UPDATE: This sign is placed in the boulevard which is a violation of political sign placement, but here’s what makes it even more ironic, it is in front of a house that is owned by a former city director.
Well, at least he isn’t putting them illegally in the boulevard. People in the neighborhood told me that showed up in the middle of the night, well duh (snark).
Council Operations Meeting • 2:30 (3/3/2020)
• Review of Draft Edits to the Policies and Procedures Manual (mostly to do with public input).
• Committees
• Use of Electronic Devices
Council Informational • 4 PM (3/3/2020)
Presentations on,
Neighborhood Connect. It appears the Planning Department is rolling out some new software to do the following;
• Transparency
• Extend business hours
• Alerts
• Reduce inquiries
• Easy user interface
It integrates with the City of Sioux Falls Land Management software
While on it’s face, I think it is a good idea, over the last couple of months the city hasn’t had a very good track record with their online presence. Their videos have been crashing, the CityLink live stream has been taken down, the search engines are complicated and a mess and the pilot program for on-demand transit may not get off the ground. I guess if the city wants to be innovative, maybe that innovation should work.
Also presentations on the upcoming election and 2021 Budget Prioritization.
Regular Meeting • 7 PM (3/3/2020)
Item #45 & #60, 2nd Reading, Supplemental Appropriations. Not sure how this vote will go, or if it will be amended, but I have a feeling it will get at least 4 votes to pass (Mayor tie-breaker). They really should censure him for violating the charter and proposing budget changes.
Item #54, 1st Reading, Supplemental Appropriations of $355K to Pavilion for planning the repair of the roof.
Item #55, 1st Reading: AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, REPEALING SUBCHAPTER SIOUX FALLS VETERANS PARK ADVISORY BOARD OF CHAPTER 95: PARKS AND RECREATION OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF SAID CITY. (I’m not sure why this board is being repealed, hopefully there will be more details Tuesday night).
Item #56 (57-58), 1st Reading: AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, AUTHORIZING INTERIM WATER RATES FOR CERTAIN CUSTOMERS OUTSIDE THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS. (Prairie Meadow Area). This has to do with a future annexation agreement.
Item #64, A RESOLUTION ADVISING AND GIVING CONSENT TO THE APPOINTMENT OF MEMBERS TO CERTAIN CITIZEN BOARDS. (once again the biographies are missing, I have requested from some councilors to ask the administration why the BIOs are no longer listed on agenda).
Planning Commission • 6 PM • (3/4/2020)
There have been a lot of strange changes lately to the city website and agendas. The latest is in the Planning agenda, instead of numbering the items, they are now using this labeling system; Ex: REZ-011688-2020. More confusion for no reason.
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!
City Councilor Theresa Stehly collects over 1,000 signatures in 10 days. More than 35 volunteers helped to ensure that Theresa Stehly has secured her place on the ballot. These volunteers collected the signatures of their neighbors and friends to start their effort to return Theresa Stehly to the Atâ€Large City Council position.
Stehly gratefully states “The response from the public has been overwhelming. Many people have expressed their appreciation that I am running, to continue the representation of the Sioux Falls residents.”
Citizen advocate Theresa Stehly is seeking a second term as member of the Sioux Falls City Council in the April 14, 2020, municipal City Council election.
Contact Theresa Stehly 605â€929â€8783 theresastehly@yahoo.comÂ
Towards the end of this interview today with Belfrage, Mayor Selfie talked about the upcoming election and made some ‘veiled’ references towards Stehly and how the ‘council needs to get along’ and ‘build consensus’ which is code for rumber stampers. We will find out on April 14th just how happy the citizens are with how Stehly conducts council business.
I just finished watching this. A couple of takeaways;
Councilors Kiley, Soehl and Erickson didn’t even bother to show up. Two are retired and one is self-employed. Maybe the golf courses opened early? The only two councilors in attendance that bothered to make proposals were Stehly and Brekke. The others mumbled about it. Also, the administration decided to up the due date for suggestions from the council. What?! The council should be controlling that deadline. I have told several of them that it is time to censure the mayor for violating charter and setting the budget and policy – IT IS YOUR JOB! The mayor cannot tell the council what to do with budget priorities. I’m telling you folks, Sioux Falls city government is a dictatorship and it is time to rid us of the home rule charter and return to a commission form of government.
l3wis