South DaCola

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Mayor TenHaken

Mayor TenHaken Open Government Open Meetings SF City Council Sioux Falls

Is TenHaken proposing moving Public Input to the back of the meeting?

l3wis 7Comments

I guess Paul has been telling some people that he would like to move public input to the back of the meeting. You know, so it will make it easier for all the corporate welfare recipients to do their business at the council meetings before they would have to listen to the peasants grievances.

First off, as I have said before, this is not up to Paul. It would take the vote of 5 city councilors to move public input, and trust me, they wouldn’t look real good doing it.

Besides a very ugly public fight to do this, if it were to pass, I can guarantee the embarrassment that some of us can spread over several months from making such a decision will NOT be worth the effort. As I have noted, leave it as is, and take care of problem commenters on an individual basis. You know who they are, address them already instead of just putting a bandaid on the problem.

Our city is owned by the public as a whole, not just the casino owners, banksters and developers. They can wait or better yet participate with the rest of us during public input at the beginning of the meeting.

Trust me Paul, you don’t want this fight this early in your administration. You are going to look very petty trying to infringe on the public’s free speech rights this early in your administration.

Mayor TenHaken Sioux Falls

Ten Haken predictions; 2 for 2, Erica Beck named COS

l3wis 4Comments

Of course we saw this coming a mile away. I wonder if she thinks her boss is scumbag or a saint, oh wait, that’s TJ’s department.

Oh course they had to get out in front of the corporate welfare rumors;

Beck comes to City Hall after working for Lloyd Cos. since 2014, most recently as the firm’s vice president of development. There, she helped foster public-private partnerships between the real  estate company and City Hall.

While that work gives her insight into city government and how it works alongside the private sector, she said her allegiances to Lloyd Cos. won’t come with her to City Hall.
Deputy Chief of Staff T.J. Nelson said the mayor is working with the city attorney and Human Resources Office to establish a financial disclosure process for top level city staffers to protect the city from conflicts of interest.

Beck said she’s bypassed opportunities to invest in Lloyd and other private projects knowing that she someday wanted to return to public service.

In other words, Lloyd Companies got their ‘Metli’ replacement at City Hall. Took a couple of years, but mission accomplished.

If you really want to squelch the rumors of conflict, you get Lloyd and other developers to follow the rules of FREE enterprise and sink or swim on there own. That means NO more public partnerships, government loans or grants, FREE infrastructure upgrades or TIF’s.

As chief of staff, she said she hopes to better define the process that businesses follow when working with the city to ensure all Sioux Falls stakeholders have an equal shot at getting their permits and requests approved or obtaining public-private projects.

“The thing I want to stress is we want local developers in our community to feel really good about doing work here,” Beck said. “They’re investing a lot of money in our community and we want them to continue to do that.”

That’s fine and dandy, but what about the rest of us? I guess we will be on our own. City government’s job is to represent and serve all, that doesn’t just mean business, but also the citizens who fund this government whose last name isn’t Lloyd, Bender or VanBusrick. Municipal government’s number one priority should be top quality customer service to it’s citizens in infrastructure, public safety and social services, not whether or not gigantic developers are getting hurt feelings and handouts.

I’m afraid the corporate welfare is going to start flowing from City Hall real soon.

Mayor TenHaken Sioux Falls T.J. Nelson

Mayor TenHaken’s Deputy COS not a fan of liberals

l3wis 28Comments

What has PTH said in the past about your employees posting questionable things on FB?

This is why political appointees are not a good idea. It’s probably a good idea to separate your campaign and transition team from your leadership team. I saw this with Darrin Smith when he was appointed to Director of Community Development and Parking after he cooked up a false ‘junket’ story about Dr. Staggers during the mayoral campaign. I also feel this is where Jolene failed by using a Democratic political operative to run her campaign instead of an independent consultant.

As for the comments about liberals, I would agree, he knows little about them. BHO was not a liberal, I would actually consider him a moderate to right leaning progressive, but definately not a liberal. I tell people one of the several reasons I left the Democratic party is because there are no liberals in it anymore, haven’t been for decades. But being a ‘liberal’ isn’t some dirty thing. We believe in helping each other, the social net, universal healthcare and education, embracing the arts, culture and diversity and we also believe in the right to free speech and peaceful protest. True liberals also detest war and try to solve problems diplomatically, we also accept all creeds, a major reason why we promote peace over war.

Good luck T.J., posting this will make it a very rough road for you and your boss.

I verified the comment, posted on July 11, 2017

 

Mayor TenHaken Sioux Falls

TenHaken predictions; DaCola 1 for 1

l3wis 13Comments

Well I got my first prediction of the TenHaken administration correct;

Mayor Paul TenHaken today announced the first key appointment of his new administration. T.J. Nelson was selected to serve as Deputy Chief of Staff and public information officer for the City.

T.J., one word of advice, probably shouldn’t have a typo in your first press release. It’s ‘Health’ not ‘Heath’.

So let’s see if DaCola can go 2 for 2. My next prediction, Erica Beck as Chief of Staff.

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