South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

September 2024

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Agendas are WHACKED

l3wis 2Comments

This isn’t a coincidence, it all started after the new head city clerk started, and it is getting worse. Agendas mysteriously getting posted for meetings that don’t exist, meetings moved or canceled due to improper postings, etc. Well this week they decided not only to start the meeting an hour early they are putting the executive session first.

Now, there have been meetings when the ES is at the beginning of the meeting, but it is ONLY when it is basically the only item on the agenda. So what will happen now is if you showed up at 3 PM to watch the meeting, you will be immediately kicked out of chambers for the ES which could last 5 minutes, or 50 minutes, you have no idea, so the public must sit there waiting for you to finish so the public meeting can began. Uncalled for. Public business first, then you can fart around with your secret deals.

I also don’t understand the urgency. I am assuming the council will be interviewing or actually hiring a replacement for Bixler who is retiring at the end of October. Don’t know who Bixler is? No surprise, he didn’t do much to be noticeable. He was the council’s legislative advisor and budget dude. How did that work out for yah?

Public meetings are for the PUBLIC and should be as accessible as possible. These clowns and their closed government sh!tshow is getting old. This is NOT the council’s meeting, it’s the public’s. Not sure if they will ever figure it out.

Downtown Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken Riverline District SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: The Riverline ‘RATS’ are looking for a place to hide

l3wis 8Comments

UPDATE: I got word today from a very dependable source that the convention center is a ‘DONE DEAL’ when you talk to the business and banking community. They already have the chess pieces in place to make it happen, with or without the public’s approval. They also are lobbying the legislature right now to do a 3rd penny sales tax to pay for it, but they need their approval first. They are suggesting a ‘sunset’ clause, which never happens. Remember the Pavilion, you know the private non-profit that taxpayers fund in the millions each year even though they have over $14 million in their reserves. The entertainment tax was supposed to sunset after the bonds were paid off. I think that happened about a decade ago, still exists. Don’t be fooled by these grifters. This is a way for the bonding companies to make lots of money off of the backs of taxpayers. Most of the jobs will be hospitality, low wage, part-time with no benefits. Have you ever met a full-time bartender with the Pavilion, Denty, Orpheum, Bird Cage, etc.? NOPE. Because the jobs that will be provided by this convention center won’t make a dent in our brain drain problem. I agree there will be a massive economic impact from the new convention center, it will bankrupt our city.

The council seems to be a little butt hurt over the fact that they haven’t seen an appraisal OR a purchase agreement for the Riverline District, you know, the plot of land some douchey investors want us taxpayers to buy with cheeseburger taxes (entertainment). The problem is the council hasn’t seen a purchase agreement yet, and likely won’t until it if dropped in front of their faces at the last minute. And will the public get to see these documents?

I have concerns, but based on rumors I hear from realtors, at this point it is just pure speculation, but I have expressed privately to current and past city councilors that I have concerns about the purchase agreement due to potential conflicts of interest. It is NO secret that some who sit on that dais have spouses, business associates and other friends who pose major conflicts of interest. It will be interesting to see whose name(s) appears on that document, or will we see a lot of sharpie blackouts? This town gets more corrupt by the second.

1st Amendment Mayor TenHaken Media SF City Council Sioux Falls

The Empire Strikes back?

l3wis 4Comments

Remember the game of connect the dots? We will get to that in a moment.

It all started with a thot I had Friday night while listening to announcements from the Levitt stage.

Is Matt Paulson trying to build a local media empire to influence city hall policy even more?

It all started over a year ago when a local (seasoned) journalist told me that there are plans in the works to combine all the small local independent or semi-independent media outlets and freelancers into one organization, or at least under an umbrella of cooperation. I don’t need to list these orgs, if you read this blog, you read their sites also. This plan was later confirmed to me from another associate, but told me the plan still has some kinks in it and setbacks. I didn’t blog about this because frankly when I first heard it, I was rooting for them and said it was a great idea, let’s just see if it will work.

