South DaCola

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SF City Council

Downtown Sioux Falls Legacy Developments SF City Council Sioux Falls

Corruption, Incompetance and Blatant Ignorance

l3wis 7Comments

After hearing about the settlement yesterday in the Copper Lounge collapse, we got the verification we all knew was true, Legacy and Hultgren were attached at the hip. Duh.

So when you read the headline in this blog post, you probably think I am talking about Aaron Hultgren or Norm Drake, I am NOT. They are beyond help.

I’m talking about the city councilors/mayors who approved the Bunker Ramp deal to begin with.

It is very irritating and frustrating to listen to some of the members of the RS5 blow off the bunker ramp as just a ‘bad decision’ and that they are not perfect and sometimes make ‘mistakes’.

I would qualify NOT giving a movie theater a beer license as a ‘mistake’ or ‘bad decision’. Something that can be easily passed later, and even if it isn’t, it doesn’t harm anyone. The bunker ramp is a COLASSAL F’UP! Taxpayers are currently paying $1.5 million a year in bond payments for a parking ramp that is unoccupied and will be for a very long time. We may have to dip into the 2nd penny to help make these payments.

The evidence and writing was ON THE WALL! There was mountains of evidence that shouldn’t have passed, but out of pure arrogance a majority passed it anyway.

I am still awaiting at least an apology from those who voted for it, but I still think there needs to be greater consequences. They essentially committed FRAUD on the taxpayers by supporting a project they knew would never happen and the current and past mayor are also to blame. There is also a ton of past and present city employees who helped ramrod it through.

I would like to see a recall and termination of all involved that still work for the city. But there is something you can definitely do this Spring. You can make sure that councilors Selberg and Neitzert don’t get re-elected, and if they had any sense at all, they wouldn’t run for re-election (I do know that both of them already have STRONG challengers waiting in the wings). I would also suggest to re-elect councilors Starr and Stehly who opposed this from the beginning.

We all know that elected officials often make ‘mistakes’ and are not ‘perfect’. But when you have so much evidence showing you it would be a bad decision and you pass it anyway, you have to wonder what kind of corruption is going on behind the scenes. Maybe we get lucky and the Feds that are investigating the building collapse will investigate the city for attempting to go into business with Legacy. We can only hope!

Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls

Mayor Proposes to hire a Chief of Culture

l3wis 29Comments

You can’t make this crap up. In the mayor’s budget hearing today he let the director of HR, Bill Dah’Toole explain why we needed a Chief Culture Officer (at around $144K a year). A majority of the council was frustrated that the mayor didn’t stick around to explain this expenditure. They also questioned Bill why him and his staff, you know, Human Resources, wasn’t working on a better ‘work’ culture together. COS Beck quickly came to Bill’s defense saying all management works on a better work culture in the city, but they really need a full-time person dedicated to it.

I have often argued you create a better culture by having fewer employees that are extremely qualified, can multi-task and you pay them good wages. You would save the city millions because you would have higher efficiency.

You want a better work culture? Hire people who already have it so you don’t have to train people on the job.

They also are looking for a full-time person to Tweet, Instagram and Facebook. They already have a part-time person dedicated to it, but they can’t handle the workload. Another situation where some of the councilors questioned what our current employees in the media department have been doing. Once again, a problem that could be solved by hiring, as Greg Neitzert would say, ‘ROCK STARS’. People that are already highly qualified so we don’t have to potty train them.

This mayor has added 17 new FTE’s in his first year and now wants to add another 20. Instead of hiring unqualified people who are political hacks or tool salesmen, he needs to hire PROFESSIONALS who can multi-task and handle work loads instead of mini-bars.

SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Triple Check the Charter press conference at 2 PM today!

l3wis 7Comments

UPDATE: As you heard in the press conference, our city clerk is refusing to stamp the petition with a ‘Received’ stamp. It is common place for the receiving clerk to stamp a petition. Tom Greco’s excuse is he doesn’t want to be in the middle of what he was in 2016 and ‘stop the funding’ petition. It’s simple then, there are two other city clerks who can stamp it if you don’t want to do your job Tom. Hopefully it will be resolved tomorrow so they can start collecting signatures. We are not allowing this to go to court like it did in 2016. Enough of the games, let the process of petition gathering and an election take place, and let the voters decide.

PRESS RELEASE

Today, Monday, August 5, 2019, a group of voter in Sioux Falls SD announced their formation of Triple Check The Charter for the purpose of proposing a redefinition of the Sioux Falls City Council.

Press Conference Details:

Where: Just east of the Great Outdoors Store, 201 E 10th St, Sioux Falls, SD

Date: Monday, August 5, 2019

Time: 2:00 pm

25 years ago the voters passed the home rule form of government permitting the City Council and Mayor to operate without direct interference of the state government in its daily operation. It functions, but the growth has come without looking at the long term process implications. Sioux Falls is at a point where voter and taxpayer protections need to be in the Charter. Election games and strange tie-breaking votes have allowed unnecessary building projects to jeopardize taxpayers. Voters must periodically look at the charter and offer modifications. In charter, there is a way for voters to be involved, a petition.

A Sioux Falls group has formed, Triple Check the Charter, to ask the voters to approve home rule charter updates. The Triple Check the Charter petition drive and vote allows

(1) a return to simple Council elections,

(2) allows the Mayor to leave the Council to concentrate on managing the city plus

(3) require a super majority of members to pass bonding.

The charter amendment process requires at least 5% of Sioux Falls registered voters (5,250) to sign petitions and then vote, to improve the Home Rule by implementing positive functional changes to the Sioux Falls City Council. For more information, to sign petition or get one to circulate, call 376-8087. 

Bruce Danielson PO Box 491 Sioux Falls, SD 57101 Cell: (605) 376-8087 Email: bruce@brdan.com

SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Charter Revision Commission

Triple Check the Charter petition turned in for review to the Sioux Falls City Clerk’s office

l3wis 3Comments

The new city petition was turned into city clerk Tom Greco this morning for review, the petitioners hope to get the petition back today so they can start collecting. They will have 6 months to collect approximately 6,500 signatures.

Since the 3 changes proposed to the charter are all under ONE section in the charter, it will require only ONE vote to change these 3 things proposed;

  1. Make city council elections a simple plurality.
  2. Remove Mayor from City Council (tie votes will now fail an item and the council chair will run the meetings).
  3. Super majority (6) to pass ANY bonds (no dollar amount would be attached, it would be for ANY bond the city council has to pass.)
SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, MONDAY, August 5, 2019

l3wis 4Comments

Please note that the council meetings are on Monday next week, I believe it is National Night Out on Tuesday, so the council wanted to attend some neighborhood events per request of Councilor Stehly.

City Council 2020 (1st) Budget Hearing, 3 PM

Mayor’s Budget Presentation and also presentations on Finance, HR, Innovation and Entertainment taxes.

City Council Regular Meeting, 7 PM

Item #6, Approval of Contracts, 10-17 are park land acquisitions, I’m assuming these are the properties the city is buying due to flooding. We are paying $250K for a bookmobile, I wonder if the County is sharing the cost since Siouxland library is jointly funded. I also wonder if we got any Federal grants? Another $47K to the Pavilion for unknown interior projects. City to pay nearly $600K to remove snow from city owned properties to a private contractor – Huh?

Item #32, Lloyd Companies will be transferring a retail liquor license to their tenant, Severance Brewery. This will be interesting because it will be the only brewpub in Sioux Falls to have a liquor license. I have been to several brewpubs across the country and have NEVER been in one with a liquor license.

Item #47, a resolution to expand the city’s jurisdiction and development areas. I don’t know much about this, so it will be interesting to hear.

MORE INFO COMING

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