We could argue about that until we are blue in the face, but when you have administration that is very bad with money it usually means some kind of corruption is going on, and his circus monkeys called the city council (no matter who they are) go along with it.
In just a few short years they have managed to bilk the taxpayers out of millions to help and benefit friends and family, here is a short trip down the memory lane of corruption (the list originally was only 6 items, but once I started discussing with others the list has grown, and I can’t even discuss stuff behind the scenes);
• Creation of the PRIVATE Parks Association (This group was started so VIPs in Sioux Falls can use their donations as a tax write-off. Don’t care about that, rich people are constantly finding ways to not pay their fair share, oh well. But what is frustrating is not the donations but controlling the narrative and forcing the public to take on their pet projects and help fund them. Parks amenities should be a directive of the public NOT rich donors. We will take your money and inform the IRS, but we should really let the public decide.)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Buying the Sanford Wellness Center (So we bought a failing facility from Sanford so we can subsidize it?)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Jacobsen Plaza (Originally a $4 million dollar project, turns into a $16 million dollar project for a facility NO ONE in the community was asking for. I literally haven’t heard one single person tell me they want this, most just say, “Another Parks White Elephant like Great Bear.”)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Great Bear (We’ve thrown millions at this facility over the past few years, and for what? To be open a couple of weeks in January? It’s time to make this a FREE natural winter park and let people use it when they want to and sell off all the lifts and snowmaking equipment).
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Golf Course Clubhouse (Originally just a simple expansion of the current Elmwood clubhouse and a cart shed replacement has turned into a country club clubhouse project. This is a modest muni course, a pole barn would do with some nice landscaping. But the council approved it anyway.)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Massive subsidies for indoor recreation (The MIDCO is subsidized $1.2 million a year, the wellness center will probably be double that, and the sad part is you can’t walk into these facilities for free. I said we need to start focusing on FREE recreation.)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Delbridge Museum coverup (Initially lying to the public then trying to cover it up about the conditions of the animals. I have said we are missing a massive opportunity here, we could build all new dioramas that surround the aquarium and we would have one of the most unique exhibits in the world! But that takes vision.)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Sixth Street Bridge ($10 million cost overrun to bailout a whiny developer.)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Bunker Ramp (This is a gigantic mess and I just found out more about this debacle recently – more to come on this!)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• TIFs (handing them out like Booty Prizes, and now to developers out of state.)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Censoring the Bunker Ramp mural (They said the mural was racist and then the Smithsonian picked the piece. I have said that the mayor and his prosperity gospel folks he runs with are culturally retarded).
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Riverline District (Besides the fact there are massive conflicts of interest with the brokering with this deal and other developments the public should NOT be paying for this, and they especially shouldn’t be buying property with Entertainment Tax money.)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Lying about income tax and IM 28 (This will never happen, if this passes the legislature will just increase sales taxes on everything else. An income tax? Yeah, and monkeys will be flying out of my butt.)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Former councilor Marshall Selberg living out of his district for over a year (This is more corrupt then fiscally irresponsible, but you could make the argument having a chair voting on city expenditures while he is illegally living out of his district could be bad for city finances.)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Dakota Scout and Legal Notices (So the full council new the investors and voted for this anyway hiding the information from the public. This isn’t about the money it’s about Paulson controlling the narrative).
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Eliminating the Internal Audit (This is actually all on former councilor Jensen and screwing up managing council employees and allowing the mayor to hire the Audit Manager after she was LIKELY on probation with the council. Not sure if that is the case, but it is pretty easy to put 2 & 2 together.)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Ignoring the LGTB community (I could use a lot of colorful language, no pun intended, but I will just say, the queer community ain’t real impressed with Poops. It also has an economic impact. Many queers in this community own businesses and contribute to our bottom line. Acting like they don’t exist isn’t helping that relationship.)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Sustainability Report (After a group of volunteers spends months on this project the mayor’s policy advisor, the pumpkin recycler, shreds the document). There is also the economic impact of sustainability.
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Homelessness (The mayor had a press conference today that didn’t solve a damn thing, I know, shocker. The Q & A I heard was quite spicy. A KELOLAND employee busted the mayor in a stat he pulled from his ass. The city needs to figure out how to manage the issue, NOT eliminate it. You will never end homelessness BUT with several measures, policies and ordinances and actual action you can manage the problem. This is what other cities have done, don’t look at it as a problem to SOLVE but something you can MANAGE. The mayor has also ignored the issue thinking it will just go away, that is NEVER a solution. There is also a fiscal impact, and where the city is dropping the ball. The downtown business district brings in a lot of revenue for the city, and with the struggling economy, inflation and now increased homeless traffic they are hurting, which hurts all of us including the homeless.)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Childcare (Not getting the business community to step up. Poops needs to use the bully pulpit to put his boot up the ass of large companies in this town and have them start subsidizing childcare. I don’t think tax dollars should be used on this, but you have to admit there is a massive labor market fiscal impact if we don’t solve this problem.)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
• Backdoor real estate deals (Not only did the mayor laugh all the way to the bank, it helped the buyer increase the value of properties around the one they purchased.)
FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE AND CORRUPT!
As you can see, not the best track record, and if we had media in this town with some historical knowledge they would be all over this. Some do, but most don’t.
