When you factor in the city having well over 1,000 employees, it is hard to fathom that they have a retention and worker shortage problem. I clicked on this web ad today and out of 27 positions, only 8 are full-time and the remainder 19 are part-time.
My guess is if you are only looking to hire 8 full-time people when you have over 1,000 current employees, you are sitting pretty good as an organization. Ironically, besides more officers, that we supposedly need, and a mechanic most of the other positions are not really applicable to the service of the public when it comes to infrastructure and public safety (really the only main expenditures a city should have). Does the finance department really need another accountant (as of 2021 they had 6 in the finance department) or a Librarian (they have 9 with 40+ Librarian associates) I will agree though hiring a full-time counselor is a good idea since the current private contractor we are using has a counselor director that is a Federally convicted criminal.
I’ll say it again, the retention bonus had nothing to do with retention, it had to do with an election and a mayor who has done almost absolutely nothing for 4 years for either the citizens or the city employees and is trying to play catchup 30 days before an election.
This story gets more confusing by the minute, first the hussle-bussle on Cory’s site;
They received a 1% COLA last year, this cannot wait. – Kooper Caraway, president of the South Dakota Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO
Well Mr. Caraway, whose fault is that? It’s certainly not the taxpayers fault. You are the chief negotiator. Unless you have been living under a rock, economists have been talking about how the economic recovery will go, they have predicted inflation, employment issues etc. This is not some surprise. So why didn’t you negotiate this to begin with?
I will also say that I have never heard of a non-management union employee of the city living paycheck to paycheck. Maybe it is happening, but you truly need to supply proof. You have not.
In a statement to the Argus Leader Wednesday afternoon, Islam said “since [the ordinance] was advanced to a second reading last night, it should be approved on March 1.”
Do they deserve this? I am not sure. But if they do it isn’t because inflation suddenly reared its head it’s because the original negotiations were horrible. Who accepts a 1% raise even in normal economic times?
But I will argue it still goes back to whose money this is. The taxpayers. Why are we so quick to hand out bonuses when this money could be spent on much needed infrastructure projects for the very people who paid in the money?
I am astounded how this has become so complicated and convoluted;
• The union messed up in the original bargaining agreement
• They want to save face
• The timing is horrific, so they make excuses
You can spin this how ever you want to, you can bully candidates, but at the end of the day a spade is a spade. This is a bribe right before an election and any other assessment is hogwash and circumvent.
While it is no surprise this is advancing, there were quite a few surprises last night. I was encouraged by the council’s discussion and the public input. By the look on the mayor’s face last night you could tell he was very uncomfortable discussing this because it is pretty obvious to everyone what this is, a pre-election bribe to city employees negotiated in total darkness.
I don’t disagree with the bonus, I disagree with the process.
UPDATE II: Today I heard chatter that the city employees have been openly talking about the bonus they may receive and many are happy with it. One employee mentioned this recently happened in Rapid City;
After two failed motions by the Rapid City Council Monday, 430 city employees will receive $500 in COVID-19 bonuses.
The Rapid City Council voted 6-4 to approve the bonuses for non-public safety employees who worked during the pandemic in 2020.Â
Notice they are calling this a Covid bonus. I can see why it almost didn’t pass. While Sioux Falls virtually had NO shut down in the private sector a large portion of Sioux Falls city employees were allowed to work from home.
I also find it ironic that Mayor Poops is considering such a bonus (like Rapid City) after receiving this endorsement;
In the police briefing today it was mentioned that new recruits would get a hiring bonus. I am not opposed to this, because it is a normal practice for the private and public sector to offer hiring bonuses.
But it got me thinking. I thought I heard TenHaken talk about this recently;
“Our city employees are seeing the bonuses and incentives and work-from-home opportunities and every kitchen sink being thrown at employees … so we have to continue looking at how we’re being aggressive in retaining our people and making us an employer of choice,†he said. “We have to get serious about how to compete with the private sector. I have a lot of unfilled positions causing stress for the city.â€
First off, besides the corner of 8th & Indiana and a couple dozen panhandlers, the city is running just fine. If we are short on city staff, it certainly isn’t being seen. Day to day operations are not any different then pre-covid.
I don’t know how the city could possibly give retention bonuses. I don’t think it has ever been done before. It would also be a troubling move for the city union(s) to accept a bonus instead of a raise. A bonus is a one time payment that really doesn’t do much to advance your salary. Every year the city council rubber stamps a property tax increase by a certain percentage, and based on their argument this is good because that compounds over the years. Raises also work that way. It would be much better for city employees to negotiate a permanent pay increase instead of a lousy stimulus check from the city and signed by Poops.
I also don’t think it is appropriate to give retention bonuses to current city employees. Studies have shown that current city employees are already some of the best paid in the region AND further more, the city is not a for-profit institution. What would this bonus be based on? Tax collection? Which is also concerning because that means we are collecting too much if we have money to throw around for bonuses to employees who are only measured by their service instead of profits. Also consider around 30% of city employees don’t even live in Sioux Falls or contribute to the tax base.
Further more, where are we at with tax collection last year? Does the mayor have some kind of inside information he is not sharing with the public and a bucket of money he can just throw at the city employees. Why not spend the money on fixing more infrastructure?
But the biggest red flag is the ethics of giving out bonuses right before a city election. It is nothing else but a huge bribe for the city employees who are eligible to vote in April. I’m not even sure that is legal?
If any of this is true (who knows with all the babbling Paul does in the interview), I encourage the Unions to reject the bonus and ask to go back into negotiations for a percentage increase instead and throw this bribe back in Poops face.
*Some of my city hall moles have told me there is something else brewing. I guess there was some secretive meetings held this week with (some select) councilors and directors in Poops Quarters about some kind private/public partnership with developers and a possible higher education institution. Probably to assist TenHaken’s Tool Team at DSU? 🙂
I have been advocating for a long time that living wage in South Dakota, especially Sioux Falls should probably be nipping the heels of $20.00 per hour, imagine my surprise when this report came out;
This means that of the 50 states, (Puerto Rico and D.C. are not included) South Dakota is one which costs the least to survive in. But how does a $9.95 minimum wage match up to a $45,000 living wage?
Assuming a 40-hour work week, and 50 working weeks per year, a $9.95 wage comes to $19,900 per year. To match the living wage for South Dakota, the minimum wage would need to rise to $22.50/hour.
Our cost of living adjustments are also very high (notice housing);
While we have a governor who blabs about liberty and freedom and a mayor who decries ‘wage inflation’ you can tell the reality is that we lag very far behind and don’t look to their supposed leadership to help the situation. It’s time to start electing representation that wants to make changes instead of coddle the business elites, hospital industrial complex, and welfare developers.
l3wis 
