Pay to Play, Sioux Falls City Councilor Stehly proposes resolution eliminating registration fee for housing summit

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She talks about it above during the open discussion at the city council informational. She requested the mayor’s office to waive the registration fee (with the option to pay for breakfast and lunch if they want it) and to video tape the event. They refused her offer. So Theresa and Pat are bringing a resolution forward. I’m sure it will get voted down 5-3 as usual.

I love it on one hand when the administration and leadership talk about how transparent they are but when given the opportunity, they fight it. Then they scratch their heads wondering why people think they are not transparent.

So who is lying about the openness of the Events Center Campus Book Club?

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The ‘Painless’ Meeting in Public

We watched as this all played out. The meetings were going to remain closed, the TenHaken administration was digging in their heels. Then councilors Starr and Stehly bring a resolution forward opening the meetings. All of sudden the Task Force was claiming they decided they were going to open them up all on their own according to some secret vote, in a secret meeting and informed the Mayor in a secret email (to this day no one has seen);

An email from the event center group’s co-chairs Dan Statema and Jeff Eckhoff to Mayor Paul TenHaken said that the group had voted at their first meeting on Feb. 27 to allow the public and media to attend the rest of the meetings.

“We see no harm in having interested parties gain the same education we are as we progress through this process,” the email read.

Now fast forward today to the first open meeting. Deputy COS TJ Typeover tells those TV folks this;

“Pat Starr and I brought forth a resolution when we found out these meetings were going to be closed to the public and the resolution requested that they open the meeting and as a result of that the meetings have been opened,” says Stehly.

“After the first meeting they talked in between that meeting and this meeting and decided to open these up to the public,” says Nelson.

So which is it TJ? Did they vote on it? Did they decide later? My guess is both stories are TOTAL BS. You and the Mayor decided to open these meetings up after pressure from Starr and Stehly. Just admit it. Because just lying about it makes you look even more foolish, and certainly NOT transparent.

Commending the Mayor for what?!

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Councilor Neitzert in his bizarre attempt to swat down councilors Stehly and Starr for their resolution to make sure the Events Center Campus Book Club meetings remain open, he offered an amendment praising the mayor and the group for deciding to OPEN their meetings, at last night’s city council meeting.

Huh?

First off, the meetings should not have been closed to begin with, if any amendment should have been offered it should have been for censuring the administration for closing the meetings. Even councilor Brekke said that state open meeting laws are a bare minimum of what should be open, or as she said a ‘Starting point’. Local government should go above and beyond those standards.

Neitzert’s amendment was obviously offered to try to make Starr and Stehly’s resolution irrelevant. Councilor Soehl who attends the meetings said that they really haven’t decided how the open meetings will be conducted yet because they are uncertain how they will take public input.

Huh?

State law requires public input at all open meetings, so there is no debate on how you will ‘take public input’. It’s just a matter of when, which most likely be at the end of the meeting.

Stehly and Starr gladly supported Neitzert’s amendment in the end (they knew they had to, to get it to pass, which it did).

Some councilors feared that this would set a precedent on how these kind of task forces would operate, I think that is a good precedent, not bad.

OPEN = Good, CLOSED = Bad.

Neitzert also bragged about how the annexation meetings were held at Carnegie with ample public input. Remember, that was NOT the original intent and after Councilor Stehly, the public and ‘the blog’ complained that the meetings were going to be held in the middle of the afternoon at the DT library where people had to feed meters that quickly got changed after several property owners complained about the meeting situation. Maybe we should ‘commend’ the annexation task force for changing those meetings also. LOL.

 

UPDATE: Potholes and Open Meetings

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Here is the copy of the proposed pothole funding supplement ordinance; Pothole Supplemental TS

Funny how these things work;

Thanks to the absence of precipitation in the coming days, the Public Works Street Division is increasing the number of crews dedicated to this spring’s pothole repair efforts.

“It has been a rough winter for our city streets,” says Mark Cotter, Director of Public Works. “The current condition of our streets has prompted us to take a more aggressive approach to our annual spring pothole repair efforts.”

To increase its emphasis on patching potholes, Street crews will be working the following adjusted work schedule for the next three weeks:

Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Public Works will have a minimum of six crews addressing potholes.

Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to midnight and from midnight to 8 a.m.:Public Works will have a minimum of one crew addressing potholes in high-traffic volume areas.

Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Public Works will have a minimum of three crews addressing potholes.

 

While the media got their panties in a bind over being put between the mayor and the council (give me a break!) it seems Pat and Theresa’s pressure may have gotten the public works department to re-think the pothole situation moving forward. As I have been telling many people over the last couple of days, it is the Mayor’s job to run this city (direct Public Works), it is the council’s job to set policy and budgeting. No reason to get our shorts in a bunch.

I would also like to thank all the ‘grunts’ in our city’s workforce who have gone above and beyond to help people. You are appreciated, even if I am tough on the mayor and council, I do want you to be happy with your employment. I also would like to hear about any private contractors who decided to help the city out with flood management or cleanup. I haven’t seen anything in the media about that, but maybe they are just silently helping out?