurance policy.

• City Council gives out 3 TIFs in 2021 totaling around $144 million for condos, parking ramps and egg roll factories.

• The Sioux Falls Planning commission has serious attendance issues and conflicts of interest.

• Ghost Ambulance REMSA coverup artist, SF Health Director Jill Franken retires.

• City Attorney’s office covers up over a dozen ethics complaints and throws them out without public view.

• Accused and wanted child molester is found working at the MIDCO.

• Even with an entire department dedicated to technology the city continues to have issues with the online streaming of videos.

• Legal settlement with the DT Bunker Ramp still has not been accomplished (or maybe it has?)

• During a mask mandate discussion at a city council meeting TenHaken looses his marbles after being called out on how he tries to stop public input.

• After several years of panhandling issues in Sioux Falls the city puts up signs to tell people to stop doing it while panhandlers just stand under the signs and continue to do it.

• City blows COVID money on play things like butterflies, ice rinks and tennis courts.

• City opens TRIAGE center in which it continues to be underfunded and hardly makes a dent on the problems it was meant to solve.

• City approves a tiny house community for veterans.

• Multi-cultural Center Director is dismissed(?).

• City of Sioux Falls concocts Medical MJ dispensary rules behind closed doors making a mockery of the public process.

• Sioux Falls police chief retires(?)

• TenHaken decides to run for a 2nd Term but has yet to campaign or have an official FB page for the campaign.

• TenHaken continues to push behind closed doors to buy up property along the loop so it can be bulldozed for preferred developers.

• 2021 School Board Election has a 5.13% voter turnout.

• Councilors Jensen and Erickson hold a housing summit coffee, nothing came of it.

• Councilor Jensen’s sidewalk scooter ordinance is withdrawn because he fails to engage the public.

• Levitt has successful season even if the adult beverage vendor stretched the truth about being the major contributor to their annual budget. Still waiting for the 2021 budget numbers . . .

• Wholestone Farms, an entity owned by regional pork producers, plans to build a more than $500 million pork processing facility in Sioux Falls without ANY government handouts (TIFs). They are even considering building housing (apartments) for the employees.

• Sioux Falls Districting Commission changes Central District to include Whittier and Cathedral neighborhoods.

• The Charter Revision Commission throws out ALL citizen proposals for the April ballot, but the city council manages to put a salary increase on the ballot.

• The city sprays for mosquitos in broad daylight and claims it is safe to spray on humans and pets. When asked why they are spraying in daylight they claim they can’t get employees to work at night (a couple hours later).

• It takes private donors to SAVE the Tuthill hospitality home and they do it for half the price the city would have spent.

• City Attorney’s office makes a secret deal for a land swap with the developers of the Sioux Steel project and councilors are told they can’t talk about it publicly.

• Sioux Falls ONLY daily newspaper finally admits the failure of the EC entertainment district, and does it anonymously. Now that is integrity in journalism!

• City leadership does very little to encourage Covid vaccination leaving it up to the private sector to inform us.

• The city parks department takes my advice and posts safety signs along bike trail even though they read more like a Bible verse than a warning.

• There is a push by city council and the planning department to have the State Legislature change laws in 2022 to allow rebates on excise taxes, 0% TIFs and skipping the zoning process when it comes to building apartments next to residential. While dome deregulation and tax breaks would be great, they really need to start at the bottom.

• A (non) settlement is made with the defective windows on the Midco while no one is really held accountable and the SF MSM did NO stories about it. It’s like it never happened.

• The mayor’s youngest daughter gives us a new nickname for him, Mayor Poops. (I was surprised there wasn’t more media coverage on this 🙂

Bike Trail christmas

What was your favorite Christmas Gift?

l3wis 15Comments

Share with me something you got for Christmas (material or not) that was your favorite gift that left an impact on your life?

Mine was my first bicycle (with no training wheels). I don’t think I ever had training wheels on my bike and remember riding around the block by myself wiping out several times and running into parked cars. It wasn’t new, I think my dad found it in a dump or thrift store. It was a Coast to Coast that he spray painted. I think that is why I still have an obsession with one-speed junkers. This year I bought my first E-Bike and I have been riding it almost everyday since I got it.

Bishop Dudley House Downtown Sioux Falls Homeless Mayor TenHaken SF City Council SFPD Sioux Falls

The situation at The Dudley House is worsening

l3wis 4Comments

I have often assumed that it was only a matter of time that people started dying in the parking lot at the Dudley House. Only a few months ago a stabbing occurred across the street and we also found out recently that calls to that intersection (area) make up 20% of ALL police calls in our city.

Now someone has died in their car in the parking lot due to a fire. While there is an ongoing investigation, some of my city hall moles have told me what initially was found. It was likely NOT foul play or an ACCIDENT. There is also a rumor going around that the person was a resident of the facility but was having some conflicts with them.

