I advise people to watch from homeHERE. There is no reason to risk your health going to the meeting.
I found out today that the new innovation director nominee will not be at the meeting tonight for his appointment resolution, but will be calling in, which is understandable. But I guess he wasn’t even going to call in, but had a change of heart after several councilors questioned his absence for his appointment.
I have argued for years that local officials need to do more business via tele-conferencing, not only is it more convenient, it saves taxpayers money. There is no reason to fly all over the state and country to have a simple conversation about governing, in fact, it is ludicrous and extremely wasteful. For a mayor that likes to brag about technology so much, I wonder why he flies all over the place, except when he has to take questions from reporters, than he hides in his garage.
Item #6, Approval of contracts, Sub Item #23, a $50K data services contract with Midco. I guess they are getting their MAC sponsorship money back in one form or another.
Item #40, Resolution to dissolve TIF #5. I think this was the Cherapa Place TIF, hard to tell because no where in the documentation does it mention the recipient of this TIF. Unreal.
Item #41, Resolution, go into an agreement for a CMAR for the sewer plant expansion. This deal stinks to high heaven. The public deserves more transparency on this deal, I have a feeling there is a lot more going on behind the scenes on this deal. The way it is being handled is very suspicious.
Item #45, Appointing new Innovation Director. While I support this new director, I find it very odd there is NO bio or resume attached to this item on the agenda.
In this screenshot of a FB video Jensen posted about the Mexican Beer Flu, absentee voting and yard signs (yup, it was all in there) I noticed a familiar logo on a conference room table, the logo of Lawrence and Schiller. If Count Counciloser is using this firm to help mold his message, no wonder he needs to raise a lot of money, they ain’t cheap, and they certainly don’t scream grassroots. The special interests just keep stacking the deck.
I will commend Alex on one thing in his disjointed message though, it is important to absentee vote.
Sioux Falls’ city election will be held on April 14th, with polls open between 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM.
If you are concerned about COVID19, we encourage you to vote absentee in person between March 30th and April 13th. All registered Sioux Falls voters may vote absentee in-person at the Minnehaha County Auditor’s Office (415 N. Dakota Ave., Sioux Falls, SD 57104).
The message was and is simple. Don’t panic, keep your head about you. Show some leadership.
Don’t get this message wrong, the current health scare going around the world right now, is serious. Just like your kindergarten teachers stressed hygiene is important to stop the spread of any virus and especially the coronavirus now.
Does it rise to local and national declarations of possible martial law? In a word, No.
Does it rise to fearmongering? In a word, No.
Does it require leadership, planning, plans? Yes, Yes, Yes.
What did Sioux Falls get on March 12th, 2020? Only reactions we got was from the youth pastor’s sermon to the choir scrambling for something.
The Sioux Falls belated response to the novel coronavirus in our nation is seems to be turning into an Orwellian nightmare of central government edicts. Instead of reassuring the public before the mess hit our shores and our town, the public officials should have been preparing the public with proactive messaging. Our national leaders have decided to lock down our shores except to white English speaking visitors from the U.K.? How is this reassuring?
The last minute, rushed through open-ended Emergency declaration has no sunset built into it. It was so rushed, the city attorneys and the committee didn’t even check the get the date of the Sioux Falls Board of Health correct. It had to be corrected by a motion. We have seen so many contracts and official documents in the past, back-dated and postdated and never corrected, leaving some of us to wonder if they ever review their final work.
Cameraman Bruce tried to get information upon hearing of the meeting and there was no notice. It starts to make you wonder what else was happening behind the scenes. Do you realize during the 2019 tornado emergency, the administration never called an official emergency but still acted as if had been official? Our Charter has very specific processes for this and in 2019 it did not happen.
In the past, Cameraman Bruce has asked consistent questions concerning disaster and emergency planning. How often do we have actual public planning meetings and organized disaster practices. This goes back to the lackadaisical attitude REMSA, Metro Communications, emergency services and the other local governmental units have shown. If we had a repeat of the United 232 disaster in Sioux Falls, we would not have the ability to respond. Bruce was one of many Sioux Falls people who experienced the amazing response firsthand in Sioux City that saved many lives.
To illustrate how weak this committee response is was summed up when there was no point person publicly announced at the Emergency City Council meeting. What? It just shows how little was learned from last year’s 3 tornado event where the emergency sirens were forgotten to be turned on.
So we now have public buildings shut down for a period of time. Now that we have an official emergency, closing down city buildings releases the city and promoters from financial loses because of the hysteria. The actions of our ineffectual national government leadership is causing the economy to head into bear territory. Look at Minnesota Gov. Walz asking the legislature to set aside $1.2 billion surplus money to prepare for likely cash shortfalls. This is going to be a bumpy ride and all we have are public leaders who’s main job is to prepare for these emergencies doing nothing.
After Cameraman Bruce finished speaking during the public portion of the ram rodded ordinance process, the response from the usual rubber stampers on the dais was degrading comments, laughter and hoots. How is this respect for the public. How is that leadership? City “leaders†hiding their lack of answers behind degrading remarks, as the public was asking for leadership.
This isn’t an endorsement of his opponent Julian Beaudion (though it kind of is). While I don’t know much about Julian, I do know one thing, as a SD Highway Patrol officer, he must conduct himself with the highest degree of integrity, especially while serving the public, it is essential in performing his job. While Julian has no governing experience, he certainly has public service experience and I think he would make a great asset to the city council.
This is more about the complete failure of Councilor Greg Neitzert. I won’t lie to you, I helped Greg run for office 4 years ago, I helped him with a strategy, I helped write a lot of his campaign materials and did most of his graphic design. He was a good student who listened and did what was asked of him, and he won. In less than a year into his term I noticed that he was more interested in rubbing elbows with the mucky mucks of Sioux Falls than getting in the ditches with the common folks. He started to hint to me that many of the things I believed about city government were really not true and it was just a bunch of conspiracy theories. Yeah, because you know, I was wrong about the EC siding and bunker ramp. I knew where this was headed. Soon after, Greg and I stopped communicating all together. He sold his soul to the special interests of Sioux Falls, and as someone commented the other day, “Greg first finds out from his masters how he should vote, than researches how he can best sell that vote to the public.†Bingo! But the citizens are not buying it. Greg has become a complete sellout rubber stamping puppet tool who will kiss the ring of anyone who wants a favor. He has lied during meetings, lied to constituents and stabbed many of his colleagues and the people who helped him get elected in the back – numerous times. There are many other things Greg has done behind the scenes that I can’t even mention here. He certainly doesn’t deserve 4 more years, but it seems as the incumbent in a small district, he will probably be re-elected. If that happens, and fellow incumbent Stehly gets re-elected also, it is going to be a rough ride for him.
l3wis 
