South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

SF City Council

Alex Jensen Elections SF City Council Sioux Falls Theresa Stehly Tom Greco

The Sioux Falls City Election Re-Count fireworks could start next week

l3wis 8Comments

City Councilor Theresa Stehly has until 5 PM on Tuesday to file her re-count intentions. As far as I know she intends to do that. After that Jensen has 3 days to pick a representative (likely a lawyer) in which I’m not even sure if he has one yet, because who I thought it might be may have backed out.

The city clerk also has 3 days to pick an independent person for review (likely an outside attorney). Some names in that ballpark have been thrown around, but nothing definitive. One of the names I heard is a real rat, and I am being kind. Either way, Stehly and Jensen must both agree on the independent person, so that process could take a few days.

After that I suspect some silly motions in court to stop the recount before it starts on a technicality. I’m not sure if that would hold up in court since a recount can be called within a 2% margin and I believe the margin in this race was around .05%. There will also be a legal battle about what votes can be reviewed and looked at, like undervotes and spoiled ballots. There is also the possibility of absentee ballots that arrived on Tuesday before 7 PM that didn’t get opened and counted (I think these ballots are the lynchpin because Stehly won the absentee ballot part of the race).

Once the logistics of what votes can be counted then the counting can start, which I don’t think will last more than 2-3 days. But who knows at this point. I suspect the process all together could take 2-3 weeks. Stehly remains on the council until the process is finished and an installation ceremony is scheduled, which I suspect will be almost immediate, especially if Jensen wins.

While some don’t have much confidence Stehly can turn the tide, I actually am hopeful she can and been having a weird feeling lately that she will. I’ve never felt this confident about an election before. Of course all the stars will have to align, and we know that isn’t possible because of the hatred towards Stehly and her policy ideas. If the re-count happens, this will be more explosive than the fireworks at Mt. Rushmore and a historic moment in city politics. If anything, it will be a fun one to watch.

Planning Commission SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda June 15-17, 2020

l3wis 2Comments

Zoning Board of Adjustment • 6 PM • June 15, Monday

Weird, I have never seen these meetings on the agenda, online. They are actually good meetings (people asking to use more of their property to build a bunch of crap). Most of the time, I really don’t care, but sometimes people are just being weird with their intentions.

City Council Informational Meeting • 4 PM • June 16, Tuesday

Presentations on the Triage Center Project Lease Agreement and Public Parking Update. The Public Parking update was ‘supposed’ to occur after the council installation so a certain guilty party could sail thru to re-election (this same person has re-opened his Carnegie basement office). The Bunker Ramp has been an enormous disaster, and they don’t like to talk about it. Why? Guilty conscious.

City Council Regular Meeting • 7 PM • June 16, Tuesday

Item #7, Approval of Contracts, Sub Item #13. Notice the ethics complaint that was thrown out against Neitzert cost taxpayers $7,500. And we are worried about what a re-count is costing us . . . Puhleeeeze!

Items #43-44, 1st Reading, Triage lease and joint participation agreements.

Item #45, 1st Reading, More repeals of Covid restriction ordinances. I find it interesting that since the state has decided to call off all restrictive measures, Covid has essentially been flat lining and on some days going up. There has been NO downward curve. This is troublesome because if the curve doesn’t start going down within the next few weeks, we could be maintaining or increasing these numbers going into fall (when school starts) and into winter (when influenza and other illnesses increase). It will be interesting to see if we actually start a downward spiral soon. But I guess when we are hosting youth baseball tournaments and inviting families from out of state (councilor Erickson talked about this in the last informational meeting) what should we expect. While I am fine with people getting back to work safely, some of these other activities are just selfish. So the kids have to take the summer off from sports? Oh well, they are kids, they will forget about it in a couple of years.

Parks & Rec Board • 4 PM • June 17, Wednesday

4. Report of standing committees

 a. Marketing and Public Needs

 b. Park System Planning and Development

 c. Partnerships and Recreation

  1. Unfinished business

6. New business

7. Report of Director of Parks and Recreation

 a. Golf Course Report – April

Gay Mayor TenHaken Paul Ten Haken SF City Council Sioux Falls

Is Mayor TenHaken Homophobic?

l3wis 9Comments

I will be very careful with my words. Because being accused of being a homophobe a racist or a mysonygist is not a party. I’ve been accused of all three and it is hurtful. I judge people on face value. If you are an A-Hole, your other designations don’t matter to me. If I don’t like you, it is merely based on the fact that ‘I don’t like you.’ I could care less if you are female, gay or a minority. In some ways I actually feel bad for Paul, because I think he wants to say something, but feels like he cannot.

