Sioux Falls Municipal election; The amendments

Since I am going to vote in a couple of days, I figured I would go look at a sample ballot before I showed up to my favorite polling place (The County Courthouse). I have absentee voted in the last 3 elections because I am pretty sick and tired of the musical precinct games the city and school district play. Absentee voting started March 16th.

Now for a quick review of the Amendments and School Board. There is two open seats on the School Board. Doug Morrison is not running again, and Kent is seeking re-election;

Julie A. Westra

Jenay Hallickson

Kent Alberty

All I can tell you is that Kent is an incumbent, Jenay has a FACEBOOK page, and Julie is ungoogleble. You vote for two. I will be voting for Alberty for sure, I feel he has been an independent voice sometimes on the school board. Not sure who I will vote for, for the other seat. If anybody has input, please leave them in the comments area.

As for the Amendments, I will be voting YES on A-B and NO on C. A & B do not really need an explanation, just housekeeping crap, but I think council seats should still seek 200 signatures. It is not that big of a deal. Gerald Beninga, a city councilor, is the one who wants this change, he pissed and moaned about it several times at the charter revision meetings to anyone who would listen. My take on it is that is if you want to run for office, you should be able to convince at least 200 people in your district that you are a viable candidate. Candidates have done it in the past, and for the current election, so get over it already.

City Attorney’s Explanation of Amendment A:

The proposed change, as approved and submitted by the Charter Revision Commission, clarifies that the mayor will determine the appropriate form or format of the annual budget submission to the city council and also specifies that city council members may thereafter inquire and obtain any necessary information about the mayor’s budget proposal.

City Attorney’s Explanation of Amendment B:

The proposed change, as approved and submitted by the Charter Revision Commission, would require that in the future each appointed districting commission member would have his or her home residence in a separate city council district in order to allow for representation of each of the five (5) city council districts. In addition, Subsection 4 further clarifies how a vacancy on the districting commission may occur and/or be filled by the city council.

City Attorney’s Explanation of Amendment C:

The proposed change, as adopted by ordinance and thereby submitted by the Sioux Falls City Council, would provide that council candidates seeking to run for city council district positions would no longer be required to obtain 200 registered city voter signatures on their nominating petitions. Instead, city council district nominating petitions would only be required to have at least 50 signatures of registered city voters residing in that respective city council district. The proposed change is offered since there is a smaller pool of available registered city voters to sign nominating petitions in each council district as compared to that which is available to mayoral or at-large council candidates. The charter requirement for mayoral and council candidates seeking to run for at-large city council positions would remain unchanged in requiring 200 registered city voter signatures for their nominating petitions.