Did you know?

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Yesterday a group of who watch Sioux Falls city government closely had lunch to compare notes and fellowship. We all kind of have our pet areas we watch.

 

I found out yesterday that the Event Center Task force still meets, and they have put NOTHING on hold. They still intend to push the legislature for a tax increase in 2010 to help build the Event Center. They also have decided on a location. They want to tear down Howard Wood and build it there, it is believed that Darin Daby from the School Board is on board with the idea.

 

Anyhoo . . .

 

The discussion switched gears to the red light cameras (something I am opposed to) when one guy in our group mentioned he challenged his ticket since he was a member of a national motorists club (they also oppose the cameras to). It all started after he got his ticket and contacted them. They provided him with a form so he could see if the cameras and lights were timed correctly, they were not. Something he brought up in his hearing. Also in his hearing the city engineer could not answer the timing question and the reason they gave why the cameras were put in was because of a lady being killed in that intersection. His response to them made total sense, “So the rest of us citizens are being punished for what one person did?” You can thank the Argus Leader for their media blitz about the death (she was an employee).  Though her death is tragic, and no disrespect is meant by me saying this, he is correct in his response. The person who was responsible for her death had their day in court and received punishment for the crime, so why are the rest of us being punished for it? After he told us the story, a fellow city-watcher was invited over to tell us about his class-action against the city for his ticket. He is the first person out of 19,000 tickets issued to sue the city over his ticket, and he has a good chance of winning.

 

Here’s some ‘Fun Facts’ about the camera that the public has NO clue about

 

–          Most motorist clubs oppose the cameras because they are deceptive. There is several lawsuits across the country challenging the cameras. The states usually lose and take the camera’s down. In Michigan they were forced to give the money to education, and once the state realized they were not getting a cut anymore, they took them down.

–          South Dakota State law states you can turn right on red as long as you stop first and yield. The city has NO authority to dictate that at any intersection.

–          The camera’s are timed to the nano-second and take the picture of the offender before they are supposed to. Motorist clubs have proven when cameras are timed this way, it caused the city to collect 50% more tickets and actually causes 50% more accidents. I guess people have seen city workers timing the cameras in the middle of the night (1 AM – 2 AM). If they are not doing anything deceptive, why do they do it in the dark of night?

–          If you get a camera ticket at the intersection it is a ‘civil’ offense, not a ‘criminal’ offense, because for it in order to be criminal, a police officer has to write the ticket. If you don’t pay the ticket the worst that will happen is the city will sue you in small claims court and have a judgement against your credit. This is wrong, because the city should not be able to disrupt your credit because of a traffic violation.

–          The independent counsel has a direct conflict of interest because they are hand selected by the city and they negotiate a fee they receive on every ticket that is paid. They basically are receiving a commission for everyone they get to pay the ticket.

If you are interested in joining the class-action, email me and I will give you the name of the lawyer representing it. Fb.art@sio.midco.net

Event Center task force to take a year off?

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May I suggest you take a permanent vacation;

So the task force wisely has chosen not to waste its time this year courting legislative permission to generate the money needed to build an events center.

That effort still will have to be made in the future. Perhaps then, when the task force has a few more details determined – maybe that little detail about the events center site – a better mood will prevail in the Capitol, and city advocates will have better luck making their case.

The task force, meanwhile, is showing good judgment in a lean year by resisting the urge to lobby on this issue.

To build events center, city needs money – but now isn’t time to lobby Capitol

Finally, someone in the task force grew a freaking brain and figured out raising taxes during a recession to build something WE DON’T NEED is not a good idea. Could you pass the memo to Mayor Munson please.

‘Another’ Event Center Proposal

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Still trying to Duke us into getting an event center. But you can only get the shit so shiny when you polish a turd.

They just won’t give up on this. I have said all along, if the EC is viable raise the money privately, build it and gift it to the city otherwise stop trying to repackage this thing every couple of months. We get it, we know what an event center is, we know you want to raise our taxes to build it. Has anything changed? No. Give it up. When half the kids in our school district don’t have enough food to eat, do you really think this is the time to raise taxes (on food) to build something we won’t need for at least another 5-7 years?

SF School Board & Sports Authority have trouble with simple math

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It seems these upstanding members of our community can’t do simple math. Just read this Gargoyle Leader article about building a new stadium (that we do not need)

The Stats:

HOWARD WOOD

Seats: 10,000

Record crowd to date: 8,250

Upgrade costs: $6.4 million (already budgeted)

NEW STADIUM

Could seat:  15,000 – 25,000

Cost: $20-25 Million (this does not include Howard Wood demolition costs)

I guess I’m wondering why we need to build a new 25,000 seat stadium when we are not even close to capacity at Howard Wood? This is a back door attempt to build a new events center where the current Howard Wood is at.

First things first; 1) You need a funding source besides sales tax 2) you need to prove there is a NEED for the new EC. We cannot currently fill the Arena, the Orpheum, Howard Wood field or the Washington Pavilion as it is.

Like I have said before, table the EC idea for another 5-7 years unless you want to build it with private money, taxpayers are not interested in getting gouged more during this recession.