Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, July 18-20, 2023

The council will have a busy week of meetings touching on countless topics.

Operations Committee Meeting • 1 PM • Tuesday, July 18

Item C, Potential City Council Support Staff Addition

The council has been rumbling about adding staff for about a year. Instead of hiring a support staff person they should have done a national search for an Internal Audit Manager and reviewed just what current council staff does now. I don’t think the council has justification to add staff.

Informational Meeting • 4 PM • Tuesday, July 18

• Monthly financial report (it is interesting to see how tax collection has slowly been cooling over the past couple of months).

• Childcare crisis. I have often argued that if we implemented public Pre-K we would eliminate a good chunk of this issue. I also think that state government is going to have to start subsidizing some of these programs. There should also be an educational part to this of promoting ‘modest’ sized families. It seems in South Dakota we want people to have babies, we just don’t want to help them after they have arrived.

Regular Council Meeting • 4 PM • Tuesday, July 18

Item #6, Approval of contracts,

Sub-item, 1, $105K to continue the failed on-demand programming.

Sub-item, 2, Joint Participation Agreement for cooperative funding of The Link. You will notice that Avera is putting in a big chunk each year where the county is throwing a pittance at it. I’m hoping a city councilor pulls this item so we have a better understanding how this works.

Items 16-20, Special Assessment Rolls, I find it humorous the only time the city practices transparency and open government is when they list the names of PRIVATE property owners who are being assessed to fix PUBLIC property. There is absolutely NO reason to publish the actual names of the property owners. If someone wants to look up the property description on the County’s GIS, have at it. This information is NOT of high public importance.

Items 41-43, RESOLUTIONs IN SUPPORT OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS’ APPLICATION FOR THE HOUSING INFRASTRUCTURE FINANCING PROGRAM (HIFP) GRANT FUNDING. This is probably the money the state has been sitting on for much to long.

Item 44, A RESOLUTION ADVISING AND GIVING CONSENT TO THE APPOINTMENT OF MEMBERS TO VARIOUS CITIZEN BOARDS. The good news is Jeff Barth got appointed to the Museum Board and the Planning Commission has appointed a 9th member, Mike Gray;

Mike Gray

• Over seven years in economic development.
• Employed with the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.
• Over two years of experience on the Zoning Board of Adjustment

While I have NO problem with Mike serving on the Zoning Board since it deals mostly with private property issues and zoning one scratches their head a bit about having a SFDF employee on the planning board. It just appears like a huge conflict of interest all the way around. Now if we can just get this new member to show up to the meetings and vote! I remember the good old days when you would look up at the planning commission’s dais and see 9 smiling faces! I did recently contact the Planning Chair about some of the issues with recusals, conflicts and quorums and she assured me she would be looking into it.

Active Transportation Board • 8:30 AM • City Hall, Commission Chambers • July 19, 2023

Hopefully we will get an update about what is happening with rec trail restrictions. As I understand it councilors Cole and Neitzert are working on a fix that would include allowing E2s and a speed limit (there is NOT one currently in statute).

Special City Council Meeting – Budget Address • Thursday, July 20, 2023, at 3:00 PM • Carnegie Town Hall

I guess the mayor is running out of venues, he is returning to the public square to give an address. Where do a I RSVP for my free juice and bearclaw?