South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

l3wis

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, Jan 12, 2021

l3wis 20Comments

Informational Meeting • 4 PM

• Tuthill House Resource Group: Thursday, January 7, 2021 (Council Member Brekke)

• Vacant Home Registration Fees For Historic Districts and Non-Historic Districts by Matt Tobias, Planning and Development Services Manager; and Diane deKoeyer, Neighborhood And Preservation Planner. As you can see, the city continues to NOT post documents in advance on SIRE to review before the meeting, so I have NO idea what this is about. I’m not a realtor or a rental home owner so my best guess is the city wants to register vacant homes on some list? Or charge for it? If anyone knows, send me a note.

Regular Meeting • 6 PM

Item #6, Approval of Contracts;

Sub Item #7, School Park Site Coordination – Marion Road Utility Relocate;
Amendment to relocation agreement, Xcel Energy, $42K. While I have no doubt this needs to be done AND Xcel has to do it, I wonder why the SFSD isn’t paying for this? The city isn’t building a new school, they are.

Sub Item #12, Option to Extend: Extending agreement for after-hours
answering service for various City departments, Helpline Center, $17,500. While the city DOES need a service, I don’t understand why this can’t just be electronic? Heck, even when you call city departments during the work week you rarely get a real person. I have called city councilor’s office numbers, the water department, the public works department, the attorney’s office and the mayors office and rarely had a real person answer during the day. I will say that when I do leave a message I do get a return call. I always chuckle how our Mayor consistently talks about 5G and taking on technological advances for the city but operates it like it is the 1960’s. We have a city council agenda page and video system that continues to fail, we have a city website that is nearly impossible to navigate and virtually have zero access to administrative actions (like ethics insurance). I have also heard from city employees that the city is extremely vulnerable to hacking. What this city needs is an IT Director that will come in and overhaul the entire system without the mayor tying their hands for accolades about free atta-boy coins and lapel pins.

Item #16-17, Resolutions, A RESOLUTION VACATING A PORTION OF THE ARROWHEAD PARKWAY RIGHT OF WAY, AS SHOWN ON EXHIBIT A. (Tracts 2-3 Willows Edge Addition) The hearing is going to be set for February 9. I’m not sure if this has to do with the controversy that happened early last year where several folks showed up to the Parks Board meeting and protested to vacation. We will see.

Item #18, Ordinance, A MOTION TO RECONSIDER AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, PROVIDING A PROVISIONAL ONE-TIME SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION TO FUND A COVID-19 PUBLIC HEALTH EDUCATION CAMPAIGN. (Health, $100,000) (The ordinance was considered at the meeting of January 5, 2021.) Last week there was talk that this will go towards an education program about getting a vaccination. While I agree with that, I don’t know why we are paying an outside ad agency to create this program as mentioned at the meeting. The city’s media department could easily create a PSA and put it on CityLink. They could also post on YouTube and Facebook at NO cost to taxpayers. We already pay city employees at Falls Community Health, The Health Director and Media services, we don’t need to waste $100K on an outside agency that will essentially tell people ‘Get a shot.’ On top of that, after the media department created the PSA they could distribute to the local TV stations and ask them to play it. We could also adapt it for radio and ask them to do the same. This is just another clever way the administration is finding a way to funnel money to his pals in the advertising world. The good news is that his former(?) ad agency will NOT be getting the contract. I guess they probably figured it would be hard for them to create a PSA about Covid Safety and Vaccination after running a campaign that promoted Covid Tourism.

Also, who doesn’t already know about the Covid vaccinations? It has been on the news for over a month. Sure there will be people that don’t want to get one, but at this point, it is NOT about education, it’s about getting enough doses in arms of the people who do want to get one. Shouldn’t we be getting them through the line first before worrying about the Q-NON anti-vaxxer weirdos?

Donita Trump Noem Kristi Noem Trump

Noem is just as delusional as her mentor

l3wis 18Comments

When I first read this op-ed, I thought to myself, ‘Is Noem even qualified to be governor?’ I know she isn’t, but if you had any doubts, you don’t anymore. It has to be one of the most unprofessional, delusional op-ed’s I have ever read by a politician. Besides being littered with lies and false accusations, it reads more like a crazy rant from your right wing uncle than the leader of a state. Let’s review and debunk this scripted piece of garbage;

And there are many in our party who are eager to blame President Trump both for the violence in Washington and for the results of the senate elections in Georgia.

