UPDATE: It’s going to get worse before it gets better

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I was just thinking about this after the vote on Tuesday night;

It took Mayor Mike Huether’s tie-breaking vote this week to make it harder to win City Council elections.

The city’s top executive rarely casts votes on City Council matters, but it’s been happening at a greater clip since four new members were voted onto the 8-member legislative body last year.

And I guarantee you are going to see more of it. I suspect that since Mike, Michelle and Rex are lame ducks* they are going to be proposing ‘wish-list’ legislation all the way until the end of their terms, especially with Rex’s  success on Tuesday night, it will only embolden them. They have been salivating for awhile to get rid of public input and I also know that they are not fans of transparency. It will be interesting to watch what other crazy ordinances they propose, or what crazy ones pass. I suspect that many of them would be overturned by the next council, like the recent election threshold.

I told several councilors to prepare themselves for the onslaught.

UPDATE: It’s interesting Munson used his ties on budget or procedural issues primarily. Huether has used his in retribution, anti-citizen or plaything spending. Spreadsheet from 2006; Mayoral-tie-2006

*While Rex and Michelle have probably put death nails in their future plans for elected office, there is still a scenario for Huether. While I strongly feel that Huether really needed to announce his candidacy for governor last month, he may be looking at another approach. The primary isn’t until June. Could Huether think he really doesn’t need to officially jump into this until he absolutely has to? You never know.

Why would we want to make it harder for people to run for city council

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I got an up close experience a few months ago with how big money corrupts local elections. Randy Dobberpuhl who placed 2nd in the school board election was out spent over 6-1 by Cynthia Mickelson who won the seat. The other two candidate who spent nothing or very little were creamed.

The rumored proposed amendment by Sioux Falls city councilors Rolfing and Erpenbach to garner 51% of the vote in a general election for city council or go to a runoff is a ruse to eliminate the grassroots candidates that don’t have deep pockets.

What is astonishing is that just less than two years ago, Mayor Huether, in a press conference with former city councilor Kenny Anderson Jr., he was begging for people to run for city council;

“I would like to encourage our citizens to get involved in public service. It will make a wonderful difference for our town,” says Mayor Mike Huether.

At the time it seemed MMM was concerned there would not be any candidates for council. We should be doing everything possible to make it easier for regular people to run for office instead of making it more expensive not only for the candidates but for the taxpayers. If we want to make real change, the city needs to do a better job of educating people about upcoming elections instead of playing this game with money.

I’m hoping Kenny Anderson and Randy Dobberpuhl will attend this Tuesday’s council meeting to speak out against the money grab, and all other candidates considering a run this Spring.

Mayor Mike talks out of both sides of his mouth once again

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How fitting after our Little League team just gets done playing in the LLWS the Mayor appears on the B-N-B show catching softballs from Greg.

Funny how in under 50 minutes the mayor can contradict himself, several times. Whether he is talking about how God has enlightened him or how he continues to fight the Parks Districting idea (doesn’t matter now, that decision is now up to the next council and mayor, your opinion on that is of NO consequence).

But one of the best parts of the interview was when he started blabbing about TIF’s. He said that TIF’s are NOT handed to people’s wives friends. LOL, nope, just to your wife. Mike’s wife invested in an apartment project that got a TIF. And in order to save his ass on it, he had Mark Cotter sign off on the TIF.

He also went on to scoff people (developers) who asked for TIF’s to develop around the Events Center (which ironically has yet to get any development that will stick around). But has NO problem with having taxpayers subsidize a PRIVATE hotel on Elmwood, setting a precedent by putting the taxpayers of Sioux Falls in the lodging business.

But his comments at the beginning of the program and at the end are a doozy. He starts out by defending the TIF for Lloyd’s Uptown project, saying it is needed to clean up this area and make this project a reality. Than at the end of the interview when a caller asks about the Sioux Steel DT property, the Mayor talks about, almost giggling, that he wishes he would have bought DT property early on because it is so valuable now.

So which is it Mr. Ed? Is DT property ‘valuable’ or is it so ‘worthless’ we need to hand out millions in TIF’s to multi-millionaire developers?

I would like to thank the mayor for agreeing with my argument against the Uptown TIF, that the property is SO VALUABLE, why on earth would we be handing out tax incentives?

You would think after 7 years, the mayor would get better at the game? Thank goodness he wasn’t pitching at the LLWS, otherwise it would have been two perfect games against them.

He finishes the interview by talking about his bi-annual South Dakota mayor’s conference he will be attending today in Chamberlain. He talked about how the mayors share ideas. We know Mike, this is where you are rumored to brag about your use of the VETO pen when you have an uncooperative council.

Have fun! Keep sharing your brilliant (fascist) ideas!

It only took this newcomer 3 years to figure out Huether

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I just wish the rest of the city would figure this out;

Since that time, I have come to learn much about this little town on the prairie to include the juvenile and preposterous acts and actions of the mayor, Mike Huether. To me, still an outsider, Sioux Falls now presents itself as an abstract of many failing autocratic cities around this country – read Chicago. It is governed by a ruling class that publicly decries their support and service to the electing populace, yet regularly and routinely act in a manner that is completely devoid of said sentiment.

That was plenty apparent when Mayor Huether TOOK, with the help of the rubber stamp council, $500K from taxpayers for a tennis facility he put his name on. Or how any developer holding their hands out gets a TIF to build luxury condos.

It is now common knowledge within my household – all the way down to my 9-year-old, that the upper class southeast side of Sioux Falls “rules” city hall. Their streets are smooth, their pavement uncracked and their private bike path entrance to their greenbelt park system is unrivaled by anything in the city. With his recent “no” vote on the creation of a democratic park board, Mayor Huether proves, yet again, who he serves – and it is not the majority of us.

That’s why he decries free bus rides and swimming for the poor kids or rams all the social services into the Whittier Neighborhood. Now roundup the homeless on Friday afternoon;

Huether should heed this advice, along with his backroom cronies, I will not be ruled over by anyone. Nor will I sit by idly and allow the mayor to continue to administer his authoritarian style of government. I will put forward any effort necessary to bring fair and equal governance and democracy to this city and pledge my support to the candidates that come forward intent on dismantling this once and for all.

WOOT! WOOT! Another Foot Soldier for the South DaCola army. As Ruby said in Cold Mountain, “You need help, here I am.”