Good grief, what do we need to do to get these people to understand the point of our Advocational meeting problem. Wednesday night’s Kuehn Community Center meeting even surprised me. City marketing to sway a vote is illegal by state law and city code. Slam dunk simple.
The point of Citizens for Integrity is explained at the beginning of each city sponsored meeting. We are there to remind the meeting attendees we are protesting the biased presentations to be viewed. We have been through this process several times by now with only a few sessions left. The mayor has directed and the City Attorney has approved the directors presenting very biased videos on behalf of their interest groups but up until now, we never saw marketing posters to propagandize the attendees.
So imagine my surprise when I approached the door to the community center and see this sign (Buy Your Season Swim Pass Here) set in the walkway promoting the city?s swimming pools. Ok, I took a photo just because I could not believe I saw it.
Now I walked into the building entry, again imagine my surprise with an easel boasting ?Swipe and Swim Season Swim Passes Available? Were they selling passes? Well, no where I could see. Were they selling the summer fun programs to eager kids? Well, I did see a young mother with a baby but the infant may have been a bit young to care. Ok, I took pictures to document the process as I do at each event.
Also notice how Parks and Rec is going to have a Healthy Living Day event on March 29. Â By the way, where is the monster pool pictured located? Is this what they plan for Spellerberg? I wonder how much illegal indoor pool discussion is going to be presented? Rest assured, I will be there, with my cameras.
As I was setting up my video camera to record the event as usual, there was a great deal of director activity at the door, strange but whatever. During my departure from the building (so I could attend the Carnegie Townhall candidate presentations) something caught my eye. I now knew what the director activity was, they realized I caught them and took pictures. They hid the posters, how stupid are these people? What else did I miss? Was there something more?
Just in case our city officials misunderstand what we have been trying to say to them each meeting, here is the text again.
Good evening, my name is Bruce Danielson, a resident Sioux Falls.
I have been active in issue and candidate campaigns for almost 50 years. As a group of us began to watch the issue campaigns build, we saw serious issues with the way the Sioux Falls 2014 city election was being managed.
We banded together to create a new organization to help protect the ballot process for Sioux Falls voters. I was asked to be the chairman of a group you may now have heard of, Citizens for Integrity.
The City of Sioux Falls is legally allowed to only supply in written form a simple, clear language explanation of what a YES vote means and what a NO vote means. That’s it, nothing more nothing less.
The four video ballot measures being presented are not the only issues the voter must make decisions on this election. There are actually 7 ballot questions. Demand your city be forthright in legally presenting all of them to the people who are expected to vote April 8.
We wish to remind you; tonight city officials will be presenting these 4 biased advocacy videos and public pronouncements disguised as education. Thank you for being interested in the process, for being here this evening and don’t forget to vote April 8th.
We’ve been trying to save the city from possible courtroom time, but I guess you just won’t learn. You work for a salesman who is pushing everything to limits you may not want to experience. When you see our cameras, just smile. They don’t smile back.
I would say if they are advertising anything here, it is for swim passes. That is a location that sells them. What is wrong with that? There is nothing on those posters that say hey, vote “No” on April 8th. No offense Bruce, but I think you are fishing here for something that isn’t there. Why won’t you let our City educate us on the ballot issues? I am starting to think there is something you are not telling us.
“Season swim pass are available for purchase from March 10, 2014 through May 16th, 2014, Monday through Friday from 2 PM to 6 PM. Available at Kenny Anderson, MarCAr, Morningside, Oyate, and Kuehn Community Centers†(taken off the Sioux Falls Parks and Rec web site). Do you think maybe they had just finished selling swim passes for the day and had not yet put the signs away? The educational meetings start at 6 PM the same time they are done selling passes for the day.
Good grief Bruce.
The reason those signs were up is because your meeting was held at the Kuehn Community Center. The sales period for the swim passes just began last week and there are signs up at each of them letting people know that is where you buy passes. I know there is a sign similar to this one at the Kenny Anderson Community Center as well, but I suppose you’ll need to take your tape measure and camera over there to ensure they are the same size and shape… don’t want any bias you know.
The “director activity” you speak of was probably them wondering why someone was taking a picture of a sign… and after discussion they might have realized since they are talking about swimming pools maybe they should remove the sign since it could be percieved as bias by the type of person who sees bias everywhere.
I’m not sure I understand the concern here – the swim passes being sold only work in the existing OUTDOOR pools, so if the city is really pushing for people to vote for the indoor pool they are doing a poor job at it when their signage shows people enjoying the summer sunshine at an outdoor facility.
Some smoking gun you have there Bruce.
Sounds like a 12-year-old threatening the neighbor kid his dad will sue him if he doesn’t get off the sidewalk.
driving past this location at any other time the signs are not out as the were Wednesday.
We are trying to show the impropriety of the whole sham program setup. All of a sudden marketing materials are put up for the visitors.
The whole process is suspect and potentially questionable on many levels.
This is typical signage at school/community centers at this time of year. They sell swim passes. Let this one pass.
Sorry Anonymous and others, we can’t let it ‘pass’.
You see, this is the proper administration of election law. It has to be followed closely. No excuses, ever. We let too many things ‘pass’ creating deeper issues involving precedent.
We have watched things happen on the national, state and local scene way to long to just ‘let it pass’. We citizens deserve to have our elections at all levels be run properly.
By saying, “oh let it pass” you are saying “as long as I didn’t get hurt, there were no problems”. Wrong. If anyone misunderstood the subtle message being sent out by this, it is a crime. The state law and city code are clear on government interference in elections.
You should have your rights trampled on through subtle intimidation to understand the need for our government employees at all levels to pay closer attention to this problem.
I won’t go into the theories of propaganda and coercion operated by governments (in this post) but rest assured we are working to correct the city’s process. The city has crossed too many lines this election to let it pass.
You just don’t have an apology in you anywhere for any reason – do you Bruce?
What’s to apologize? Speak truth to power and a few people overhear. Try being in the ‘well’ looking power straight in the eyes and see if you soften your tone.
If there was something untruthful in my talks I would deal with it. We citizens must approach power with truth. Truth will succeed.