Like I said, the investigation is ongoing, but the SFFD needs to be upfront and honest with what happened, no matter what it was. You must first face the truth before solving a problem.

As you know, I have been pressuring the Mayor and the City Council to act with a task force that involves the entire neighborhood and other city resources. I have been told over the last couple of days the new Police Chief has been trying to come up with a strategy to fix some of the issues. I remain adamant this is a community issue that must to solved publicly and transparently involving many groups. I would even be willing to serve on the task force since this issue does overflow into my neighborhood almost a mile away.

I honestly believe that the reason no public task force is being put together is because it is 4 months from an election and if certain people in office just ignore the problem or try to quietly solve it on their own it will just go away.

I wish Chief Thum the best of luck, but I think he knows this will take a village to solve not a quiet baton.

Elections Janet Brekke Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council folds like a wet paper bag

l3wis 43Comments

At the meeting tonight the council decided that after councilor Brekke shot holes in their pay raise proposal and offered an amendment to reduce the pay raise by $30K (Proposal was $195K reduced to $165K and it is currently $130K) they voted for her amendment.

They did it, because I would assume they got an earful from constituents over the past week about how ridiculous the original proposal was. Even people I talked to over the past week that have no clue about what happens at city hall scoffed at a 30% pay increase and the fact that the mayor accosted me in the lobby of Carnegie Hall about it. Someone asked me, “What’s his deal?” I responded, “You would have to ask his chiropractor, or his pastor, I think they are one in the same.”

They passed this amendment to save face in hopes that citizens will vote for the lesser increase and they might, it certainly is more palatable.

I still reject it because little to no research was done on the original proposal and the whole thing needs to be thrown out. It was pretty freaking obvious the original proposal reflected a $1 per resident, which is something a 3rd grader would have concocted, or former Councilor Rex Rolfing.*

I’m glad it was reduced, but it was only reduced so it has a better chance of passing. I have already talked to some people with a strategy on how we will inform the public to vote this down. The council needs to go back to the drawing board.

In other news I have heard a couple things through the grapevine;

• There may be a group working on initiative to throw out Home Rule Charter in Sioux Falls. I am absolutely NOT involved, but I would be willing to support them in anyway.

• There is also talk that two more mayoral candidates may emerge. I am told both are male and Republican. I may know one of them, but uncertain who the other candidate is. I know there is a lot of frustration with Paul’s cruise control government in the business sector.

*In the past during a working session in which the council was discussing swimming pool fees, Rolfing pulled a number literally from his his behind, in which Erpenbach chewed him out about how he came up with it. She basically told him the numbers have to be based on study and research not what happens between his ass cheeks (she really didn’t say that, but she was pretty PO’d).

Bishop Dudley House Downtown Sioux Falls Homeless Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls Dudley House Director blames VA and Poor Public Transit for Homeless issues

l3wis 11Comments

In November, the Director of the Dudley House Homeless shelter, Madeline Shields, shared her frustration with Jon Micheals on FORUM. While she praised the SFPD she shared a lot of frustration with how the VA doesn’t help (without using their name) and that Public Transit is almost non-existent on the weekends. While I would agree with her public transit is a complete turd mobile and the VA is a joke, there are solutions.

She said that it is hard for people who live in the shelter to get to work on the weekends if they work at hotels without public transit. First off, the hotels could pick them up since most of them have shuttle buses and secondly, this is what happens when you build a shelter where there are few jobs nearby for those who live there.

As for the VA, why not have a constant/permanent contact with them, or better yet, get in touch with our supposed three pro-veteran congressional delegates and tell them the issues (oh that’s right none of them have ever served.)

Shields also said that in order for them to get work, they must have a birth certificate to get an ID and those items should be FREE to the residents. Or, the shelter could start and endowment fund to help them pay for it? They come up with $200 a day for lunch, but don’t have a fund for IDs? OR get a hold of our legislators and get it changed.

There is also a need for more FELON FRIENDLY housing, which I would agree, but developers and contractors work on a GREED only basis. TIFs for Condos NOT for former CONVICTS.

She also says many choose to live outside instead of taking advantage of the shelter. While this is true, they certainly don’t need to be using your parking lot, we can come up with options.

I get her frustration with how many government programs are set up OR not set up, but this is why I have been telling people you have to put many heads together to come up with a solution(s). Just going on FORUM and complaining about it doesn’t fix it.

Honestly, I don’t understand the resistant to trying to solve this issue. Shields is right, it’s not all in her lap, but she has to be willing to reach out for solutions. Homelessness doesn’t solve itself on its own. Maybe after the City Council and Mayor get their 30% raise next year, they’ll start tackling the homeless issue ☹

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