Speaking of historical knowledge, I have also heard a rumor that city employee morale is way down, not just because of poor leadership by Poops, but because Millennial management has been quietly pushing out Boomers. Besides the fact that employment rules, regs and laws may be broken here due to age discrimination it is even more troubling that the city is ridding itself of city employees with historical knowledge. I often tell people when you eat out, ask to eat in the section of the oldest server they have. Pick a winner every time!
I think it is time to start discussing recall efforts, not only of the Mayor but of the entire Council. This crap is getting old. I encourage anyone who would like to join the effort to email me.
“But at press conference he sure looks good”
The city (because of Home Rule Charter) has become organized crime. They’ve eliminated checks and balances. There’s no audit. They get nearly a billion dollar budget with no accounting. Where’s the infrastructure improvement? Every project is triple what it should cost. It’s not corruption, it’s a mafia syndicate.
I’ll walk downtown giving vagrants 10’s for cheap wine. It seems to be the only way to shame this mayor. He’s proven he can’t be held accountable. The system is broke. Even the FBI can’t help.
“Does Mogen David really cost that much now?”….
Look at the Net Position of the City of Sioux Falls, which operates as a for profit business entity. This is what a charter really does. The current charter is not the first, it is the 4th Charter in our history. The Village of Sioux Falls got a charter from the State of Iowa (1857) to establish a company, to which the landowner can profit from the land, the Sioux Falls City got a charter from the State of Minnessota to do the same. These two companies became Downtown Sioux Falls by today. East Sioux Falls had its own charter establishing their right to profit from the eastside quarries which were used to build Sioux Falls, and South Sioux Falls was established by charter to raise revenues to build a bread and breakfast community, where as West Sioux Falls was established to sell plats of land, to raise money to provide revenue for the University of Sioux Falls. By 1970, these four towns came together to create the Municpality of Sioux Falls, by 1995, they adopt a Home Rule right to control their own activities on the land, under the Constitution of South Dakota, to which those prevopus landowners created. The Net Position of the “City” is 2.5 billion dollars, most of the assets are vestefd in Land, Buildings, Infrastructure, to which like always, “WE” pay taxes towards to sustain those assets. Didg Deeper.
Dutch mafia. But they buy tzadik properties after he leaves office.. I pray the homeless go away the end .. lol
Careful. Don’t be shortchanging Huether, the greatest mayor in Sioux Falls history. Just ask him. Or read his book.
BTW, I hear “My Independent Mike” is already greasing the skids for a comeback in 2026. Lord help us all.
Mike, your spellcheck is off again.
Dear City Councilor Ryan Spellerberg,
Watching this press conference yesterday, it reminded me of the very reason Law Enforcement was created in the first place. Going back all the way to the 1830’s – Cities were incorporating law enforcement to serve, defend, and protect the best interests of the “City” – Commercial. The commercial entities pay to the city License Fees, to which go to fund law enforcement. When the City Police defend businesses, they are ultimately protecting our neighborhoods, and all public infrastructure collectively. The Mayor and Police Chief are 100% correct here, their main job should be to find solutions to controlling this behavior, in such a manner, that the commercial institutions can freely do what they do best, buy and sell their services with members of the community, to which contributes sales taxes to the city government, to which funds public roads, infrastructure, and other services thru-out the community. In the old days, you “Arm” your citizenry with firearms, and restrict foreign=persons coming into the city from other surrounding communities from bringing into the community their firearms. Remember the former Wild-Wild West – all the cowboys, and people from outside the City had to check their weapons at the front door upon entering the city limits, while the residents, mainly businesses, were armed, which led to helping law enforcement serve, defend, and protect the residents themselves. That is what the Licenses paid by business owners were designed to provide for – Law Enforcement.
So, as the Mayor and Police Chief are urging the residents to stop paying cash to these persons, seemingly acting homeless, they are enforcing an old, common law, that we are keeping this ‘foreign-group of people from coming into the city, to which harms the commercial interest of the city itself.
Rather than give these people cash, the “residents” should be passing out “Referral, Business-like Cards that say “Welcome to Sioux Falls, to Participate in Our Hospitality Service Program, call this Phone # to request public services such as Housing, Food, Clothing, Utilities, to Help Provide for Your Needs”.
Can’t we just round up all of the homeless and then have them build us a new convention center? We could pay them like $6 an hour plus three hotties and a cotie. If you ask me, that solves two big problems for us. 🙂
Is there anything TenHaken has done for the people. The worst most disgusting sin is taking funds meant for public welfare. Private ventures built with public money destroy the market and profits are not taxable. Not only has he destroyed commerce, the impact will last into the future with no hope for recovery. TenHaken and his ‘WOKE’ culture must go. It’s already to late but hard working patriotic native South Dakotans will work hard to restore hereditary cultural honesty and integrity.
A few cities have tour buses through homeless areas. Same here but it’s limousines for the WOKE faction.
Instead of ridicule from the pulpit, how about city funding for soup kitchens and cots? One dollar per million on play palaces would go a long way. It’s cruel Mr. TenHaken. You’re one of the passers by for the biblical parable about the poor. They can’t eat pink granite and you even extinguish the barrel fires in winter.
Employee morale down yes absolutely and I’ll say it again and again Don the Con (Kearney) a city in decline and parks bad management and all costing us thousands