Pat talks about the Siding Settlement, and about the Pavilion secret contracts, transparency in city government, tree trimming fines, the new parking ramp proposal and new restrictions on citizen involvement.
They will be on at 8 AM, Wednesday morning to talk about the EC settlement and government transparency. PODCAST REPLAYS
If you go to the end of the city council meeting tonight (last item) councilor Starr slams the city council over the secrecy surrounding the operations committee;
• The committee meets in private with NO quorum
• If you are a councilor that is NOT on the committee or the mayor you CANNOT attend the meeting
• Decisions that are made in meeting are NOT available to the public unless it makes it to the council agenda for an ordinance change (but the discussions that lead up to the change are NEVER shared)
• The agenda and times of the meeting are NOT available to the public
• Only NOTES/Minutes approved by the council chair are shown to the rest of the council
Starr points out that the committee is what it really is, a secretive committee that makes decisions about the council operations without public oversight. It should either be abolished or opened to the public.
UPDATE: The operations committee was created by former councilor Aguliar and current councilor Erpenbach RIGHT AFTER former city clerk Debra Owen was terminated, February 21, 2012, while interim city clerk Sue Roust was serving in the position.
Pat talks downtown parking ramp, higher education, wages and city budget, and much more.
Sioux Falls is lucky. Why? We have a few city council members ready to tackle issues and not just do what they are told, you know to be collegial. One of these Sioux Falls City Councilors is Pat Starr.
Pat Starr spoke to Glory House, annexation, phantom ambulances, zoning, family and other interests we’re facing. The appreciative audience of the Sioux Falls Democratic Forum on July 21, 2017 kept him around long after the microphone left.
BTW, he also said some nice things about SouthDacola and Cameraman Bruce, but we won’t take that personally.
Every Friday, at 12 noon, come to the VFW, have lunch and interact with the speakers invited by the Democratic Forum.