Well this is a relief. I think it is funny that after posting the original plaque the Parks Department ripped it off and changed it. This is how petty they are or maybe the family was not thrilled about being compared to a whackadoodle crowd. What I don’t understand is if you want to honor someone in this way, which I think is wonderful, why be so mysterious about who they are? If you want it to be a mysterious, just buy a bench with NO plaque and be done with it.
Modesty is bred of self-reverence. Fine manners are the mantle of fair minds. — Amos Bronson Alcott
I said after this last city election I am going to try to focus on blogging about policy instead of the people who make the policy.
Let’s face it, over the next two years most policy is going to come from the mayor’s office with little to no discussion before passing a super majority of the council.
So instead of targeting the people who approve and write this policy, let’s target the policy inself. Hopefully I can stick with it 🙂
WHO IS OPPOSING THE ANTI-SLAUGHTERHOUSE PETITION?
I don’t know the answer to that question yet, but I have been told by a business leader in Sioux Falls there is a person(s) and they will tell me soon. They also said it may be surprising.
Also interesting that the chief lobbyist of the petition drive isn’t releasing who is funding his group. But that will have to eventually be released because of campaign finance rules.
IS A SIOUX FALLS CITY COUNCILOR MAKING A CAREER CHANGE?
There is a rumor floating around that a certain city councilor is leaving their current job to work in another field. So far, according to their work profiles online, they have not made that move yet. We will keep our eyes peeled since their new full-time employment could have some conflict of interest issues when it pertains to their votes on the dais.
WILL MY HOMEOWNER’S INSURANCE COVER THE NEW SIDEWALK ORDINANCE?
The owner(s) of such real property shall be liable to the city for any and all damage or injury caused by such neglect and shall be responsible for the costs of abating the public nuisance.
I am still baffled how a city can pass an ordinance that makes a homeowner responsible for injury that may occur on city owned property? Am I now going to be found responsible for a car accident in front of my house? I have argued for awhile that if property owners are responsible for all maintenance, and now insurance coverage, for the sidewalk in front of that property and boulevard, that property should be reverted to the property owner, and they can decide when and how they want to maintain it. I would probably tear out my sidewalk. The only person I see ever using it is my mailman, and he usually walks across the yards anyway.
As for the goofy grant program proposed by the city, a better alternative would be to go into these core neighborhoods with 2,600 violations and fix the whole street, curb and gutter, boulevard, sidewalk and lighting and forgo a complicated bureaucratic mess. But that would take forward thinking policies. All this grant program is is flim-flam puffery disguised as a solution.
WILL THE NEW EAT WELL PROGRAM BE JUST A WELFARE PROGRAM FOR BIG GROCERY DELIVERIES?
The $400K grant has to be specific. It has to provide affordable solutions to getting food to poorer neighborhoods. This is good. Councilor Brekke suggested using some of the money to create more community gardens and promote urban gardening. I know people in Sioux Falls that garden all year long inside and outside. I think we should spend the entire amount on it. We could also do classes on canning and other ways to preserve the food for winter months.
We should also use the money to create small fruit tree forests in our parks. We already pay dearly for maintaining our parks system. Does it really cost any more to maintain a fruit tree vs. a regular tree or bush?
What will most likely happen is a program that will subsidize the big grocery chains in Sioux Falls to deliver food to people’s homes. Unfortunately this is NOT a long term solution like urban gardening and once the money runs out, the program ends.
Like the sidewalk grant program, it would have just been easier to have a public meeting with citizens and stakeholders and carve out a city wide gardening and fruit forest system, but instead we are going to allow applicants to write the policy while collecting the money.
Once again, terrible policy because of the lack of vision, leadership, common sense and most importantly the war on open and transparent government.
A recent winning council candidate said that if elected he would make it his mission to engage the public. I think the first proposal to come out of his mouth on the dais is to pump the brakes on this and to engage the public about ideas, you know, the people paying for it.
