City Administration Building

City Administration Building Sioux Falls

Decent raises for city employees would help morale more than anything

l3wis December 28, 2016 10Comments

While the city plans to build a new $25 million dollar city administration building that was only approved by ONE person, the mayor, the SFPD has to fight for decent COLA raises.

We were told the new building would help morale with city employees. Getting paid a decent wage with good benefits and appropriate raises helps morale more than anything.

The building is merely being built to appease promises the mayor made to contractors and bond salesman. That’s it. While the taxpayers of this fine community are stuck with another mortgage as our crime rate continues to grow.

But the mayor paints a rosy image of everything;

â€œThe last time we celebrated something like this was way back in 1936. Serving Sioux Falls citizens is serious business, and our new City Administration Building will take us to a whole new level of performance,â€ says Mayor Mike Huether.

We have built dozens of administration buildings since 1936, and I never remember anyone celebrating spending tax dollars on city office buildings.

I encourage any councilor that opposed this building to NOT show up to the ground breaking.

City Administration Building Sioux Falls Stop the Funding

There really isn’t an immediate need for a city administration building

l3wis December 7, 2016 2Comments

Don’t take my word on it, just look at the presentation (DOC: city-admin)

They are basically moving departments from buildings that already exist to ultimately move the attorney’s office from a leased building ($100K a year lease – to a $1 Million a year mortgage).

On top of that, they have no plans for the emptied buildings still owned by the city (Parks & Utilities). I think the comment made was ‘conference areas’. They want to keep them.

When I think of fiscal prudence, this isn’t really what I would consider a very good fiscal decision, in fact, it borders on idiocy.

City Administration Building Mayor High Crimes Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether Sioux Falls Stop the Funding

City Administration Bond Sale ‘Crickets’

l3wis October 25, 2016 6Comments

During the ‘Mayor High Crimes’ interview on the Belfrage show this morning, the mayor (bragged) that when the bonds sold last week all he heard was crickets, and the reason NO ONE was saying anything because people are in support of the building. He would say that, that’s like saying voting against an outdoor pool means the public wants an indoor pool, even if an indoor pool wasn’t on the ballot.

How quickly he forgets all the roadblocks he put up preventing the public and even the council from weighing in on this building, and he was successful to the end, there wasn’t much more we could do to prevent the sale.

Here is the chain of events that led up to the bond sale;

â€¢ Mayor breaks the tie with the council twice to approve the building construction and bond sale

â€¢ Mayor vetoes a majority of the council to repeal the bond sale

â€¢ Advisory vote fails to pass the city council

â€¢ Petition drive successfully collects 6,400 signatures and gets thrown out due to technicality that the city clerk didn’t notice when he stamped the petition

â€¢ Judge agrees with city clerk and city attorney that the technicality is enough to throw out the signatures

What about the what ifs?

â€¢ Even if the advisory election was approved, it may never of happened unless the mayor delayed the bond sale, the only person who had the power to delay the sale besides a judge.

â€¢ Even if the judge approved the petitions or the technicality DID not occur, a judge still would have had to intervene to stop the bond sale until an election, AND the council would have had to certify the petitions and set an election date, in turn getting a judge involved again to delay the sale.

While the mayor bragged about the crickets and couldn’t understand why more people were not fighting to stop the bond sale, there wasn’t anything left to do. He successfully roadblocked everyone who tried to stop this building, and expended tax dollars to do so (in legal fees, etc.).

It was the epitome of ethical corruption by the executive branch. One of the dirtiest sequence of tricks he has pulled since he has been mayor. That wasn’t silence you were hearing mayor high crimes, it was disgust.

City Administration Building Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether Sioux Falls

$25 Million of new debt for an unneeded building is hardly a ‘Home Run’

l3wis October 20, 2016 2Comments

One of the biggest mistakes of the Huether Administration

Only Mike could twist advocating for a new administration building we don’t need, vote against the council wishes 3 times, deny a public vote, add $25 million of debt and act like this is good thing for the citizens;

The interest rate of the bonds is 3.09 percent, which City officials say is an outstanding deal for Sioux Falls taxpayers.

â€œThis incredible borrowing rate is a testament to our city’s financial strength and the insatiable demand for investing in Sioux Falls. The timing of this bond sale couldn’t be much better, and it turned out to be a home run for Sioux Falls taxpayers,â€ Mayor Mike Huether said.

The only thing positive about this is a good interest rate on a loan we should not have taken out to begin with.Â I’m not against better office space for city employees, but there are much more prudent ways to do it. But like I have recently said, when you steal your parents credit card, it’s easy to spend, spend, spend.

City Administration Building Sioux Falls Stop the Funding