As this whole administration building thingy got wrapped up today with the mayor’s press conference at NOON (we will have video up soon with my commentary) and his multiple lies and unanswered questions, I did get a good laugh out of the ‘service’ the petitioners received from the city employees. Like I said, it helps to laugh at these people and their bizarre excuses.
Mayor Huether started the press conference with an apology to city clerk Tom Greco and the city attorney and their families for the way ‘they were treated’ throughout the process. I almost burst into laughter.
First off, I find it hard to believe that Greco was at Bruce’s ‘Beckon Call’ when it came to questions about the petition. This is the same Tom Greco that sent a middle of the night email rant to Bruce about his sick kid and military service. But there was also this interesting email sent out by the city attorney back in July to the mayor, city council and city directors, and it is NOT about caramel popcorn and peanuts;
From: Pfeifle, David
Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2016 5:06 PM
Subject: Argus inquiry on possible initiative for new building bond ordinance Tom Greco and I were contacted by Joe Sneve about a possible initiative effort by Bruce Danielson. An initiative effort would need to gather at least 7,000 signatures to produce approximately 5,750 valid signatures, based on historic failure rates. Tom would then need to conduct the random sampling process to validate the petition. He would review 10 percent of them according to SD Administrative Rule. This process can take two to four weeks, depending on various factors, including whether someone challenges the petition and demands all the signatures must be validated. Assuming a petition contains sufficient valid signatures, Tom would then present the petition to the City Council for further action. The Council can either automatically place the item on the April 2018 ballot or order a special election to be called no earlier than 30 days from the date of the ordinance calling for a special election. A unique situation is present when bond sales are involved. We both informed Joe that it would be extremely unlikely that this effort could lead to an election and canvass to occur before bonds would be sold in the first part of October. Once bond sales occur, state law prohibits the use of the initiative process to “nullify the purpose†for which bonds have been sold.
David A. Pfeifle, City Attorney
Wow! Where to begin? I’m out of breath just reading this boloney roll.
a) It is actually 5% and we did reach that threshold with 6,400 signatures
b) The validation process takes between 4-6 hours with 2-3 people. Based on what past clerks have done.
c) Fiddle claims that if sufficient and valid signatures were attained and the city council was able to call an election before the bonds sold, it still would not stop the sale. Well, that would have been up to a judge. As the minimum wage petitioners proved, since they referred it to a vote, it stopped the law from going into affect.
While the mayor made this ‘personal’ by apologizing to the families of Greco and Fiddle, I will not. But if the mayor, the courts, or the city council think or believe Greco and Fiddle were at the beckon call of Danielson and did everything in their power to help them, it doesn’t take much to buffalo them. As you can see from the email, it was evident from the beginning they were going to stall and railroad this anyway they could see fit. Hardly helpful to process, in fact quite the opposite. Maybe next time the mayor needs to apologize to the public for having such poor and vindictive public employees working for this city.
Well said Commander.
Another Huether gloat. Usually he lies and believes it himself. This time he could hardly speak and nearly cried. His body language was text book for someone lying through their teeth. There’s the 6400 but also the population who doubt the city can afford another extravagance. The city attorney, clerk, and Councilors worship Huether like a God. What’s apparent from this is they’re brain washed children.
As someone who was CC’ed in the middle of the night email chain Grecco was way nicer, then I would have been. But you know whatever fits your agenda.
My question is why have neither Bruce or you run for public office if you are always displeased with the way the system works?
We have only one more year to get through before MMM is out of power…..take some deep breaths and we can make it. Hopefully he has completed his “list” of projects HE wanted done and has no more surprises or deceptions!
Governor?….no chance! The news of his underhanded tactics and lack of transparency to attain HIS goals has spread across the state!
Start crossing the dates off your calendar!
the courtroom experience was interesting and Judge Salter was very engaged in the questioning. I was impressed in his involvement.
There is a misconception needing to be cleared up. The statement from the ruling “Danielson knew he had obtained the Statewide Form and not the correct Municipal Form when he began his petition effort in late July†was never addressed in the courtroom.
I did not learn of the oath error until a week AFTER the petitions were submitted for validation. Had the city website been functional or the Clerk been willing to assist in construction of the petition, I would not have used the wrong oath.
This narrative is what happens when anyone makes decisions on what you think happened without knowing all the facts. I could have been asked the question when I was on the stand. Now it is part of the permanent record without being part of the evidence.
Stop Making Excuses.
You failed both the voters and the initiative process when you chose not to have the document reviewed by an attorney before you asked the first registered voter to sign the petition.
An apology to the 122 people who helped you collect the signatures and the 6,400 SF residents who signed the petition would be more in order.
For the record, Bruce has apologized several times publicly and privately and even in the hearing. He has also admitted several times he screwed up. Also, he has gotten a royal ass chewing from me and other privately for screwing it up. That is much is evident.
What is NOT evident is that the city clerk seems to be in a state of denial of the fact that his ‘official stamp’ really doesn’t mean squat. Greco should have looked at the petition, both sides before stamping it. Sorry, but public officials also have a responsibility to do their job also.
It’s “beck and call”.