PTH said during the campaign at a mayoral forum hosted by Dem Forum that he was not ‘Homophobic.’ but his actions seem to speak louder than words.

‘Pentecostal congregations have historically condemned homosexuality, and most Pentecostal denominations have doctrinal statements condemning homosexuality, such as the International Pentecostal Holiness Church’s statement, “We have maintained a strong position against premarital, extramarital, and deviant sex, including homosexual and lesbian relationships, refusing to accept the loose moral standards of our society. We commit ourselves to maintaining this disciplined lifestyle with regard to our bodies.”

I get it, it may go against his religious beliefs. But I often remind people the teachings of Jesus Christ (the guy they supposedly follow) and his whole ‘love your neighbor’ rant.

I have found when you treat people the way you want to be treated, all of that other stuff doesn’t really matter. One of the best things Paul could do right now is raise the rainbow flag above city hall, and say nothing. The actual symbolism of the rainbow flag goes beyond gay rights;

A rainbow flag is a multicolored flag consisting of the colors of the rainbow. The designs differ, but many of the colors are based on the seven spectral colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet that compose the visible light spectrum. The actual color attributed as “blue” is cyan.[1][2]

There are several independent rainbow flags in use today. The pride flag represents LGBT pride (since 1978). The international peace flag is especially popular in Italy (since 1961). The International Co-operative Alliance adopted a rainbow flag in 1925. A similar flag is used in Andean indigenism in Peru and Bolivia to represent the legacy of the Inca Empire (since ca. 1920).

American Revolutionary War writer Thomas Paine proposed that a rainbow flag be used as a maritime flag, to signify neutral ships in time of war.[3][4][5]

Equality is a beautiful thing, it puts us on a level playing field and what your pastor says on Sunday doesn’t really matter, and the main reason I haven’t walked into a church since I was 18 unless it was for a funeral or a wedding. Your faith in God and your beliefs are between you and God. Pulling a flag up the pole won’t change that. Don’t fight this Paul.

Christine Erickson SF City Council SFPD Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Councilor Erickson lights the fake protest fire

l3wis 10Comments

It appears that Councilor Erickson is the one that sounded the alarm about the fake FB posts about the buses from Fargo. I will defend Christine on one point, if you see something, say something. This is a common theme when it comes to domestic violence. I will commend her on taking action. But my criticism is NOT in saying something, it is about going thru the proper channels. She should have quietly relayed this info to the SF Police Chief Matt Burns and Sheriff Milstead and let them take action. It is not the job of a city councilor to investigate threats. That is the job of law enforcement.

Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls

Why is Mayor TenHaken tweeting during a council meeting?

l3wis 8Comments

I’m pretty sure the chair of the council meeting shouldn’t be tweeting while running a meeting. At the time he had his phone shoved up his butt farting out his ‘Puffery’ the city clerk was telling us how wonderfully he ran the city election. Oh the irony. The excellence in running a meeting and running an election. Bravo. You both deserve a gold star, or is it a coin, hard to keep track these days Wilbur the Coyote.

This is one of the reasons Stehly & Brekke have asked phones to be banned from council meetings, and our mayor is foolish enough to tweet this out during a meeting?! WOW! He is really more ignorant than I originally thought. But no surprise, emulating his hero Donny Trump. “We’ll get them with this tweet! That’ll show the Libs!” Maybe next week during the meeting he can read bedtime stories to his kids via Zoom while they are discussing zoning issues? His nickname this week; Mayor Multi-Task. So much talent. He really should aspire to be something greater than the mayor of a sleepy midwest town. Hypocrites belong in Washington, not SoDak.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

You Missed

Uncategorized

UPDATE: Glad I could be of assistance

Art Sioux Falls

The City of Sioux Falls lacks transparency? Get out!

Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

UPDATE: Mayor ‘Kick the Can’ does it again

Uncategorized

Why do some British people not like Donald Trump? By Nate White