Because he is to blame, McFly. Not only did he incite the protestors, in Georgia he told his supporters to NOT trust the election process. Why would they vote?!

Republicans got our butts kicked in Georgia on Tuesday. A 33-year-old with no accomplishments and a smooth-talking preacher wiped the floor with us. The idea that Georgia, of all places, could elect two communists to the United States Senate was ridiculous.

Okay, a lot to break down there. Remember when Kristi was elected to the US Congress she was around 40, had no college degree and her only real accomplishment was inheriting her dad’s ranch. She really hasn’t accomplished much more since then. Kettle meet black. As for her comments about Warnock, he has an amazing resume of being a civil rights champion in Georgia. Let’s also not forget that their opponents were both investigated for insider trading.

In the last sentence she really knocks the BS out of the park. Her veiled bigotry is on full display when she questions how a Jew and a Black minister could be elected in the state, she almost is saying how dare they ran and how dare people voted for them. And what the heck does Kristi know about Georgia?

As for the communist comment, it would be easy to go on a long rant, but I will keep it brief. They are not communists. They may fit the bill as Democratic Socialists, but that is the country we live in, by definition; a socialist system of government achieved by democratic means. We pay taxes and in return, we collectively receive social benefits. Like roads, public schools, law enforcement and military protection. Some others receive higher education and housing assistance. Others get food assistance and millions of older Americans get Social Security and Medicare. We have been a socialist democracy for well over 100 years. This is why many people running for higher office don’t deny it. Calling someone a communist because they don’t believe in your political leanings is just childish an incredibly idiotic. It quite possibly is one of the stupidest things she has ever stated.

Our country has changed. We have failed to educate generations of our children about what makes America unique. Few, if any of them, have been taught the history of our decades-long fight to defeat communism. Meanwhile, the left’s indoctrination takes place every day with kids all across America from the time they walk into a school at age 5 to the time they graduate college at 22.

She is partially correct, but let’s clarify. The problem with our public education system isn’t a communist plot of indoctrination its that they don’t teach students civics anymore. They couldn’t tell you the difference between a democracy or a communist nation, let alone what authoritarian fascism is or anarchy. They are being taught NOTHING. I agree that we need to educate our children about government, but they are not learning about communist plots at school they are learning them around the dinner table from their parents instead of enlightened educators.

Our party has some serious work ahead of us. We are going to have to sit down and collectively answer a very simple question: Why does America need Republicans?

The answer to that is very simple: 2020.

2020 is a prime example of why we need to get rid of Republicans. They almost destroyed our democracy in 12 short months.

What is so troubling is that by April, we knew that there was a specific vulnerable population that we needed to protect from COVID-19. 

You did?! If you knew this why didn’t you use that information to protect those in nursing homes? Instead they became Covid death camps because of your pathetic inaction. Noem did nothing. And when we started to surge, she grabbed a couple SD Highway patrolman at our expense and flew around the country campaigning for her sugar daddy. F’ing disgusting.

In 2020, despite the virus, if you wanted to riot, loot, and burn buildings down, the government either stood idly by while you did that, or worse, tacitly encouraged the destruction.

Actually that happened in 2021 just a few days ago when the Capital Police opened the doors for them and took selfies. Where were your party leaders on Wednesday Kristi? Golfing? Hiding in a bunker? Or maybe a basement TV studio dialed in to Newsmax. Recently a university professor (sorry, I saw her on PBS and can’t remember her name) studied protests in 2020, she determined that 93% of BLM protests across the nation were non-violent. While I am concerned that the other 7% were violent, let’s really put this in perspective folks.

What we lived in 2020 is the left’s vision for America.

I thought the people that held the White House and the Senate in 2020 were Republicans? Oh, that’s right, they were. It was under Republican leadership that we had to endure all of this mayhem mostly due to the rhetoric coming out of the White House and the inaction in the Senate. THOSE WERE YOUR PEOPLE KRISTI! This is why they were voted out. It’s not rocket science.

America is unique in the world because we have a government that is limited in its powers, and our people are guaranteed certain, God-given liberties. We are not governed by aristocrats, elites, or experts. We the people are the government.