I did not attend the Snoop Dogg concert last night, but I heard it was quite ‘smoky’ in the Denty. The SFPD released this statement;
Sioux Falls Public Information Officer Sam Clemens said that the police department did not receive any calls of drug use at the PREMIER Center during Tuesday’s show and there were no arrests made.
I guess he went on to say that there have also been no arrests made in the Tuthill ghost shooter event and the Gilberto’s incident. ‘At this time our concentration is just on arresting city employees’ (snarc).
UPDATE: Here is a copy of the petition, and also a detailed story about it.
So the people fighting the Wholestone Packing Plant filed this last Wednesday (FULL PDF)
Notice the name of the committee is ‘Smart Growth Sioux Falls’, and below they listed their intentions ‘The ballot question committee supports measures to prohibit certain Slaughterhouses from being constructed, or being permitted to operate, within Sioux Falls city limits’
I guess it would be safe to assume they will attempt to circulate a petition to stop Wholestone. While they have made no pronouncements to the media or on their website about what their intentions are, I am guessing we will hear soon. They will probably have 6 months to gather a little over 6,000 signatures.
Without taking a stance until I know more about their intentions, I will warn them, the city’s legal counsel will either do everything in their power to kill your petitions or fall over themselves to support you to get this on the ballot.
This will be fun to watch from the outside for once.
I had a great convo today with a local businessman and Switzerland’s direct democracy form of government and how the Swiss people embrace voting on most laws that affect them. I have felt for a long time the only way you get anything done that truly affects our lives and government policy is thru direct democracy and the ballot box, and this is a prime example. Representative government is a flawed and broken system.
Presentations on the 2021 Financial Results and Eat Well, Sioux Falls Grant Program. There is NO attached documents (something I think moving forward we will not see in advance ever again).
I know I sound like a broken record, but I find it interesting that the 2021 financials were not presented to the public and city council in a public meeting until a week after the election. Millions in surpluses were given away before the election with NO official report. This is completely ass backwards.
If you look at the report you will notice that the audit was submitted to the city on March 23 and and acknowledgement to city council on March 28, one week before the election. Was the timing a coincidence? I think not.
Sub-Item #2, Sioux Falls Arts Council Funding, $32K+, While I have NO issue with this, I am wondering why these non-profits don’t have to give a presentation about what they have been doing with the money. The same goes for the Pavilion that basically sucks the entertainment tax dry every year and the Levitt, in which we have no clue how they ended up financially in 2021.
Sub-Item #39, Technology, Website/Content Management System Agreement; Open Cities, $425,593.00 (Five Year Total), Optional $65K for additional consulting services per year. (up to $150K per year) New software replaces legacy website and content management system with a new more efficient website and content management system.
Item #24, Washington Pavilion getting a liquor license. While I have my issues with the Pavilion, I think this is overdue. They should have had one on day one. The transfer is another issue from a veterans association.
Item #50, More surplus handouts.
Item #52, major overhaul of sidewalk ordinances (and mostly who is responsible). What I find most egregious in this change to ordinance is it is happening in the middle of an onslaught of over 2,600 citations in poorer neighborhoods (including my property). They want to change the rules in the middle of the game. If you read the ordinance, this sticks out;
The owner(s) of such real property shall be liable to the city for any and all damage or injury caused by such neglect and shall be responsible for the costs of abating the public nuisance. Examples of sidewalk defects constituting a public nuisance include, but are not limited to:
So while the sidewalk is owned by the city and sits on city property they are somehow expecting your insurance or personal assets to cover personal injury claims on their property. It is utterly F’ing ridiculous. It’s like saying a car accident in front of your house is your responsibility because the street is next to your property. The street abuts the boulevard that abuts the sidewalk that abuts your property. I go back to the simplest of premises. We pay taxes for services. This means the city should maintain it’s property and liability from the taxes we pay.
Item #53, more money flying around for an ice ribbon we do not need.
Items #58-59, Resolutions, more money moving around after an election.
l3wis 
