So the Mayor (chair of meetings) and councilors Cole, Soehl and Barranco were absent tonight, which left only 5 councilors to make decisions (which is a quorum). The chair CAN vote when the mayor is absent.
What made it even more ironic is that councilor Jensen decided to ‘phone it in’ and had the audacity to try to cut off a public inputer several times. She actually shut him down and continued. BRAVO. Later during public input I informed the council that we have the right to talk about ANY city business on ANY item and they need to STOP interrupting people.
Public input bothers the administration and some councilors so much there is now over a one minute delay if you watch the meeting on CityLink.
I also asked the council tonight after they approved a project for Nielson construction (item #76) if the same company is moving forward with the affordable housing project that got a TIF from the council last year. I don’t think the council should approve any projects for this developer until they break ground on the TIF project. You told us we needed this and it was workable. So when is it going to happen?
Also, on a side note, I encourage the media to live stream the Lenin’s Tomb (zoo animals) meeting tomorrow. If we can’t get transparency out of the administration it is the duty of the 4th estate to pony up. I also encourage members of the public to protest the public input denial at the beginning of the meeting. While there is some gray area when it comes to public input and state law, it is pretty obvious this is an official meeting that doesn’t have the normal carve outs. They are discussing city business publicly during a work session and that falls under the purview of state law and public input. Before the current whatever was mayor the city council used to hold work sessions in the lobby of Carnegie to discuss pending policies, nothing set in stone, just throwing ideas out there and during this the public was invited and encouraged to input. This meeting is no different. I would suggest though if they make a motion to do public input to put it at the end so constituents can respond to what was discussed. Having it at the beginning would NOT be beneficial to the committee or the public.
I’m somewhat new to this blog and have seen you refer to “Lenin’s Tomb” in relation to the zoo. It’s not clear to me what you are talking about. Can you explain for those of us who don’t get it or have enough background knowledge to undertand what you are refering to?
Lenin has been embalmed for 99 years and on display in Moscow just like the animals at the zoo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenin%27s_Mausoleum
My point is if you can preserve a human for 99 years (he looks better now then when he died) so why not a couple of Zebras?
‘Hide and go seek’ is a game that should not be played for public meetings. How about a scavenger hunt or Marco Polo? Meetings regarding the endangered African animals should be where they are located. The elephant in the room must be HERD. It’s public property where citizen activist guards can record secret meetings. The city defines transparency as a transgender with dependents. They often misinterpret. Roberts Rules for them is the color of smoke from burning the book when the cardinal developer buys a new mayor. What’s needed now is councilor impressionists if they’ll not bother to show for meetings. Soon, the mayor will restrict public comment with a cover charge and 2 drink minimum. The ‘bag of tricks’ has a rope, red carpet, and tough guy at the entrance. Not bothering to show is a sign of what’s to come.
“OH, you weren’t talking about the Beatles?”
I’m just hoping the Ukrainians don’t do a drone strike on the tomb. Might give the city’s administration some creative surplussing ideas.
Those Ukrainians are some crafty son-of-a-bitches, I’ll tell you. They’re the modern day version of the Vietcong. Drone strikes are the new grenade. Our military once fantasied about small nuclear grenades called the “Davy Crocket”. I don’t know about you, but I’m glad they didn’t go forward with them. It could have gotten really messy. Imagine having radiation zones everywhere like potholes in Sioux Falls. AND, is that why they made the Bunker Ramp so strong so it could withstand a drone strike? Maybe. Else, the mural was meant to confuse an approaching drone, perhaps causing it to veer off. But aren’t drones controlled from afar unlike developers who control amongst us? Perhaps, however, though, the sky pictured in the mural would be perfect for a strike as the controller thinks he still has more territory to cover to get to this final target…. Oh, well, drones and the Bunker Ramp, it’s something to dream about when you are chewing on some Milk Duds, I guess.