Chellee Unruh

Chellee Unruh Mayor TenHaken Sioux Falls

Does the City of Sioux Falls housing director work for us or Tea, SD?

l3wis October 23, 2019 4Comments

While Unruh’s position in Tea is voluntary, it is hardly comparable to running a bake sale at your church;

The nonprofitÂ Tea Economic Development Corporation was founded in 1997 with a goal of bringing businesses to Tea, creating jobs and making the city a better place to work and live.
Governed by nine volunteer board members, it’s funded by the city and functions as a chamber of commerce. Its activities include providing information to prospective new businesses, sponsoring ribbon-cuttings and newspaper coverage for new local businesses, sponsoring a mixer for business owners in the spring and hosting an annual banquet in December.
Chellee Unruh, the new board president, shares more about the organization and its evolving role.

I want to clarify something first to all the people who have told me that Chellee is a nice lady and a good person and I should stop picking on her. First of all, it really doesn’t matter. Her farts could smell like lilacs and it still wouldn’t matter. I don’t have a problem with Unruh serving as the Board President of TEDC, what I have a problem with is her serving on the board while also serving the taxpayers of Sioux Falls. She needs to pick one or the other. This is a clear conflict of interest and unethical. While there are no rules for city directors on where they can live, I do think there are rules on serving two masters. How do you on one hand try to manage affordable housing in Sioux Falls and on the other hand you drive home at night to Tea and serve on their EC board? Which is it Chellee? Is your Sioux Falls gig just a paid charity program you are doing to pay the bills? Do you work for Sioux Falls or Tea? Sorry, but providing affordable housing for citizens IS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT! This is why it is a conflict.

And you thought hiring an online tool salesman to run your tech department was a bad idea!

This of course doesn’t surprise me, the ethical nightmare TenHaken’s administration is turning into is frightening, and we should all be alarmed.

Chellee Unruh Sioux Falls Tea

City of Sioux Falls Housing Director, Unruh, working for Tea’s development?

l3wis July 21, 2019 6Comments

I just shake my head when I see these kind of conflicts. The taxpayers of Sioux Falls are paying Unruh’s salary so she can represent it’s citizens in helping with more affordable housing in SIOUX FALLS while serving as the President of Tea’s Development Board.

I don’t have an issue with her serving in either position, but she needs to pick one or the other.

C’mon Paul! This isn’t Rocket Science, it’s ethics, and this one is easy.

Chellee Unruh Sioux Falls Tea

City of Sioux Falls Housing Director tells Tea Residents to NOT use Sioux Falls services

l3wis April 6, 2019 5Comments

While she has no problem with driving to Sioux Falls to draw her paycheck from Sioux Falls taxpayers she encourages residents of TEA to not shop in Sioux Falls or use their services.

It still baffles me that we hired a Tea resident to run our housing division, and also allowed her to run for Tea City Council. But her comments about her civic pride in Tea says a lot about what she thinks of her employer, the City of Sioux Falls.

Chellee Unruh Elections Sioux Falls Tea

Sioux Falls Housing Director now using city funded program to promote her run for TEA city council

l3wis March 13, 2019 9Comments

Chellee appeared on Inside Town Hall in November when she was still working for SE Tech,

She posted this image of her on the show on her campaign FB page;

She is bragging about working with SIOUX FALLS city councilors to get some pork for SE Tech (a place that is funded through our property taxes and sales taxes to the state), which has nothing to do with Tea and now that she works for the City of Sioux Falls, she will have to work with councilors, which brings us to why this is a conflict.

I’m not sure if any campaign rules were broken with this post, but I still would like to see an ethics question posed by the administration as to whether it is ethical for her to run for Tea City Council. I guess they are too busy trying to defend closed door meetings.

Chellee Unruh Sioux Falls Tea

Still baffled and Concerned. Why is the City of Sioux Falls allowing it’s new Housing Director to run for Tea City Council?

l3wis March 10, 2019 1Comments

I do stand corrected on one level. I guess an employee of the Siouxland Libraries and an employee of the Siouxland Museums serve on city councils outside of Sioux Falls. But in some ways that is a little different. Both of those bodies are funded by the county and city(s).

But I have to wonder about the conflict of interest with a Tea resident as our housing director saying this about Tea and her run for council;

This is the most important quote from the article I posted yesterday.
â€œThe advantages that suburbs have for adapting to disruptive innovation should not be a rationale for their complacency. Adaptation needs to be nurtured; it won’t happen automatically. Suburbs have an opportunity and, more importantly, an obligation to develop proofs of concept and to share those lessons with other governmental entities.â€

If Tea is just a part of Sioux Falls, why do they have a city council? Why doesn’t Sioux Falls just annex Tea into our city limits? Seems we would solve a lot of problems for both communities. But the quote also makes you wonder who Chellee will be working for? The opportunities of a suburb of Sioux Falls, or her real paying gig with the City of Sioux Falls? How can you promote development and economic growth for Tea (while living there) and promote affordable housing in Sioux Falls at your day job? While I have had problems trying to find a specific rule or law that prohibits Unruh from doing both jobs, it’s still ethically questionable. Should the SF Ethics Commission be looking into this and ruling on it before the April election in Tea? I think so. I also find it a bit ironic that her family has chosen to live in Tea. Is it because housing is more affordable there?

I also find it curious she lists her employment with Sioux Falls as of February, yet no one saw her working at her new job until the beginning of March. So it seems she was well aware of her employment with the city when she announced she was running for Tea city council. Did her new employer know? If so, why isn’t Mayor TenHaken asking the Ethics Commission to look into this? Maybe they see Unruh as a double agent as an advantage to Sioux Falls?

Does the City of Sioux Falls housing director work for us or Tea, SD?

City of Sioux Falls Housing Director, Unruh, working for Tea’s development?

City of Sioux Falls Housing Director tells Tea Residents to NOT use Sioux Falls services

Sioux Falls Housing Director now using city funded program to promote her run for TEA city council

Still baffled and Concerned. Why is the City of Sioux Falls allowing it’s new Housing Director to run for Tea City Council?

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