So why are you denying South Dakotans desire to decriminalize marijuana? And why is our AG still walking as a free man? The ‘people’ would like to know.

President Eisenhower said, “We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”

Maybe you should tell Trump that. Maybe you could tweet it to him . . . oh that’s right, nevermind.

It is not even enough to say, “vote for us because we will fight against abortion or Obamacare or whatever else.”

I hate to break it to you, but legalized abortion will never go away. In fact I expect Congress to move on a bill that puts it on the books so the SCOTUS can’t touch it. I do agree that there is hope ACA will go away, and be replaced with a Medicare for all single payer system and a majority of Americans agree.

The Republican Party respects people as individuals. We don’t divide people based on their religion or their roots. We don’t ostracize people who think for themselves. We understand that each person is different.

All the Republican party has done over the past 4 years is divide people, you have been doing it in our state for almost 50 years.

Our Republican Party respects everyone equally under the Constitution and treats them as Martin Luther King, Jr. wished . . .

Oh the irony of Kristi quoting MLK while calling the pastor of King’s former church a smooth-talking preacher. That’s rich coming from a smooth-talking politician like yourself.

We must go into this battle for freedom with our eyes wide open, educated to the tactics the radical left will use, and yet totally pure in our motives. 

And who is this radical left you speak of? Joe Biden? LOL. More like a radical old moderate. Keep chasing the mice in your head Kristi. Maybe one of these days you’ll rope one of them, you might even be able to get some college credits for it.

1st Amendment Trump

I support protest, with WORDS

l3wis 16Comments

“The pen is mightier than the sword” were first written by novelist and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839, in his historical play Cardinal Richelieu.

And he is correct. It is a short sentence I have embraced most of my life, your words hold power, they hold even more power when they are truthful and righteous and when you deliver them with confidence and peace.

I think the first time I showed up at Carnegie town hall to speak about injustice in our city was in 2003 when the council voted to shut down the LOOP. Passionate citizens voiced their opinions about it. I think I talked about my opposition to street closures (which was a failed amendment). I think speech is more powerful than guns and insurrection. Freedom is FREE, Speak Out!

When I watched these anti-democratic protesters yesterday storm the US Capital based on the lies that have been fed to them by an unqualified president, one thing came to mind;

“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” Hillary Clinton said. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.”

She said the other half of Trump’s supporters “feel that the government has let them down” and are “desperate for change.”

“Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well,” she said.

The people who stormed the capital yesterday were not freedom loving Americans, they were deplorables.

While I don’t agree with many decisions made in DC, Pierre or at City Hall, I don’t take up arms or glorify one leader over another, I speak out.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Self-evident. Think about that. Reality is right in front of us, it is not created or manufactured.

If you want to make change, you do it with words. I have never accomplished change in this community with the sword, I have only done it with the pen. Condemn those who use lies and violence to push their agenda, only those who speak the truth under an olive branch deserve the power to transform our lives.

Ethics SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council discusses Ethics Attorney insurance at informational meeting

l3wis 3Comments

A South DaCola foot soldier sent this to me last week when I first posted about this;

Sioux Falls Human Resources Director Bill O’Toole sent an email on December 17, 2020 to let city of Sioux Falls elected officials know there will be changes in the South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance (SDPAA) policy for 2021. There are changes in it, that makes a person think, after the Neitzert impeachment, it was the result of falling out of the crazy tree and hitting every branch on the way down in order to protect the mayor and anyone connected to the illegal trips and other questionable actions.

Mayor and City Councilors,

The City will soon renew its Liability Coverage for calendar year 2021 with the South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance (SDPAA). I wanted take this opportunity to provide a general overview as we are about to enter the new year.

As an optional special endorsement, a new defense coverage is being offered for this upcoming calendar year for any public entities who have created their own ethics board. If a Member elects to purchase this additional coverage, then this special endorsement will provide an expert attorney to defend an elected official from the moment an ethics complaint is filed and through the entire administrative processing of that complaint from the hearing(s) before the public entity’s ethics board to the conclusion of any appeal hearing(s) before the local governing body (city council). This defense coverage will cover up to $10,000 in attorney fees and expenses per occurrence, or up to $20,000 aggregate for any calendar year. Please be aware that SDPAA panel counsel are retained at more competitive rates than those retained independently. This special endorsement will represent an additional annual premium of $7,500.00 and the Human Resources Department is in the process of securing this special endorsement for 2021.

