As you know, many of the ‘Advocational’ sessions before the municipal elections were recorded by South DaCola. I had a group of soldiers review them recently for times when rates were mentioned. Here are our results;
(FF to 23:00)Â -Â Sioux Falls Advocational Education Session #1 3/3/2014
(FF to 14:00)Â -Â Sioux Falls Advocational Education Session #3 3 12 2014
(FF to 16:30 . . . goes past 17:00) -Â Sioux Falls Advocational Education Session #5 3/20/2014
(FF to 16:00 then to 22:00)Â -Â Sioux Falls Advocational Education Session #8 3/31/2014
As you will see, the Parks Department employees, mostly the Director, Don Kearney repeatedly say in the meetings;
• The City Council will set the indoor pool rates. As we know now, the Parks Department is trying to set the rates and FORCE the council to pass their suggestions.
• Indoor and Outdoor pool rates would be the SAME and a yearly pass would be good for ALL of the facilities (Indoor and Outdoor). They now have suggested splitting them into two separate passes and charging MORE for indoor pass.
• The aquatic consultants recommended the rate structure staying the same for both facility. Today, there is NO mention of this recommendation by the Parks Department in there latest proposal.
• The rates will not change (go up) after the indoor facility is built.
As we have been pointing out since the election, many lies were told to us about the indoor pool. It was not paid for with bonds, there hasn’t been an MOU with the VA, and now we are separating classes of people when it comes to who can use the facilities.
As I understand, from a text message I just got from a foot soldier at the Parks meeting, the Board just voted 7-0 to pull the rate recommendations for the indoor pool and revisit those rates in 2016 and just focus on the outdoor rates.
All of the public pools should be free of charge to all users.
Bravo for the city council! Turbak’s frustrated reaction in the Argus Leader indicates his concerns about the budgetary issues for the pool. Think others weren’t aware of those issues?! The burden should not come down on the backs of low income families! Have the swim teams thought of having a major fundraiser to assist? They have yet to put skin in the game for this!
SK, I agree 100%. When is SnowFox going to pony up and become a sponsor at the Indoor Pool? The specials had all kinds of money before the election to spend. The specials want their competitive pool, and they want the rest of us to pay for it. I say charge them each a $1000 a year and they can pay to run the white elephant.
City hall has become like a singles bar. Deception is ok so they get you in bed with them. It’s thereafter you realize you should have never trusted or respected them. Sounds to me like the parks director needs a trip to the repentance booth at the cathedral.
It is amazing…the outright lies told in the run up to the election for the Snowfox home. What a trail!!! Now, we find out 52% of all family passes last season were free. What does that say about the financial state of Joe and Jane Sixpack?
Odds are a good part of the other 48% who paid for family passes also have their kids involved in summer football camps, soccer, baseball, you name the camp, and next year without Joe and janes kids in the pools, the only people there will be the 24 part time lifeguards.
In the end, it’s just a question of what you want to subsidize. $400k a year underwriting reduced pass costs is $400k a year that can’t be spent elsewhere, or simply not levied for in the first place. Charging more for an indoor pass is one way to keep costs for outdoor passes down. Or they could charge a fee in the middle for access to all pools but some people may not want or need indoor access.
As to Poly’s comment about Joe and Jane Sixpack, your conclusion is only appropriate if the users of public pools in Sioux Falls are a representative cross-section of the population as a whole. I’d hazard it’s not even close. Many families have memberships at facilities like Avera or Sanford Wellness that already provide year-round access to pools. In fact, this was one of the arguments against a public indoor pool – that it creates taxpayer-subsidized competition for other non-profit and for-profit facilities in town.
An indoor pool is a nice-to-have amenity but one that has a very specific clientele, much like the My Mayor Mike Memorial Tennis Center. That makes it an interesting target for public investment. It’s not like building a park, which can be used by people for a wide variety of purposes. A swimming pool has precisely one purpose, which means the vast majority of the public is paying for something it will never use.
Quote from Tracy Turbak in the AL coverage is priceless:
“He said the council’s decision to hold off on a vote would create a budget shortfall of about $400,000 that will need to be made up someplace else, whether budget reductions or finding a new source of revenue that he isn’t aware of.
“”The implication of doing nothing then is that we’ll project rates in the budget for the outdoor aquatics facility at their current level and project no revenues for the indoor facility,” he said. Operating costs “are going to have to be covered by some other means — either reductions in other areas that might otherwise take place, some other revenue source that we haven’t even thought of yet.””
How do these elected officials even look themselves in the mirror? They presented the Spellerberg financial scenario as being smooth sailing on a budget awash in cash.
Gee. “SY” has been awful silent about all of this on SouthDacola. What do you think of the sanctity of your Community Swim 365 platform now?
Kudos to the City Council for standing up to the lies and BS.
I laughed at Turdbak’s reaction talking about budget cuts that would have to be made for revenue he claimed to be planning on, that hadn’t even been approved yet.
Nice job Councilor Erpenbach on calling him out on his “made up” spur of the moment threat – and for calling Kearney/Turdbak out for using Yankton as a comparison City. Any reasonable person knows that’s not a fair comparison.
I also appreciate Councilor (sorry I forget if It was Jamison or Kiley) who called Kearney out for his BS for saying there was no way to have a discounted pass program due to fraud. Maybe a smarter Parks director could figure out a way to make it work.
Turdbak’s hypocrisy and irony of talking about the $400,000 in lost revenue was hilarious. At the 4’OClock informational he told the council he expected an 8% increase in tax revenue and another record year in building permits.
The next mayor will present the truth. It will be very bad news. Meanwhile, I’d not believe anything coming from the city. I’m impressed the council finally sees through the false reports.
It’s time to rescind Home Rule Charter. Without competitive bids and council checks/balances, it’s organized crime. Strong mayor has the power to proceed on unnecessary underdesigned inflated sports projects without approvals. He can spend at will to the point the city becomes overextended. It should be no surprise in the next term when there’s bond default, infrastructure shortfalls, and unfunded city retirement.
So it was a new surprise that the pool rates need to be increased but the increase was already baked into the budget.
That’s the thing about lies. When you tell too many it’s hard to keep your story straight