While many of these indies have talent, they don’t have a lot of capital, they need outside investors to make this work and they need to sell a butt load of advertising to pay everyone’s salaries.

Then walks in Matt Paulson.

But let’s play that game of ‘connect the dots’ I spoke about earlier;

• Matt Paulson has funded every campaign of all of the current 8 councilors and the mayor and many past councilors.

• Jodi Schwan leaves the Argus to start her own business website.

• Patrick Lalley, Reposa, Ellis and Sneve leave the Argus to start their own independent sites, with a small kink, Market Dweebs owner, Matt Paulson has quietly been investing in the Dakota Scout, something the council and the SOS failed to inform the public about.

• In one of the most unethical moves by city council they approve the Dakota Scout contract for legals without releasing the investors names.

• I learned Friday night at the Levitt that Paulson has hired a local popular TV anchor to work at Market Dweeb.

I’m not sure what shoe will drop next but if I were KELOLAND, DAKOTANEWS or the Argus, (nevermind, they are already a sunken ship), I would be nervous about my advertising dollars and the whole integrity of the media locally. While I like local independent journalists, I’m not sure I care for their investors, who seem to be buying up city hall candidates and now local journalists so he can control the narrative even more.

Art censoring little . . .

As a community we should be very nervous and cautious of how this potential media merger will occur, but like everything else this Dweeb touches, it will all be done in the dark of the night, because that’s how the fourth estate does things these days.

Still waiting for my offer Matt 🙂 The Scab could really use a cartoonist that used a different medium besides crayons.

Art Bunker Ramp Censorship Downtown Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken Open Government Open Meetings racism Sioux Falls

It only took them a year and a half to do an article about this

l3wis 5Comments

Besides myself, who broke the censored mural controversy, only one other journalist has really poked around on the topic, but someone must of went over to the newsroom and woke up one of their jokalist’s to write an article. It is actually a pretty good article on the insight of what the artists were going thru, but not very timely;

Would they ever work with the city again on a project? They’d never completely count out the idea, the artists said.

But, Hernandez added, “the experience was pretty horrible.”

These fine young artists aren’t the first and certainly won’t be the last to suffer the consequences of ‘horrible’ city policies and leadership and blatant CENSORSHIP.

There is also another concern. Do we have RACIST elites in this community influencing city hall policy?

Speaking of suffering, the city has asked the courts to dismiss the Federal housing discrimination lawsuit. Just your typical dragging out the clock games they play. Of course, we know that is likely NOT going to happen. They have an incredibly solid case.

Miranda Bayse Planning Commission SF City Council Sioux Falls

Councilor ‘Lucy’ Bayse proposes ordinance change without consulting local fencing industry

l3wis 4Comments

A new councilor is at it again, making an ordinance change that 1) doesn’t benefit homeowners, only makes fencing more expensive and 2) doesn’t give homeowners any options. Councilor Bayse proposed the change at the Planning Commission Meeting last night, but didn’t even bother to show up as a Planning staffer presented the item (don’t blink you might miss the meeting);

§ 160.480 FENCES.
(l) A fence post must be secured below ground level in all residential zoning districts.

He said a ‘couple’ of people complained that their neighbors(?) put fence posts in 5 gallon pails of concrete and didn’t bury the pails just had them sitting on the ground. So why not write an ordinance that says;

‘No fence posts can be put above ground in pails of concrete or other substrates.’

There is also a million different ways you can secure a post. You can attach it to another out building or your house, you can use L brackets and bolt them to a concrete patio pad. Heck, there are probably so many different ways to fix this, it’s not even funny.

I spoke with a person who is in management for a large fencing company in Sioux Falls. He had no idea they were proposing this. Fortunately it hasn’t arrived to the council yet so he has a few weeks to shake them down, and he intends to.

Instead of making regs based on a couple of your friends bitching, why not actually research the topic, talk to professionals in the field, heck, have a public round table. But for god sakes stop passing ordinances to make it look like you are doing something. And don’t pull away the football at the last minute either!

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