To my surprise, but something I have been concerned about, at the beginning of the city council meeting tonight, Brekke put on the record her objection to a section of how public input is conducted.
Remember when the city council moved public input to the back of the meeting recently (a 4-5 vote with tie-breaker from person of the year Mayor TenHaken) they specifically said that members of the public could not talk about decisions that were made final by the council during the meeting.
This is a clear violation of citizens 1st Amendment rights, as Brekke pointed out in her objection it concerns prior restraint;
Definition
In First Amendment law, prior restraint is government action that prohibits speech or other expression before the speech happens.
OverviewÂ
Prior restraint typically happens in a few ways. It may be a statute or regulation that requires a speaker to acquire a permit or license before speaking. Prior restraint can also be a judicial injunction that prohibits certain speech. There is a third way–discussed below–in which the government outright prohibits a certain type of speech. Courts typically disfavor prior restraint and often find it to be unconstitutional.
Basically Brekke points out that since decisions were already made during the meeting, voted on and final, the public has a right to address them and the government (city council or mayor) cannot limit them.
Even though Brekke’s opinion is NOT alone (there are many Supreme Court rulings about this) City Attorney Kooistra vehemently opposed her and basically told her she was wrong. It surprised me, actually astonished me how little the city attorney knows about 1st Amendment rights. From the mayor’s performance during the objection, it is clear he has no clue what 1st Amendment rights are, that has been blatantly obvious for a long time, but for an attorney with a law degree that has practiced in the military and in the private sector I would think he would be aware where the Supreme Court stands on this issue.
If Mr. Kooistra really wants to try out his Constitutional chops on this one, I would love to watch him get pummeled by a free speech attorney when someone from the public challenges this when the chair tries to shut them down for this ludicrous and unconstitutional rule violation. He may just get his day in the spotlight. Well, Mr. Kooistra, you know what Andy Warhol once said, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Good luck.
As a person who follows politics as a hobby, I can tell you that most Americans have something in common; they hate politics. Most have already moved on and have accepted the results of the election. While a lot of them are not happy about it (I still think Biden was the worst pick the Dems made) they have moved on.
We all know the flat out lies and misinformation that is being spread around by both camps and it is hard to keep track, but the one that sticks out for me is that MOST Trump voters are still concerned about voter fraud. The best poll numbers show that around 40% of them ‘think’ there was fraud, but I guessing even a smaller number will try to do anything about it, like we saw in Terrace Park yesterday.
I do agree with Senate Republicans that there should be an election commission to study how reliable the election was, BUT, it should be conducted in every state to give an overall view. I believe that they will find very little fraud (there will always be minor instances) and I think they will find that Biden may have gotten even more votes.
That’s where the Stop the Steal voters seem to have a hollow argument, claiming that only fraud occurred in swing states that Trump lost (even though several Republicans down ballot got elected in those states). It’s a ludicrous argument. If you want to have a commission on studying voter fraud in a national election, you have to include all the states. Which I am all for.
They also seem to have a unique misunderstanding of how you count mail in votes. In most states, including South Dakota, they get fed in last to the counting machines, it’s always been done this way and since Trump effectively said one of the stupidest things a POTUS candidate could say – Don’t vote by mail – Donny shouldn’t be surprised that Biden got those votes.
So why do I think most people will just move on from this? Because I put Trump voters into several categories and two sub categories (some are intertwined).
Sub Category 1; Trump voters that will move on, or already have
• Independent Conservatives. These are people that don’t trust the party system (because it is a joke) but are so conservative they would never in their lifetime vote for liberal or even a moderate Democrat. So they voted for Trump, not because they like him, but they believe as I do I need to make a choice. So they plug their noses and vote. They are probably not to broken up that Trump is gone.
• Registered Republicans that will never vote for a Democrat. Better known as straight ticket voters. They always vote for an R and they always will. After the election they move on and don’t care. These people are probably the least engaged of Trump voters. They will probably forget his name by March.
• Rich people (Republican or Indy) These people really don’t have a moral or ethical compass. They are rich and greedy and don’t give a sh*t who sits in the oval office as long as they get tax breaks and are anti-regulation. They make a lot of money and don’t want to share. They actually like Trump because he hasn’t paid taxes. While Biden may make them nervous, they aren’t too worried about his term(s) they always have some loophole to fall back on. They are like ‘oh well’.
