SF City Council

City Councilor’s ‘Mommy’ comes to their defense on social media

l3wis August 15, 2019 5Comments

I guess one of the city councilor’s mother has been popping around on different social media platforms and defending their child over their NO vote on the SOS charity. It’s not the first time I have seen her (and this person’s spouse) come to her child’s defense. Heck, they don’t even live in this state. While my mother does comment on my site, she knows I have big kid pants and can defend myself. Maybe it was all the cabbage she fed me as a child?

Either way, what bugs me the most about the situation is that first off, I find it a bit hypocritical of the RS5 to say they don’t approve of giving away around $5K because of the Enterprise fund rules when they didn’t blink an eye and set a precedent after giving $1.5 million to a PRIVATE non-profit from the entertainment tax fund, something that had NEVER been done before. But you know how it goes, when Denny says ‘JUMP’ everyone says ‘HOW HIGH’? I was against the theatre giveaway and I was against the SOS giveaway for the same reasons RULES, which leads me to the second reason why this whole thing irritates me.

The school district has the funds to do this, especially after giving large raises to administrators. In fact, one administrator got a $20K raise from 2019-2020. Ironically, if the SFSD decided to do this, it may not cost them a penny. They could easily ask companies like BIC or MEAD for donations of product they can’t sell. The program could also be anonymous, so not to embarrass the children who are asking.

While I commend the Banquet for doing this, and all the people who generously give, I think that both the city and school district are very well funded and can provide these things without a big pissing match or elected official’s parents getting involved. A pretty petty fight over some notepads and backpacks. Everyone involved needs to grow up and make this a TEACHABLE moment in compromise and consensus.

Turd Polishing Sioux Falls City Council

l3wis August 13, 2019 12Comments

Just when you think the dysfunction with the council could not get much worse, they outdo themselves.

PARKING RAMP WILL BE GREAT SOMEDAY!

At the Budget meeting they had a presentation by Parking Director, Matt Nelson, who told the council that the bunker ramp will be great ‘someday’. Neitzert (who still thinks he did nothing wrong by voting for it) and Erickson agreed with Matt. I told them during public input that Nelson was polishing a turd.

I also told them I was frustrated that city staff was against starting some new programs. Police Chief Burns said that body cameras would basically cost to much and he would have to add staff. But hey, a $20-30 million dollar training center is ok. I told them that the cost would be worth it to protect officers and people who are arrested.

Planning Director Eckhoff also voiced concerns about starting a residential TIF program saying that remodeling houses doesn’t add much value. Oh, but million dollar condos have helped us out soooo much!

COUNCILOR SOEHL EMBARRASES HIMSELF

In a strange attempt to embarrass councilor Stehly with her SOS project resolution during the regular 7 PM meeting, without warning, Soehl guts her resolution by making the program voluntary. While I agree with a majority of the council we shouldn’t be using parking fines for charities, all the council had to do is just vote NO instead of gutting Stehly’s resolution (which they eventually did) once Starr challenged Soehl’s amendment for not properly noticing it. In Curt’s strange attempt to put Theresa in her place, he embarrassed himself by making a big deal out of a charity program. He looked like a class A, A-Hole.

AMENDMENTS TO THE LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES HAVE NEVER BEEN CHALLENGED IN THE PAST

In an attempt to get back at Stehly and Starr for calling Soehl out on his little stunt, when they made amendments to the legislative priorities, they claimed they have not been properly noticed.

Huh?

The priorities have always been just ‘suggestions’ to the legislature. They are certainly not binding. If they made a 100 amendments it would not matter. Amendments have been made in the past. The city attorney, Kooistra really showed his lack of knowledge when it came to what should be noticed. Erickson actually came to the rescue by saying by deferring the priorities, the amendments now become proper notice. They deferred it for a week.

The crap coming out of Carnegie these days gets shinier by the day.

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, August 13, 2019

l3wis August 9, 2019 4Comments

City Council 2020 (2nd) Budget Hearing, 3 PM

Budget presentations on Health, Fire, Police, Parking, Planning, Housing, and Transit.

You can see a copy of the Mayor’s proposed budget summary HERE.

City Council Regular Meeting, 7 PM

Item #14, 1st Reading, Ordinance to reimburse the city $1 million from FEMA.

Item #26, Resolution, Stehly and Starr are asking if people can donate their parking fines to Project SOS. I’m opposed to this. While I think it is great if people want to give their money to Project SOS I don’t think it should come at the detriment of the city. While I think parking fines are too high already, their is a reason we have them, to fund our parking system. If anyone should be funding school supplies, it should be the School District. I have often thought that schools should supply kids with the bare necessities if they cannot afford them. But instead they are handing out 16% raises while we have to have bake sales to pay for school lunches and now parking fines for school supplies.

Item #27, Resolution, the city council is moving forward with their 2020 legislative priorities, including promoting TIFs even though they have never conducted a study proving they provide ANY economic impact.