Note how this additional coverage is only available to South Dakota members of SDPAA which have something called an “ethics process”. Why don’t they offer the other SDPAA members who don’t have an “ethics process” in their jurisdiction? It will only cover unethical behavior or accusations thereof if the jurisdiction has a pseudo ethics process. In other words, this is a corruption insurance rider. If a citizen or government entity decides there might have been unethical behavior caused by one of their elected officials, such as all-expense paid trip bordering on criminal tax evasion or at least unethical quid pro quo self-serving actions, SDPAA will now have additional coverage to pay for the defense of a Neitzert like clone or other elected officials when the offensive behavior is brought to light.

The Board of Ethics is a lay board of citizens, usually without legal background or training. Just thoughtful citizens of high integrity. The Board is not a court of law or does it have the ability to hand down legal conclusions. Board of Ethics decisions are not based on the low bar of legality but a higher bar of principles in their oath of office, promising high standards of moral, fair, non-political and conflict-free actions. The ethics board is not a legal body, only a board there to assist a city person find the ethical response to an issue or if a complaint, the probable cause the person did something which offends the senses of the community.

In Sioux Falls, our ethics board has as a charter function, to decide if ethical lapses occurred in a decision or action of a Sioux Falls government person. The only decision the ethics board can make when the question is presented, “was the issue raised frivolous or was there probable cause for the complaint”. If probable cause for the ethics complaint is found, the issue is then decided by the City Council and punishment if found is meted out.

Remember, the ethics board cannot find or decide a legal issue. Legality is not in the board’s purview. There simply is no legal decision the ethics board can make or find, only if there was a breach of a higher standard called ethics. There are criminal courts for legal issues with all the protections due criminal complaints.

This action by the SDPAA, if purchased by the city of Sioux Falls, will be to endorse the idea of the city paying for the defense, prosecution and exoneration of their elected officials at bargain basement legal rates. This paid for legal assistance for the elected person will start at the moment a complaint affidavit is filed in the city attorney’s office before there is any action other than a question was raised.

Note the policy will not cover employees who have been accused of the illegal or unethical behaviors only the mayor and city council members. This is corruption insurance for our elected officials, paid for by us by way of our taxes, to possibly make unethical behavior easier?

The current executive director of SDPAA is the former ringmaster of Sioux Falls city questionable behavior. When he was chief legal officer of the city, he made so many questionable things possible, to actually make them happen and then created the cover needed to make it look legal. Remember the Event Center siding study that was to be conducted and never happened? The Spellerberg MOU needed to build an indoor pool on borrowed land? A parking ramp to nowhere? A needed office building, just to satisfy the mayor who built to much? How about as the city attorney who had conflict of interest in an ethics board hearing where he represented the city AND the mayor AND the ethics board? He had to take the job over at SDPAA just so he could control the release of information and continue to protect himself for all his errant ways. Is the current SDPAA director supplying personal protection for the city at a bargain basement price to keep his fingers in the Dutch dike?

When looking at this added insurance, many things come to mind. Is this akin to a bribe to keep mouths shut? If you make any unapproved noise, the SDPAA will or won’t protect you? If a person was to run for office and asks or raises to many questions, will SDPAA decide not to cover the ramifications? Will it cover an official accused of criminal assault against a citizen?

So now, instead of the elected official paying attention to their ethical behavior, SDPAA and the city will cover any discovered activity. The elected person will not have to worry about the cost of the defense because once accused, SDPAA and the city will pay for their legal costs. For example, using the past cases brought before the ethics board (including the impeachment of Neitzert), the city would have had to pay all the costs for the lawyers hired to defend the accused person’s unethical behavior. Instead of just admitting the personal mistake and making it go away, the people of Sioux Falls end up having to pay for the defense of the unethical persons and their actions plus the prosecution costs.

What we citizens of Sioux Falls will be paying as part of the insurance bill this year, is a benefit for elected officials. A new policy clause to cover unethical corruption and criminal activity. Maybe we should start calling SDPAA, Your Source For Corruption Insurance.