• Anti-Liberal. No matter how many times you show these folks the facts they don’t seem to care. To them anything that is NOT conservative is just evil. They love Trump, because like I said already, they are not interested in facts and they believe his horse puckey that we are becoming a socialist nation. Folks, we already are a socialist democracy. Google it, go to the library, the proof is there. In fact we as an American society use social programs everyday, all of us. These people are on the lower end of the IQ spectrum, and since they are, in a couple of months, they will forget about the Orange Menace.
Sub Category 2; Trump voters that will not move on (okay, maybe by July or August)
• Poor Stupid people and old bigots. I tried to find a more sophisticated name, but they aren’t sophisticated so why should I be? These are the ass clowns you see at events like yesterday or at Trump rallies across the nation. You have probably seen the news coverage, in one breath they claim to be Christian and that Trump was sent by God and in the next breath they are telling news reporters to F’ck off because the reporters confused them with math and facts and stuff. These are the supporters that are mad about Trump losing but won’t do much about it in a couple of months, because all these people are good at is bitching, and they will go back to their old routines of complaining about their minority neighbors or how they found out their pastor is mentoring a transgender teenager. They can only handle one controversy at a time, so Trump will be ancient history for them when their teenage daughter tells them she is pregnant and the father’s name is DuWayne Jr.
But what is the best way we can all move on? Well it starts with the mainstream media, locally, nationally and internationally. I make a plea to you;
DON’T COVER DONALD TRUMP AFTER JANUARY 21ST unless he is arrested. Seriously, he lost, by a lot. Not having to hear that name or listen to his trap flap ever again would be a blessing. Ignore him. Trust me, the Biden administration has so many challenges to face that the news should have little time to broadcast the sniveling of a two-time loser former POTUS. The quicker we put Trump in a media blackout the quicker the Trump voters I mentioned can move on.
Happy New Year! Before we get into the agenda I wanted to alert readers that there are a couple of issues I am working on that the TenHaken administration is ‘trying’ to keep away from public view, I will keep you updated once I get more information.
Sub Item #1, Planning and Housing, Offer to Purchase Real Estate; Gaukler Enterprises, Inc. – Closing costs, $226K. Some city hall moles told me that this is one to watch. I guess the city is purchasing this land for a supposed future Homeless Veteran’s shelter. Now I’m not sure if we are just buying the land and gifting it to the VA to build and maintain the shelter or if the city is planning on paying for the structure and maintaining it. Would have been nice to get an informational on this from the Planning/Housing department, oh I forgot, this administration HATES transparency.
Sub Item #13, another $19k towards the kitchen remodel at the Central Fire Station. With all the money being spent on this kitchen they may be able to make it into a new soup kitchen downtown.
Sub Items #20 Agreement to Provide Funding to assist LifeScape in providing transportation for their clients, $201k & #29, Provide partial funding to assist Dakotabilities in providing transportation for their clients, $400k+. It often surprises me when the city whines about how much public transit is draining the tax rolls than turns around and spends over $600K to assist private non-profits. While I do think the city should provide these rides there should be reimbursement through the Federal government. If there is, that needs to be explained to taxpayers.
Sub Item #21, Rail Yard Development – BNSF Occupancy Permit; Agreement for temporary occupancy, $4,781. After giving millions away for land that wasn’t worth more than a couple of million to this entity (and that Federal taxpayers probably already owned) BNSF has the nerve to charge us a rental fee for using some of their supposed land. Unbelievable. Who was the rocket scientist with the city that negotiated this deal?
Sub Item #33, Provide operation services for the downtown SculptureWalk Program, $32,500. While I support funding to SW, I’m wondering what they spent last year’s supplement on? As you may or may not know is SW was suspended and no new sculptures (or very few) were brought in. Maybe with the pandemic the city should forgo this supplement this year.
