South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Multi-cultural center

Denny Sanford Premier Center Levitt Pavilion Multi-cultural center SF City Council Sioux Falls Washington Pavilion Zoo

With Non-Profit Mergers you wonder what they have in the bank

l3wis 6Comments

This week was busy with another non-profit merger;

The Butterfly House & Aquarium has raised $4.2 million toward its capital campaign to expand aquarium exhibits, which can be applied toward the project, Otto-Pepper said.

Of course the Butterfly House is merging with the Zoo and it seems they have raised a lot of money.

LSS is also merging with the Multi-Cultural center, which I fully support, and probably is long past due.

But you have to wonder what is going on with their bank accounts.

As you know, the Levitt has yet to release numbers from their 2021 season even as their 2022 season has been finished for over a month.

The Denny Sanford Premier center is up for contract renewal and they are taking in millions in profits and commissions.

According to the Pavilion’s annual report in 2021 they had over $5 million in the bank. This is after basically skipping a year due to Covid. You also have to remember that we not only give the Pavilion a yearly operational subsidy but we give millions each year fixing the building due to the poor construction of the facility to begin with (windows, roofs, etc.)

Maybe it is time the city council takes a hard look at how much we are subsidizing these facilities taking into consideration how much is in their bank accounts. Do we really need to subsidize the Pavilion, the Zoo, the Denty and other facilities when they may have millions in their bank accounts. I don’t think so.

Multi-cultural center

What is going on at the Multi-Cultural center’s sandwich kitchen?

l3wis 10Comments

‘THE WOMAN’ Executive Director of Sioux Falls Multi-Cultural Center Christy Nicolaisen (KELO-TV screenshot)

Watch public input at Tuesday’s SF City Council meeting (FF: 6:30)

Apparently Daniel Brooks (Granny’s Golden Oven) has been evicted from the MCC’s kitchen where he was contracted to make sandwiches for events. Daniel has had his own set of problems in the past. When he ran for city council it came out that he had some financial problems, he has also lost two locations of his restaurant. While I don’t know all the details of his eviction, his testimony by his family is disheartening (and quite disgusting), and I would love to hear the other side of the story. I would hate to hear that the director of a facility that promotes diversity is discriminating against people.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Brooks once and I found him to be a very respectful pleasant gentleman.

If anyone has more information, I would love to hear it.

Minnehaha County Multi-cultural center

Former Multi-Cultural Center’s director just doesn’t get it

l3wis 7Comments

An audit by the city has proven that Mr. Aware was doing a poor job of running the MCC;

An internal audit of the Sioux Falls Multi-Cultural Center released today found “many internal control weaknesses” in the area of payroll and accounting.

And what was his response?

Aware had strong words at today’s meeting for Minnehaha County Commissioners and others who he felt had wronged him as the center came under fire. He said he and his family have been discriminated against and persecuted.

“Somebody’s going to be responsible for this,” Aware said.

Yeah, McFly, someone is responsible. YOU! That is why you don’t work for the taxpayers anymore. Pack your shit and do us all a favor and leave our community (and take Janklow with you).

I’ve kept my opinion about Aware to myself, up until this point. Not sure if you have ever had to deal with him, but he is an arrogant bully who should have been canned years ago and it has nothing to do with him being an Iraqi immigrant. He is just a bully. I did a printing estimate for him one time and he accused me of trying to rip him off because he got a lower bid at a different printing company. I explained to him that 1) We used a more advanced printing process then our opponent (you get what you pay for) and 2) how was I ripping him off if we haven’t printed anything yet. He stomped out.

Multi-cultural center Sioux Falls

The Multi-cultural mess

l3wis 10Comments

I have kept myself from commenting on this cluster f’ck mainly because the topic irritates me so much, I don’t know where to begin. First off, I have often felt that the MCC (which ironically shares initials with Minnehaha Country Club) should have separate ethnic directors to deal with the different ethnic groups and a central director to deal with the finances and day to day operations. Instead they let one person do the job over the past who has zilch in common with the majority of minorities who use the facility (Africans and Hispanics). I think Juan Bonilla says it best;

Some minority leaders say they hope to see one of their own take the reigns at the Multi-Cultural Center.

“We are the only ones that know what are the barriers, what needs are, so that’s very important for a person in that position.” said Juan Bonilla, president of the Spanish Speaking Association.

He is right. How can you serve the different ethnic groups when you are not from that ethnic group? It would be like a white guy running the NAACP. But the past director was only PART of the problem. While the board is quick to blame him, they outta take out a mirror. It would be different if the MCC was a private non-profit, but that is not the case. The MCC has been taking county and city money for years and the board has sat on their hands and let it come to this, kinda reminds you of that whole SE Fair debacle – doesn’t it? Like I said yesterday on one of the Gargoyle Leader threads. When people fail in private business, it is their butts, when people fail us in the public sector, it is our butts. It is time for our public officials to freaking wakeup and start paying attention.

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