PASS ME THE 5TH AMENDMENT, I GOT SOME ASS KICKING TO DO
l3wis 
Code Enforcement
Code Enforcement, redux, South DaCola style
I pulled up some stories that DaCola followed about this debacle;
• What a colorful flowchart
• Fines thru the roof
• Code enforcement has been a mess for a long time, but the mess is defended
• Red tape dance
• The day has come . . .
Review Code Enforcement? Isn’t it a little late for that?
Once again the Gargoyle Leader puts on kid gloves while battling a monster;
Review the way that city code is enforced across the board and find a better way to make it fair.
Earlier in this editorial you said what is wrong with code enforcement; IT’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL. The review process is over, we know what will make it fair; get rid of the administrative appeals process and let citizens fight their citations in front of a judge.
It’s fortunate that new Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether already had called for just such a review during his campaign, saying that consolidating the process across the various departments that oversee city code might be the best solution.
Consolidation will help the administrative part of code enforcement and save tax payers money, but it does nothing to solve the problem. It is really quite simple;
• Fire anyone directly involved with this mess
• Totally destruct the process as it is now and start from scratch
• Allow citizens to defend themselves in a court of law
This isn’t freaking rocket science, it is constitutional rights. It is a shame, that a person who has given so much to Americans as a combat vet had to spend $40,000 of his own money to prove the obvious.
The bigger question though is why is the Gargoyle Leader using kid gloves on this topic? It’s simple, they have contributed to the flawed system in a round about way. After one of their employees was killed by a careless driver they pushed to put in red light cameras, another convoluted city endeavor that doesn’t allow citizens to fight their charges in front of a judge. Funny how the AL Ed Board didn’t bring that up in the editorial.
Sorry, you can’t have it both ways, if you want to keep the cameras, you have to ditch the unconstitutionality of them. That means actually ticketing offenders (not cars) and allowing them to argue their charge in front of a judge, or dismantling the robot police.
Why the delay?
I am still baffled why Judge Caldwell decided to delay the release of this verdict for so long?
Caldwell filed her ruling in November, but both the city and Dorothy found out about it only recently. Both parties said they asked the Minnehaha County clerk of courts office multiple times in the past six months and were told the judge had not made a decision.
“Quite honestly, that just blindsided our office. We had inquired before if there was a decision and had been told that there was not,” Tornow said.
WOW! I knew that Dan’s lawyer had asked for the ruling several times with no avail, but I was unaware that the city did the same. And while I’m no fan of Tornow, I truly believe he is telling the truth on this one, otherwise there would have been an appeal decision a long time ago.
Charles Fechner, Minnehaha clerk of courts, said normally the office doesn’t send such filings to the lawyers unless it’s requested.
“All I can say is we were never given notice to send them out. Unless we are told they want copies or to send them out, it’s not an automatic that we send copies to the attorneys,” he said.
HUH? Didn’t Tornow and Dorothy just say they asked for the rulings? While I think Luther is a decent journalist I’m curious why she didn’t pursue this a little more? I’m still clueless as to why Caldwell sat on this for so long. As I speculated before, I personally think it was an attempt to protect Munson, but who knows at this point. And was former SD Supreme court justice and city attorney ‘in the know’? Is there anyway to make a judge fess up?
This is all really fishy. You would think a decision as huge as city code violating the US Constitution that someone in the clerks office would have said something? Says a lot about our justice system, huh?
I would also like to give a piece of advice to Mayor Huether;
Mayor Mike Huether criticized the inefficiencies of code enforcement during his campaign and talked about consolidating the process, which spans multiple departments.
He asked the city attorney’s office to speak on his behalf regarding the lawsuit Wednesday, Tornow said.
While it was probably a smart move by Mike on such a delicate issue, I really encourage him to get directly involved. First off, fire everyone involved TODAY! Secondly don’t appeal the decision and thirdly change the city charter so it will allow due process, because as it sits now, you are violating the US Constitution and that isn’t very cool.
I would also like to thank Mr. Daily for his citizen advocacy on this issue and allowing South DaCola first hand access to the story. This was never about Mr. Daily, this was about you and your constitutional rights. Dan dropped $40,000 of his own money to protect your rights. At the least we owe him a ‘thank you’ at the most a contribution to his legal fund would be nice.
Dan Daily beats the city in court. He was denied ‘Due Process’ which is guaranteed by the State and US Constitution
I will not post the entire 26 pages of the verdict, BUT, I will post some highlights and the conclusions. Click to the right for the entire document. (11-12-09 findings and conclusions)
Remember when the news did a series of stories about how code enforcement was a mess? This paragraph speaks volumes;
And the last sentence in this one says it all – beat a dead horse and maybe it will wake up.
I think the verdict is pretty clear – the city is violating citizen’s constitutional rights to Due Process. Wonder if the city will appeal the decision? I want to personally thank Dan Daily for taking up this cause, this just wasn’t a ruling for him, but for the citizens of Sioux Falls who have been harassed by the city and had their hands tied. While many people may think I am mean in some of the statements I make here, most of the time I am being sarcastic, but right now, I am not; someone needs to pay for the code enforcement mess, dearly, and hopefully it will be city attorney Tornow. Besides being fired, I would love to see him disbarred, fined and jailed for crimes against the constitution.
