South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Mayor Pants on Fire

Elections Former Mayor Bucktooth & Bowlcut Former Mayor Coors Light & Olives Mayor Almost Done Mayor Grump Toad Mayor High Crimes Mayor Hubris Mayor Pants on Fire Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Mayor Race

My latest conspiracy

l3wis 2Comments

All the talk lately about who may run for mayor and the possible appointment of Erickson had me thinking. Even though Huether has been out of office for 8 years, there is plenty of ‘bad press’ surrounding his previous term that is still fresh. I guess what I am trying to say it will be hard for him to defend his reputation.

So what is my conspiracy theory? I don’t think he is running, BUT, I think he has been mentoring a candidate and will likely run their campaign. If this person wins (I have NO guesses, but I’m sure it’s some stuffed shirt banker) this would set up an opportunity for Huether to be chief of staff (which basically means he would be running the city like the current COS does).

I base my theory on NO evidence, but a gut feeling about how he operates.

I will admit though, if he does run again, I would rather listen to him talk every night on TV instead the Orange Menace.

Alex Jensen Christine Erickson Count-cilor Alex Jensen Downtown Sioux Falls Elections Erica Beck Former Mayor Former Mayor Bucktooth & Bowlcut Former Mayor Coors Light & Olives Marshall Selberg Mayor Almost Done Mayor Grump Toad Mayor High Crimes Mayor Hubris Mayor Pants on Fire Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mayor TenHaken Potsdam Mayor Rich Merkouris SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Mayor Race

Who is running for Mayor of Sioux Falls?

l3wis 3Comments

The guy who runs Dakota Wuss College thinks he knows who is running for mayor. He basically lifted my predictions that I have had since this summer. You are welcome. But Pitty brings up 3 new names that made me laugh so hard I just about passed out. While we know Erickson, Beck, and Huether will probably run, Pitty says that Councilors Jensen, Merkouris and Selberg are also considering. Pitty says they will have trouble raising money, but it’s NOT money they need to worry about, it is their reputations;

• While Alex was city councilor he gutted the internal audit department to one auditor that basically sends emails to an outside firm. This all came about because he couldn’t properly discipline a city council employee for poor attendance and she ran off to the finance department escaping punishment and got a raise from the mayor to boot. If this guy can’t manage ONE employee, he certainly can’t manage a city. If he announces I will probably piss my pants laughing.

• Oh Marshall. This guy ILLEGALLY lived out of his district for a year (verified by one of his friends) and lied on campaign finance forms. He doesn’t belong in the Mayor’s office, he belongs in a jail cell.

• Rich Merkouris has a pretty clean record, but if you dig, just a little, into his past, you will see he isn’t really respected in the clergy community because of past grifting of a church. It’s a long complicated story that happened several years ago, but the wounds are still fresh, and if you ask the right people, you will get the story.

While I think none of these people are dumb enough to run for mayor, they might. And trust me, I have years and years of proof and data on ALL of the candidates and none of it is good. I think Erickson will rise to the top quickly and will be in the runoff, but who is the darkhorse? Huether may run on the great Trump comeback. Which I find funny, he got the same number of votes in 2020 and 2016.

Greg Jamison told me this summer he would likely not run, and it’s not for the reasons you may think. Greg told me he just wants to spend more time with his family and grandkids, and who can blame him?

I told someone recently that I hope a well intentioned rich person runs for mayor with a good record of community engagement and charity and they will run away with the mayorship. Populism is where it is at these days and no one is interested in electing old (corrupt) hats.

I have a feeling our next mayor will be someone no one has heard of.

Former Mayor Bucktooth & Bowlcut Former Mayor Coors Light & Olives Mayor Almost Done Mayor Grump Toad Mayor High Crimes Mayor Hubris Mayor Pants on Fire MIDCO Aquatic Center Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

LifeScape Parking lot expansion further proof the indoor pool was built in the wrong place

l3wis 6Comments

I think the debate is over, we wanted an indoor pool and we got one. But a major issue at the time was the location of the pool. While I wouldn’t be opposed to a public indoor pool built at a city park, Spellerberg Park was problematic from the get go.

Besides the fact that there is no room for expansion, one of the major issues was parking expansion of the VA. We knew the VA was going to expand, we knew they would need more parking and we knew they held the quit claim deed to Spellerberg. If the pool wasn’t built there they could have easily expanded parking into the park. NOW, we have LifeScape tearing up affordable housing in the center of our city for parking because they NO longer have space at the VA.

I still believe a public/private partnership with Sanford at the Sports complex for an indoor pool would have made more sense, and really there is nothing stopping them from doing their own pool in the future.

While the negotiations behind the RR redevelopment was one of the worst in the past administration, building the indoor pool at Spellerberg is proving also to be another poor decision from a RAM-ROD mentality of the previous administration.

Mayor Almost Done Mayor Grump Toad Mayor High Crimes Mayor Hubris Mayor Pants on Fire Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether Open Government Open Meetings Sioux Falls

Transparency in local government is our #1 Priority

l3wis 2Comments

I have been telling people lately that I could care less about all the issues discussed in the last municipal election campaign, except one, TRANSPARENCY. The Argus agrees;

It’s important to acknowledge that the Premier Center settlement would not have been unveiled without legal efforts undertaken by the Argus Leader, which also just won a seven-year battle with the federal government over access to SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) payments.

The most recent mayoral election might have played out differently if not for our insistence on transparency and accountability from both candidates.

SouthDacola has been fighting for transparency since I started this blog. Without it government runs amuck in corruption, and everything that is done in the dark is not to be trusted.

Funny part is if it weren’t for my blog there never would have never been a siding settlement or the pressure of transparency in the last election. I basically told Jack Marsh last Friday at Dem Forum that news organizations have become slaves to their advertisers. He claimed it isn’t happening in print media. I beg to differ.

If blogs would not have brought up these important topics, who would have? Jack Marsh? Randell Beck? Stu Whitney? Angela Kenneke? Yeah right.

No matter how many accolades we want to spread around towards the end of Huether’s administration any thing he ‘got done’ behind the blinds lacks the integrity to even be mentioned. It’s actually disgusting to listen to him take credit in the 100 or so press conferences he has had last week for creating some kind of utopia here. Hey, Mike, in a utopia, people do things in the open.

A good ship is run on the open seas.

Mr. TenHaken, you promised transparency, and we’ll be watching. I think your campaign intentions hold merit. And remember, always err on the side of openness.

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