South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

SF City Council

SF City Council Sioux Falls

The City of Sioux Falls should convert to an electric fleet

l3wis 3Comments

Yesterday POET made a convincing argument to the city they should switch the city fleet to Flex-Fuel E-30. While I understand the reasoning, there are two opposing arguments; 1) there would be issues with warranties, 2) E-30 still contains 70% petroleum based fuels.

My thought was if we were going to go to the expense of starting to change the fleet over we should start bold.

My suggestion would to outfit all the city garages (parks, public works, administration building, etc) with solar panels and charging stations. We really should be switching our car and small SUV and truck fleet to electric. Not only is electric reliable, it would save the city millions in fuel costs. The city already gets affordable electricity from our own electric department, what electric recharging the solar panels could not provide could be subsidized by our own power grid.

On top of that, we would probably have the fastest patrol cars in the state. An electric vehicle can go 0 to 60MPH in 4 seconds. The initial investment would not be cheap, but it would pay huge dividends. Corn fuel, not so much. Don’t the Broin Brothers have enough money from government subsidies?

Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls

See how easy a compromise can be

l3wis 6Comments

Of course Mayor TenHaken and his staff will try to take credit for this;

The City’s proposal would convert Elmwood Avenue between 26th and 28th Streets into a northbound one-way street, add 42 diagonal public parking spots on the west side of Elmwood Avenue, add 10 parallel parking spots at the north end of east Elmwood Avenue, and a dedicated bus parking lane for students to load and unload in a safe manner.

This proposal preserves access to 26th Street and the pedestrian sidewalk, which was mentioned by neighbors who previously opposed the full vacation of Elmwood Avenue. The elimination of southbound traffic on Elmwood will help alleviate neighborhood safety concerns of congested traffic due to non-neighborhood traffic. Additionally, street parking congestion complaints should be quelled with the addition of the diagonal on-street parking.

This is the proposal that should have been suggested in the first place. It provides safe parking, safe drop-offs, and the one-way makes the now useable street safer. I hope the residents agree. While the council was not obviously involved in this compromise, the 3 that voted down the vacation need to be given the credit for forcing the city administration to create a compromise between the institution and it’s neighbors. I haven’t taken the temperature of the council yet on this new approach, but I am sure it will pass the council no problem. Better solutions come from negotiating with both parties.

Rick Kiley SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Councilors only listen when you mime

l3wis 27Comments

Councilor Rolfing didn’t enjoy my Paganini impression.

I have probably talked numerous hours over the past 15 years in front of the city councilors. But it seems all that mouthing off never got their attention. It took my mime of playing a violin in the very back row of the council chambers last night to finally get a reaction out of them. As I was doing this during one of Kiley’s ‘Life is Beautiful’ speeches while referring to the Presentation Sisters apartment complex (that will pay NO property taxes) he yelled out something like this;

“Yeah, play your violin back there Mr. Ehrisman. Very direspectful sir, very disrespectful.”

I responded;

“Like you’ve never disrespected me?”

In which I let out a hearty laugh. Mayor TenHaken told me not to address the dais unless I was offering public input. PTH also gave a good stare at the security guard. I guess, according to state law, it’s ok to carry a concealed weapon into council chambers without a permit, but laughter will not be tolerated. Sorry, I will not be called out by an elected official sitting on the dais without reacting.

Which brings me to my point. They seem to be deaf, dumb and blind when citizens are testifying about the importance of transparency and good government but I guess the only way to get their attention is to publicly shame them. I better rosin up my bow.

Elections Patrick Starr SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Councilor Pat Starr talks about the importance of plurality

l3wis 4Comments

The council is set to vote tonight on 1st reading of whether to go back to the 20 year rule of only having a 34% Plurality for city council races/elections.

Sioux Falls City Councilor Pat Starr was on the BNB show this morning talking about it.  He’s introducing an Ordinance this week, that would put the 50% / 34% Plurality requirement for Council elections on the ballot with the School Board election in May.

You know my feelings on it. It wasn’t broken and it should not have been changed. This was a last minute attempt to thwart certain individuals from running for council. Shameful.

His interview HERE.

Greg’s discussion HERE.

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