Not sure if you caught the above meeting, but it was a scorcher. While I would agree with Minnehaha County Commissioner Joe Kippley that Leah shouldn’t be fooling around with past elections, I don’t agree with him asking her to resign in public. He should have wrote her a letter, got a couple of his other commissioners on board and CC’d the media. It was extremely unprofessional, and the kicker is he is the health director for the city. Getting ‘political’, which was what his stunt was, is not the ethical standard I want my health director to be holding. If anything Joe should resign because of his conflicts, and I have a feeling he will AFTER the November election so they can appoint someone. More trickery. Oh, and the commission has allegedly been playing games with bond levies. More to come on that 🙁
COUNCIL KICKS THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD ON THE RIVERLINE DISTRICT
At the council meeting last night the council took the line item out of the 2025 budget and concocted a steering committee to study the purchase. While I’m happy they killed the line item, I am not happy they are continuing down the path which will ultimately have us buying the land. From talking to councilors I got the feeling they were just going to kill it and let the River Rats figure it out, but this must be the compromise. Folks, all this is, is smoke and mirrors by the council. They plan to implement a 3rd penny tax to have us paid for the Convention Center. This is short-sighted. They should implement a entertainment corporate tax on all business with 500 or more employees. If you think this place will have an economic impact on your businesses, prove it, pony up.
Oh, and Councilor Barranco was the ONLY councilor to vote against a property tax increase. Thank You David! That vote proved to me that at least 7 councilors don’t give a rat’s ass what economic position you are in, they need their play palaces!
E-BIKES HAVE INVADED DOWNTOWN
Not really, but some people seem to be butt hurt they are sitting around downtown. They are not junkers, so I am not sure what people are concerned about. Other cities do it this way. I think the only tweak I would make is having the bikes in a mobile unit so they are not scattered everywhere downtown, but like I said, there is a million other things we need to worry about downtown, and a random bike parked on a corner ain’t one of them.
WAS HARRIS DEBATING BIDEN LAST NIGHT?
After the first 10 minutes of the debate last night I thought Harris was debating Biden.
Scott, great great post, I seen the county commission and I agree, regardless your feelings on the 2020 and 2022 Election Results, the Auditor is doing her job of ensuring the voters that the elections are transparent and honest. He should not had asked her to resign in public, and instead, I wish we can work through this disagreement and find a resolution or compromise forward related to election activity. As for the Property Tax – lets remember, the State (people) set the tax rates on land in relation to Agriculture, Commercial, Residential, Mixed-Use Zones. The Counties then evaluate the land, assess the property, and note the value of the tax in the auditors office. The County, School District, and City can then submit warrants to the county auditor to access or utilize their portion of the “revenue”. The City does NOT even have to take a dime, the county just does not have to collect the tax, meaning, lessor tax collections for the fiscal period (year). It is the same for Motor Vehicle Funds, the City submits warrants to the county for their portion of Motor Vehicle Funds for street maintenance. So, the Finance Director by law has to certify that funds are available, the City COuncil then has to vote on whether or not they want to take the funds. Until now, the “City Council” has never voted to forego the funding source.
For being the guy who botched the City mosquito spraying this past summer, this Kippley kid is pretty full of himself.
Resign, or not – he will not serve another term on the Minnehaha County Commission.
Barranco has been a pleasant surprise on City Council.
I noticed the attack on Leah on KELO news. It was defamation and Trump-like. The other commissioners were embarrassed.
The debate last night was Hannibal Lechter versus Jody Foster. A people eater versus law and order.
Are local christian groups that did mission trips to Haiti gonna speak up in defense of the haitians being defamed by Trump & Vance?
County government:
Thanks to Trump, we now miss Bush43, and now we miss Litz, too?
Riverline District:
Just too many homeless in the area, who are they kidding?
E-bikes:
Why doesn’t Jaunt want you to ride them on the sidewalks? What does Jaunt know that the city doesn’t know?
🙂
I also found it interesting that the KELO piece mentioned that these e-bikes can only go up to 20 mph, but at the April Bicycle Committee meeting representatives from Jaunt claimed they could go up to 25 mph, which would make them illegal on the trail if used improperly, and why wouldn’t they be if they don’t trust you to use them on the sidewalks?
Oh, and why are these Jaunt “motorcycles” acquired from sidewalks, but you are not supposed to ride them on sidewalks? That’s like a taco stand telling you to eat your tacos across the street from its stand…… #NoTacoEatingHere #SoupNazi
The debate:
Last night was a Perry Mason moment on TV. Harris didn’t debate, she prosecuted Trump. 🙂 …. I also got a kick out of how conservative media outlets last night, like FOX, blamed Trump’s poor debate performance on ABC, which is like a stage mom blaming her child’s baseball loss on a ref or refs… 🙂 …. AND, I’m also confused about something because initially Trump/Vance was troubled that cat women (Like Taylor) were trying to run our country via the Democratic Party, but now they are worried about the fate of these cats by illegal immigrant gangs, so then Trump/Vance must have some empathy for these cat women, right?
( and Woodstock adds: “No wonder Trump didn’t pick Noem”…. “Her killing of Cricket could have ruined their entire pet killing narrative”…. “Oh, and what’s wrong with some cat women running our country, anyhow?”… ( …. “Frankly, I always had a thing for one particular Catwomen…. 😉 …… ” ….. ))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0i-VI5U2rg
Are they eliminating the out of state but instate mail box residents that avoid paying taxes in their home states but vote in SD elections being primarily Republican voters? Tax evaders that have no skin in the game while their vehicles have SD plates.
Jackalope makes a point. If SD becomes no longer a tax haven for RVers, our vote would count and we might become a blue state.