South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Patrick Starr

Corona Virus Janet Brekke Patrick Starr SF City Council Sioux Falls Theresa Stehly

Sioux Falls City Councilors Brekke, Starr & Stehly offer solutions in these troubling times

l3wis 2Comments

Dear City Council Colleagues and Citizens ,

This morning Councilor Janet Brekke and I had a very productive conference call with our City Attorney Stacy Kooistra and our Council Staff person Jim David.

We discussed two items that I wanted to share with you:

1. We discussed a proposed  ordinance that Councilor Brekke and I are preparing that will include safety  standards for protection of employees during this Covid 19 pandemic.   Councilor Brekke and I have spent hours working on this issue and now more than ever we feel it is a necessary part of our safety standards. We appreciate the advice and counsel of our City Attorney  Stacy Kooistra. We will keep you apprised of the outcome of those discussions.

2. We also discussed the  distribution issues related to  Rental Assistance fund.  This fund has $1 million tax dollars in it.  I have been receiving communication from recipients of the funds as to how the fund is being managed. After the conversation this morning with Councilor Brekke and City attorney Kooistra, I  did further follow up and had discussions with Planning director Jeff Eckhoff, 211 helpline director Janet Kitterams and Community outreach member Rich Merkouris. They have all agreed that the payment policy to the landlords could be revisited.  

In the midst of these conversations, I have suggested:

****Reduce the award to 50%.

**** Stipulate that the remaining  balance is forgiven by the landlord who is accepting the payment. NO FINES CAN BE IMPOSED UPON THE RENTER.

****Stipulate  that the tenant will not be evicted for a minimum of 90 days.

The discussions are ongoing and we will keep you informed as to the latest developments.

Have a blessed, peaceful Good Friday and Easter.

Theresa Stehly

Erica Beck Mayor TenHaken Patrick Starr SF City Council Sioux Falls Tom Greco

Mayor TenHaken says he will provide city board appointees bios ‘in the future’ if we want to see them

l3wis 4Comments

FF: 2:36:30

In a blatant disregard for openness and transparency, Paul has not provided city board appointees bios in the past two times they have been on the city council agenda. He did it tonight for the second time.

Councilor Pat Starr asked why those bios are not being provided any more and Paul said that if he wanted to see them he will provide them in the future. Pat reminded the mayor that he asked in an email yesterday for those bios. Paul responded, “From who?” Starr said that he sent an email request to COS Beck, City Clerk Greco and from the council operations manager, to no avail.

Now this is not something that has traditionally happened. I think the last administration started providing the bios when appointees were on the agenda, and Paul continued up until the last two times. Why did they disappear? I don’t know why, and I sent an email to councilors Brekke, Stehly and Starr last week to find out why.

I guess in some kind of weird defiance, the rumor going around is the COS didn’t provide them to Starr because “Scott was requesting them.”

Let me make it clear, when I ask for information, it isn’t for my own satisfaction, it is to post that information on my blog so constituents can see it.

I think it is insane that the administration thinks it is appropriate to stop providing these bios, they may be volunteers, but citizens have a right to know who the people are making these decisions for us, whether they are paid or elected or appointed.

Starr was the only councilor to vote against the appointments tonight. Bravo!

This constant fight for the simplest of transparent actions is getting old.

Cynthia Mickelson Elections Greg Neitzert Julian Beaudion Marshall Selberg Patrick Starr Sarah Stokke SF City Council Sioux Falls Theresa Stehly

Sioux Falls Municipal Election Roundup

l3wis 6Comments

Here is what we know as of 5 PM.

• Cynthia Mickelson seems to have a challenger, Sarah Stokke is a nursing instructor at the University of South Dakota. I am not familiar with Sarah, but I have heard her name before in certain circles. This will make two races for the citywide ballot, but the interesting twist is that NOT everyone voting for this race can vote in the city election because the boundaries are different. In other words there will be people who can ONLY vote for school board or ONLY vote for At-Large council. I know, complicated.

• Marshall Selberg (SW District) and Pat Starr (NE District) do not have challengers, so they will get 4 more years.

• Greg Neitzert has a challenger, Julian Beaudion (NW District). This is a district seat only and not city wide.

• Theresa Stehly and Alex Jensen will challenge each other for the At-Large position. Since there are only two, their will be no run-off election (The ‘Stehly Rule’ won’t be used again). This will be the ONLY city-wide position on the ballot besides the Charter Amendments (and those living in the SFSD who can vote for school board).

I suspect a very low voter turnout of about 5%. The interesting part is this will be one of the most expensive elections in city history for only having two horse race. All precincts will be used, and the money Jensen plans on spending will probably be a record for a council race (the rumors going around are $200-250K). I’m not even sure how you can spend all that?

But this will be fun to watch, because all the attention will be on the At-Large race. This will give Stehly the advantage, besides her incumbency.

Let the Games Begin!

Elections Patrick Starr SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Councilor Pat Starr announces re-election bid

l3wis 5Comments

Starr is running again, and that’s a good thing. He was on fire last night calling out the administration about dropping the bomb on the supplemental budget (so did Stehly) and asking why we can’t budget correctly for the police.

This was NOT an easy decision for Pat to make to run again, a few months ago he was unsure if he wanted to. He currently doesn’t have a challenger.

I’m not sure if I have ever told Pat this before, but I consider him the ‘rock’ of the council. Only speaking when it is appropriate and always looking for transparency. I truly believe in local government that transparency is the cornerstone of good government, and Pat has ALWAYS defended it. He deserves four more years!

Stehly still has yet to make up her mind. I spoke with her a couple of days ago, and she still hasn’t decided either way, but I do believe she will announce ‘something’ soon. I have also told her that I understand if she doesn’t run again.

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