UPDATE: Sanford Sports Complex upgrades include a baseball stadium and housing

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UPDATE: The city council accepted a withdrawal of renewal alcohol licensing for Lucky Lady Casino tonight. I will have to commend the city council and administration for keeping the pressure on and thank the business owner for having the courage to withdraw instead of fighting this. The council may take more licenses away in the coming weeks at that strip mall.

There was a private meeting with the mayor and some city councilors (only 4 can attend due to quorum) with the property owner recently, but I never heard at the meeting tonight what happened at this closed door meeting. Once again some on the council and the mayor think the best way to negotiate these very PUBLIC problems are in DARKNESS.

This reminds me of when the city council bailed on implementing stronger noise ordinances DTSF and enforcement because a group of DTSF business owners took upon themselves to try to solve the problem through closed meetings between themselves. The council failed to act. Nothing will get solved when you try to fix PUBLIC problems in the DARK.

Just another reason we don’t need a stadium in DTSF. This of course has been NO secret. The Sanford folks have floated an indoor pool and a baseball stadium in the past.

I wonder what the Riverline District folks think of the proposal? Would have loved to see the hand wringing . . .

HERITAGE PARK GETS A CLEANUP?

A concerned citizen pointed out to me today that suddenly Heritage Park (on 6th and Weber) is suddenly void of transients. This all seemed to fall in line with the opening of a new consolidated ad agency next to the park.

Things that make you go hmmmmm?

WILL THE CITY COUNCIL GROW A . . .

At Tuesday night’s meeting the city council will be re-visiting the Lucky Lady alcohol license. As I understand it the vote may be split and there has been some back door wrangling going on. What I find ironic is that the administration and the council have had three years since they were denied a purchase agreement to fix up this area and have done NOTHING!

This isn’t a time to hold hands and say grace, this is a time to get out the pink slips and send these folks packing!

Argus Leader tells the full story about Sanford

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If you didn’t read this story, you would think that Sanford has been completely cleared of charges, not quite;

The conclusion of the DCI’s investigation will not result in charges being filed in South Dakota. It remains unclear if similar investigations into Sanford in other jurisdictions remain open.

Since most cases like this involve multiple states and jurisdictions it is likely the Feds could be still investigating. All the SD DCI is saying is they found nothing prosecutable in South Dakota.

Of course there is also this twist in the story;

“Per our previous hearings, I would expect that the affidavits in support of search warrants to be unsealed at some point on Tuesday,” Power said. 

Minutes later, attorney Stacey Hegge, one of the Sanford’s representatives, made a motion to delay the unsealing of those documents.

In other words, there may be something else in those affidavits that talks about a Federal investigation. It ain’t over until the fat billionaire sings.

Can I borrow Mayor TenHaken’s Crystal Ball?

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Even though the State Legislature, at this point, has shot down funding the DSU Cyber project in Sioux Falls, it hasn’t stopped Poops from putting it on the Council’s Tuesday’s agenda for first reading (Item #43)

AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, PROVIDING SUPPLEMENTAL
APPROPRIATIONS TO SUPPORT CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION OF THE
DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY APPLIED CYBER RESEARCH LAB LOCATED IN THE
SIOUX FALLS CYBER INNOVATION PARK IN THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD:

1. That the Mayor has certified that there are available for appropriation unassigned fund
balances carried forward from prior years or revenues in excess of those estimated in the
budget to provide funding to supplement the 2022 budget.

Oh, so he has ‘certified’ that the money is there . . . even though the council has yet to see a 2021 financial report, kind of like the $2.5 million laying around for employee bonus vote bribes.

Also notice there is NOTHING in the ordinance that says this funding shall dissolve if the state doesn’t pony up. No worries, Fortune Teller Fart Smeller Poops looks into his crystal ball and in an email to council said this;

The funding allocations are nearly complete in Pierre and, despite a small road bump this week
with House Appropriations, I am confident both funding bills in the legislature will be passed.

So now Paul somehow knows that the legislators will revisit this before the end of the session and approve the $30 million? Hey, he may be right, but if I was a betting man . . .

I still recommend that someone on the council amends the funding before the 2nd reading and inserts a clause about dissolving the funding if the state funding doesn’t materialize. And if that happens, let Denny and his banksters pay 100% for something that only really impacts their wealth and investments to begin with.

Sioux Falls DSU Cybersecurity fails to get state funding . . . for now

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As I have said ten thousand times before, when you do things in the open you have more buy in from the public. Denny Sanford, Mayor TenHaken and Governor Noem decided to cook up a deal behind closed doors and it has bit them in the butt.

Denny said he would give $50 million as long as the state ($30 million) and the city pitched in ($10 million). That didn’t happen today.

Senate Bill 54 to appropriate funds for the Dakota State University Cyber Program Expansion. House Appropriations cut the funding to $1 on a motion by Tina Mulally.  After that, they begrudgingly passed it 8-1, with Taffy Howard the lone vote no.

I have heard rumors that Mayor Poops still plans on bringing the $10 million funding forward to the council next week. The hope is if the council passes it that will get the legislature to bring back the funding at the end of session.

MAYBE.

I have suggested that the council attach an amendment to the funding that they will only pitch in the $10 million IF the state changes their mind and decides to pitch in the $30 million. If the legislature fails to pass the funding before the end of session, the commitment would dissolve automatically.

Do I think this is a good project for Sioux Falls? YES. I just don’t see why we need to fund a private facility that will benefit Denny and his business partners. I also don’t believe the absolute BS that this will create 500, $100K a year jobs permanently in Sioux Falls. It may over a decade create that many jobs, but they will all not be in Sioux Falls.

I believe councilors must submit amendments by tomorrow before the agenda posts, I think they can also do it before 2nd reading. Hopefully at least 2 of them grow a brain and offer the amendment, or better yet, kill it all together.

Not sure why the mayor had to have secret meetings about this?

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Looks like the DSU deal is being released to the public. Not sure why Mayor Secret Poops had to have a secret meeting with the council about this at city hall. That’s what baffles me about his secrecy sometimes . . . what’s the point? So you want to give $10 million to a public university? And that needs to be kept secret why? Oh that’s right, not to piss off the great one;

Of the $90 million going toward this initiative, $50 million over five years will come from T. Denny Sanford to expand in Sioux Falls; $10 million will come from the city, pending council approval; $250,000 from Forward Sioux Falls for a cyber/IT park in Sioux Falls; $30 million from the state as proposed in Gov. Kristi Noem’s State of the State address, pending legislative approval.

While I certainly don’t discourage DSU building a facility in Sioux Falls AND certain tax dollars going towards higher education, I’m not sure the money should be coming out of the city’s kitty. We can do a lot of infrastructure repairs with $10 million. Which brings us to the other big question, where is this money coming from*? If the city has $10 million laying around to throw at this, it tells me one thing, we are overtaxed. It seems lately the city is just flush in money for all kinds of these kind of projects. Can you imagine how many affordable homes and apartments we could refurbish with $10 Million? Probably well over a 1,000 units combined.

Looks like another handshake deal with the Denny Warbucks and Matty P. where the private sector is dictating where taxpayers should spend their money while our local leaders have secret meetings about it in the basement of city hall. Hopefully the black hoods and candles were donated 🙂

*Speaking of money, I guess councilor Starr was mislead last week about where the $150K is coming from for the Bunker Ramp legal fund. The story going around is that our legal department has a slush fund for litigation like this. I wonder if our city attorney will apologize and correct his statements at the next public meeting?