EDITOR’S NOTE: After watching the meeting today where Brekke and Starr said that this is NOT an administrative decision, it is a city council decision (in which the rest of the council disagreed as well as the city attorney) what was revealing is that Neitzert admitted about 90% of his legal fees at his recent impeachment hearing were paid for by donations (around $15,000 he paid $2,000 himself). WOW! Who needs insurance with friends like that?! I encourage you to watch the video. As I have said, council wouldn’t need this rider if they would just act ethically, and if not, at least confess and apologize before lawyers have to be hired. I guess I’m not mad at Greg for what he did, I’m mad that he didn’t have the moral compass to just admit the wrong doing and take his medicine. Very cowardly.

LAST NOTE: I also see a reoccurring theme at the city council informational meetings, they don’t have enough time for presentations and questions because they moved the city council regular meeting up to 6 PM. We knew this would happen. In fact it was so tight, that councilors Neitzert and Kiley who were scheduled to attend the meeting on their phones were clearly voting at the beginning of the meeting while driving home in their cars because you could hear it. Once again, Sioux Falls city government is very predictable.

1st Amendment Humor Mayor TenHaken Media Open Government Open Meetings Parody

Is KELO News writing parodies now?

l3wis 8Comments

When I have written parodies in the past, I have been warned by friends to be careful how I label them so people know for sure that it is a parody. I didn’t find a disclaimer on their latest article;

For dealing with such unprecedented problems all at once, Mayor Paul TenHaken is KELO.com News’ “Person of the Year for 2020.”

Boy, nothing like a good laugh right away in the morning. I am curious who with the news team at KELO decided this was a good choice (names please) and who were Paul’s competitors? Not sure, but they tell us why he was named (by unnamed folks) beating out (unnamed) competitors;

Sioux Falls mayors had faced civil unrest before. Sioux Falls mayors had faced great economic uncertainty. And Sioux Falls mayors had faced a pandemic. But none of them faced all three difficult situations at the same time in the same year. Under his watch, Mayor TenHaken navigated the city through the politics of the coronavirus, which also caused a bump in the city’s usually robust economy. And he had to quell a property damaging riot that sprang from a peaceful rally in response to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

First, I will state the obvious, you know I would not agree, but secondly, It kind of sounds like issues he should be dealing with as part of a job HE wanted. Notice they never mention the several times he said he was ‘sick of it’ and ‘didn’t sign up this’. Strangely they left that out of their nomination.

But let’s break down what they said;

• Economy. I may sound old fashioned but the mayor’s job, per the charter, is to be the City Manager. He basically runs the day to day operations of the city and manages the city employees. That’s all he does (or should I say his Chief of Staff). He has very little control over the overall private economy of the city. Mind you, he could have had a major impact, he could have found an early strategy to make sure places like the packing plant and nursing homes were operating safely. He did not, which brings us to the next item.

• Covid. Sure, Paul has taken some measures over the past couple of months with pressure from business owners, citizens, medical professionals and the city council but it was too late. For the first 6-7 months this was raging in Sioux Falls he hid under his desk and took the Noem/Trump view of the virus, if we just ignore it, it will go away. While he has lead better then Noem, that leadership surely wasn’t trophy worthy.

• Civil unrest. During the riot(?) at the mall (where some middle schoolers were throwing rocks) Paul was in a bunker somewhere in a city building watching it play out on a large screen TV. While I am glad that this incident did not result in massive property damage and injuries or death, I’m not sure having the National Guard on your speed dial makes you a champion of quelling civil unrest. I was in the march earlier in the day, and later watched livestreamed on FB. It was peaceful, all over town. The lights went down and some latch key kids got bored and made a rather peaceful protest look bad. If anyone should be commended it should be the people who stood in front of the officers to protect them from rocks.

Has Paul done some good things? Sure, his administration has pushed for treating the city employees better (part of his job) and he has been a big public advocate for mentorship and health and wellbeing. But I’m sure the above mentioned stuff was a bit of a stretch.

The thing that concerns me the most about Paul and his supposed leadership is his blatant disregard for open and transparent government and his efforts in the dark rooms at city hall to totally dismantle what little is left. Is it some kind of a sick joke that the media would pick someone for this honor that HATES open government? I’m not laughing anymore.

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