Sub Item #34, City Website Consulting Services, Consultant will perform all work to City Website including production of all materials, products and modifications. RoundedCube, $1,700 per month. I’m curious why we need to hire a company that is based in St. Louis, MO to do this, especially when there are many very capable companies in Sioux Falls. The bigger question is why isn’t the city’s own IT department maintaining the site? I also think the city website is a POS and has been for a long time. It’s a navigation hell hole and getting data is a crap shoot. If I were the mayor tomorrow, I would revamp the site and I would get it done in 90 days. Ironically when I looked up RoundedCube yesterday the website was working, but it seems the company we hired to maintain our website can’t maintain their own site, this was the message I got today when I went there;
Items #33-34, The Bonus Round Bar on Cliff & Downtown will be putting in Video Lottery terminals. I guess while the Cliff location will mostly be a VL casino the DT location will still keep all the other pinball machines and games with the VL terminals. While I am not a fan of telephone booth casinos, at least I will be able to walk a block again to get a tasty micro-brew, I’ll just have to wear ear plugs 🙂
Item #38, the use of the unobligated fund balance of $100,000 for the 2021 health budget is authorized to fund a public health education campaign to encourage preventative measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. While we continue to throw money at our Covid Tourism campaign we are counter reacting to it by throwing more money on how to keep yourself safe from contracting Covid. Oh the pathetic irony.
Item #43, 2nd Reading, AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, REZONING PORTION OF PROPERTY LOCATED AT SOUTHWEST OF W. 22ND ST. AND S. ELLIS RD. FROM THE O OFFICE DISTRICT TO THE LW LIVE/WORK DISTRICT, NO. 13281 2020, AND AMENDING THE OFFICIAL ZONING MAP OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS. It will be interesting to see how many residents show up to debate this move Tuesday night.
Item #46, 1st Reading, AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, APPROVING TERMINATION OF THE RAILROAD SWITCH TRACK EASEMENT. I’ve read the supporting documents of this ordinance and it is about as clear as mud. It involves the downtown properties owned by Gourley and Sioux Steel. It seems like it has something to do with a rail track that isn’t used anymore.
Item #50, A RESOLUTION REMOVING UNCOLLECTIBLE, DELINQUENT ACCOUNTS FROM THE RECORDS. If you look at the supporting documents you will see 2 of the accounts were considered ‘confidential’. I’m not even sure if that is even legal. If the city, a public entity funded by taxpayers is writing off debt they need to make it public. The county commission does this every week. I’m still not sure if anyone competent is running the city attorney’s office. I still think my idea of terminating all the city attorneys and just hiring a para legal and a purchasing agent to run the department may be the best way to go.
Item #2C, we have another situation where we are changing a office zoned area to residential. Ironically the place is surrounded by office zoning. I think we are going to see a lot of this since the pandemic.
What do you get when a hospital lawyer, an ad agency exec, a banker, a developer, an angel fund investor and a guy who does business out of a UPS Store PO Box join forces? One heck of a political action committee. (PAC)
We all knew that there would be more money funneled into Jensen’s campaign chest after the last finance report before the election. He received an additional $13K coming from the Buffalo PAC. Curiously he didn’t spend it all, in fact he only spent about $3K on the campaign in it’s waning days (Full report). Curiously he spent around $8,500 on legal fees ($1,000 donated). I’m assuming that was for the recount. What I find ironic is that with all the money and power swirling around the SD GOP who helped get Alex elected that not one single lawyer took him on pro-bono for the recount. Stehly’s (a Republican) attorney, the Chair of the SD Democratic Party, Randy Seiler offered his services for free to Theresa. So basically the donors to the Buffalo PAC and ultimately Jensen funneled money to a Republican Law Firm (Redstone). I know, mind boggling.
Curiously the PAC is registered to a Sioux Falls residential address, a home owned by a SF hospital attorney (not the green one) and an ad agency executive (the big one in town). Both of them also have a connection (still trying to figure out) to a Sioux Falls city director that TenHaken appointed. Strangely they were only used as conduit because none of them donated to the PAC.
So who did? Well the usual suspects, with two of them pouring thousands of dollars towards Alex through various PACs, family members and individual donations. I’m surprised they didn’t find a way to get dead relatives to give since it is against the law now to use your toddler children.
BUFFALO PAC DONORS:
Matthew Paulson – $5,000.00 (Jensen’s campaign treasurer and suspected manager)
Dana Dykhouse – $5,000.00
Crescent Venture Capital (Kevin Tupy ) – $2,000.00
Daniel Costello – $1,000.00
Yes, I know, not surprising since most of these characters already had been throwing money at Jensen’s campaign. I wonder if they knew he gave half of their donation to a law firm?
l3wis 
