South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

David ZoKaites

Alex Jensen Christine Erickson Count-cilor Alex Jensen Curt Soehl David ZoKaites Elections Erica Beck Former Mayor Marshall Selberg Mayor TenHaken Mike Huether Rich Merkouris

Mayoral Race shakeup?

l3wis 10Comments

Since we last discussed this here was the short list of potential or rumored candidates running for mayor;

Mike Huether

Curt Soehl

Rich Merkouris

Alex Jensen

David Z

Erica Beck

Christine Erickson

Marshall (Mr. Illegally living out of his district) Selberg

Well, the shakeup is interesting. I guess Beck has decided to NOT run which put Mastor Poops in a tizzy to find a NEW recruit, apparently he must make sure his horrible policy decisions continue in a good prosperity gospel candidate. He found someone, and they are a nobody, well in the public square sense. They are the president of a local company I have never heard of. Of course, I will not share his name yet, because we truly don’t know until they announce and I will do some digging to find out more about this white, christian, male in his late 40’s. Sound familiar? I hope in next year’s city election folks wake up and realize this current mayor sucks dog do do and anyone he would recruit or endorse will likely go down in flames. Maybe Beck realized this, or maybe she wants to keep her very lucrative job? (Her pay and benefits would be cut in HALF if she became mayor).

Crime David ZoKaites Media Sioux Falls

UPDATE: David Zokaites has all charges against him dismissed

l3wis 5Comments

UPDATE: David told me this week he did a video interview with a local videographer and after it is edited, produced and posted to YouTube I will share.

I got word yesterday that all charges against David were dropped before the hearing.

Ever since this happened I have had several conversations with David about the incident. Initially, as I understand it there was three charges against David, two were dropped pretty quickly but the 3rd charge didn’t get dropped until this week.

I told David after he gets the all clear to send me a guest post about his side of the story.

One of the reasons I never posted about this when it happened is because I know David, and didn’t think he did it, but felt it must go thru the court system before I comment on it.

I think the media owes David a massive apology jumping to judgement. Domestic disputes occur several times a day in this community, why isn’t the media reporting on that? Oh because David is ‘weird’. Funny how the media will report a candidate for mayor alledgedly involved in a domestic assault situation but won’t say anything about Marshall Selberg ILLEGALLY living out of his district for a year. I guess the David thing is a bigger story.

Once again, our Food Truck media in Sioux Falls can’t see the story in the forrest.

David ZoKaites SF City Council SFPD Sioux Falls

Former Mayoral Candidate, David Zokaites files Claim against City of Sioux Falls

l3wis 7Comments

I was NOT at the meeting tonight, so the only copy I have is this screenshot from David presenting the claim to the city at public input (he is the last person to talk at the end of the meeting).

It sounds like a potential civil rights lawsuit. David did say he was ‘considering’ taking action, so he hasn’t filed an actual suit against the city, but notified them that he may.

From his testimony and presentation this is about how the SFPD treats people. Even if David sues and loses the case, at least the noise from the suit will let some sunshine into our police force.

I have heard rumors that since Chief Thum took over he has been trying to clean up the bad officers with some success, but he knows it is a Herculean task. Let’s just say that Thum is probably feeling more like a house cleaner then a police officer these days.

The SFPD has neglected properly training and reprimanding officers for decades and so now there is years of institutional bad habits that will probably take twice as long to remedy.

There is also a rumor circulating that several top officials with the SFPD and SFFD are walking out the door with the mayor in 2026. Some are scheduled retirements some are NOT.

If this is true, it will be a great learning opportunity for the new mayor new councilors in 2026, lets just hope they are all NEW and not USED.

*I corrected the year from 2024 to 2026.

WHO IS RUNNING IN THE MAYORAL RACE?

I’m a little surprised that I have NOT heard an announcement yet. The election is less then a year away and I was at least expecting one major announcement by now. And if you are running for an open seat, you would be wise to be the first to announce, because people will remember you because you will be the media darling for several days.

I wonder if one-term Jensen will run for mayor? I see that Pitty Patt put up a post about how Jensen is running for the legislature and NOT seeking a second term on the council. Nice smoke and mirrors. We all know you can’t run for mayor and city council at the same time. So Pitty, I call Bullsh!t on you!

David ZoKaites Elections Sioux Falls

Interactive Government: David Zokaites

l3wis 4Comments

Guest Post by Mayoral Candidate David Zokaites

Goals

  • Government should care more about public
  • Government should respond to citizens
  • More interaction between government, citizens
  • Would profoundly impact modern life 

Community Outreach

  • Mayor should weekly dine with random city residents
  • Plus weekly lunch with random city employee
  • City councilors, department heads should also regularly meet with random people
  • New mayor will meet with all councilors individually
  • Mayor, councilors should have annual barbecue for camaraderie (invite public too)
  • It’s all part of the job

City Council Meetings

  • Mayor – facilitator, main power source
  • City councilors – vote on proposals, usually approve mayor
  • Citizens – provide input, usually ignored
  • Let’s change the dynamic
  • Increase city council power
  • At-large councilors should be full-time not part-time
  • Utilize public input to create better laws

Current Council Invocation

  • Prayer by minister chosen by mayor
  • Constitution says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”
  • Check to see if starting public meeting with prayer is constitutional
  • Take a survey, see if citizens want to keep prayer
  • Council also says Pledge of Allegiance

Ideas for Invocation

  • Mayor’s prayer for community (I wrote one)
  • Mayor’s secular pledge (I wrote one)
  • Mayor’s prayer for social healing (I wrote one)
  • Mayor’s prayer for personal healing (I wrote one)
  • Each city councilor should present their prayer or pledge
  • Invite public to present prayer or pledge

Public Input

  • Mostly ignored – should be valued
  • Limited to certain points in the meeting
  • Better to allow input after raising your hand
  • Each public inputer should be contacted by district councilor, at-large councilor, mayor’s assistant, or mayor
  • Acknowledgement is key to peace, progress
  • Allow PowerPoint and electronic presentations
  • They were generally disallowed 4 years ago
  • Exclusion was (apparently) directed against myself and Bruce Danielson
  • Move public input back to the start of council meeting to encourage more public input

Designing Laws

  • Ordinances (usually) decided long before public presentation
  • Design laws with actual citizen involvement
  • Convert council meeting from theater to meaningful discussion
  • Present rough ideas at council, a preliminary reading (new)
  • Keep first reading of codified proposals
  • Keep second reading

Controversial Votes

  • If any proposal has 3 or more public comments …
  • All councilors and mayor should explain their votes
  • Limit explanation to 2 minutes  

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