Besides the lack of open government and transparency the authoritarians running this city went full dictator tonight and shut off the audio of two public inputers (fast forward to the Lucky Lady Casino public input. During Sierra’s testimony, Pettigrew Neighborhood Association president, the last minute was shut off and the first minute of the next inputer. This wasn’t just shutting off the public input microphone, but the entire room was silent.
I’m not a videographer, but it was pretty obvious this was probably done intentionally and NOT a technical glitch.
UPDATE: The latest from the city is that someone ‘accidentally’ hit the button. I guess my question is who ‘accidentally’ turned the button back on 🙂
I noticed a few weeks ago that when David Z was giving one of his usual public inputs with his printed out slides that they did not show the slides in the video. Maybe that was a dry run?
This isn’t just an open meetings violation, BUT a clear violation of the 1st Amendment. Unless an inputer is cussing like a sailor or threatening elected officials, they have the right to say whatever they want to. The public doesn’t have to follow the decorum rules, even though they should, those rules are for those on the dais.
When local governments start censoring their citizens at public meetings we have serious issues with who is governing us.
UPDATE: MAYOR TENHAKEN ADMONISHES LEGACY DEVELOPMENT
During the debate over the casino issues last night Paul admonished Legacy Development for NOT selling the troubled property to the city three years ago when he met with them privately to buy the property.
I was told about the meeting three years ago, and from talking to a couple of different sources it seemed believable. I told a couple of different reporters with NO followup. I guess if you want to get the news around here you have to wait 3 years for the mayor to tell us about it.
My concern wasn’t the failed deal, my concern than and now is that the city should get out of the land speculation business and he shouldn’t be cutting real estate deals behind closed doors without the council being at the table.
The irony of this is that the city has plenty of ordinances and regulations on the books to take care of this property, they just have to stop deferring and start acting. Last night’s decision was easy. Apply the laws you currently have on the books to stop the short term problems and create a long term solution to the neighborhood problems.
YOU CAN DO BOTH AT THE SAME TIME!
I think one of the reasons the state isn’t building their one-stop facility DTSF is because they want to move those kind of services away from downtown.
Picture below was taken right after the city council meeting last night.
A Gag or a Gag Order? This is the question.
The state office move way out east is a joke. Two councilors said they voted for it so it will change/save public transit. Unfortunately they didn’t bother to mention what the price tag will be to add more routes or that the state won’t be paying for that …. We will.
No one is talking about the move including the parole offices or how we will be requiring parolees and sex offenders to congregate across the street from a school when they make their visits with their parole officers.
The one stop shop should be built on the same property where social services currently sits. Unfortunately, there’s too much money for developers to make with stadiums and such on that land.
Kind of a goombah move by Paulie, sorta like ‘Senator Geary’ straight out of the pages of the Godfather, Part II.
I hope ‘Tom Hagen’ isn’t called to retrieve a dazed, confused and incoherent politician from a compromising situation associated with the Sioux Falls Pride event later this summer.
I’m at a loss to understand how the owner of a property can be more responsible for the conduct of patrons to a business than is the license holder and organization managing day to day operations … other than the Mayor apparently covets the property.
Is Exodus 20:17 (The 10th Commandment) included in the bible of Dutch fundies?
State offices closer to Minnesota! Closer to democrats. At least it won’t be in the city of Cherapa. Uber passes if there’s no bus service.
Poll: View King Charles or Kentucky Derby on Saturday?
King Charles wears a skirt. Camila wears the pants.
The landowner/property holder’s are responsible for ALL Actvity that occurs on their land. They are responsible for the residents (or tenants) they place in their facilities. This is why Property Holders will run credit checks, felony checks, drug checks, etc-etc before placing anyone in their facility, cause if their tenants disrupted the surrounding residents, the property holder is held liable.
And I was in attendance at the City Council Meeting on May 2, 2023 – NO ONE was told they could not speak, and no one had a gag placed on them. That comment was way over exxagerated.
The Mayor simply told us all to respect the rules, procedures, and time limit of each speaker. NO ONE was sat down, spanked, nor escorted out of the facility. In fact, when the Mayor said ‘we’ were at our 30 minute time limit during public comments, hence closing public commentary, he did in fact ALLOW for 1 more comment, I know, cause I was the last speaker, and to prove a point I stood up to ackowledge that fact. You all are way to hard on the mayor here….Relax man…
Mike, I don’t know who pushed the button, I just want to know what happened. This is a public record, and when it is ‘shut off’ for any reason, that is a serious issue.
Referring to the new State Office District,
I understand some of the sentiments to this locations, however, we are talking about a building that is going to be so huge, hold pretty much all Statewide Departments – Revenue, State Department Offices, Labor, Social Services, Agriculture, and the numerous other offices, that predominantly, the crux of the people who will utilize this building are Landowners, Farmers, Business Owners, while roughly 20% of the services are social services (unemployment, workman comp, and personal benefits). We are talking about nearly 20 acres of land, of which is going to sit close to, or along S.D 100 (veteran parkway), with connections to I-90 in the north, and I-29 to the southwest, while the main city street closest to the State Offices would be E. 26th Street, while you also have access from S.D 42 or E. 10th Street.
It is not completely a bad location, and let’s remember, regardless of what the city does or does not do, the State could simply Preempt the “City” by utilizing Eminent Domain so long as the property holders concede, or agree to give up part of, or parts of their land. The State simply came to the “City” asking the people for the right to build their offices in this location.
This is not simply a Statewide Office Center for the “City” – it is also going to be a Southeast Regional Hub of the State, which is also planning the same type of facility in the other three corners of the State, with “Pierre” being the epicenter of course. IT is simply going to be a “Statewide Governmental District”.
So, with more research, you will find this building is not necessarily just for residents of Sioux Falls, but for the whole southeast corner fo the state, mostly for Business, Farmers, Landowners of whom wish to conduct business with the “State” giving the government a central place in this region to conduct business among the people.
So in that perspective, you now see, that this quite a stark difference based on what you read in the media.