Informational Meeting, 4 PM (Carnegie Town Hall – SF)
Storm Drainage overview presentation
Lincoln County Joint Meeting, 7 PM (Commission Chambers, Canton)
Rezone of Ag Land to Commercial Property, more SPRAWL in Lincoln County.
While I’m still waiting for the 2019 salary report to come out, I have some ‘early’ returns.
COS Erica Beck’s salary is $161K + $28K in benefits.
In comparison, Mayor TenHaken’s salary is $128K + $42K in benefits (Salary is controlled by ordinance and not performance or education).
Also, City Councilor’s yearly salary is $19K plus $200 month stipend for gas and phone. They are ineligible for retirement or healthcare benefits even though other cities and counties across the state allow it.
Like I said, once I get the full salary report, I will have more names to add.
I have often felt that NONE of the Mayor’s ‘support staff’ should get paid more than him. For example, when looking at the 2018 salaries, the former mayor’s secretary (who is still with the city) was getting $63K + Benefits and his communications manager was getting $75K + Benefits. Also, the Operations manager for the city council will make around $100K this year, and he has to support 8 people instead of just one.
I also find it a bit ironic when you see these corporate like pay scales in public service (government is not like private business).
Just read this story when you want to have comparable wages in the private sector in SD;
The News Watch analysis of 2017 wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics within the U.S. Department of Labor showed that:
Isn’t it sad that about 71% of employed people in SD make under $40K a year and the mayor’s COS makes 4X that in the public sector. What is even more troubling is that TenHaken calls himself a fiscal conservative because he is of Dutch decent, yet pays corporate like wages on the taxpayer’s dime. I guess he is only conservative when it comes to HIS money, not ours.
I also find it a bit ironic that this story has been long overdue, and where did it come from? The local MSM? The AP? Maybe PBS? Nope. From a Non-Profit online news organization.
So there has been some talk about who will replace Mike Cooper? First off, the rumor going around city officials is he was asked to retire a year before he planned on. I guess the only person to know would be Mike, oh and Erica, Paul and maybe TJ.
People are telling me that my prediction of Erica Beck being the new planning director is a little off and that she is perfectly happy being COS. And why not? She pretty much is running the city while the Deputy T.J. TypeOver is doing all of the Mayor’s dirty work.
An unusual name came up though, Jeff Schmidt, who suddenly disappeared after the joint jurisdiction debacle. The rumor going around is that he is preparing to take the reins. Talking to other city officials and councilors I get the same, “It’s a possibility.” But when I ask councilors if he could get confirmed, there seems to be some doubt.
I guess we will have to wait and see. Hopefully he will get a new office without urine stained walls.
Last night councilor Stehly with the support of councilors Brekke and Starr tried to defer repealing the drone ordinance, TWICE, and were shot down. Ultimately the entire council did repeal it (Soehl was AWOL). So why the deferral? Stehly said she attempted to contact the FAA but was unsuccessful because a majority of the agency is furloughed. She wanted them to testify or at least provide some information about who will be responsible for enforcing the Federal regulations, and thought it was a good idea to defer it a couple of weeks so we can hear from them. She was pretty much told by council chair Erickson that she should have done the research in advance. Other councilors just assumed with the city attorney that the SFPD would have to enforce the regs, but really no one knew.
And they wondered why Stehly wanted a deferral? They must have had axe throwing on their minds.
Last night when the topic of the property tax reduction came up, councilor Neitzert got very irate and said that the applicants met the criteria they were supposed to and that is why they got the reductions.
While I have NO doubt that is true (well, I do have some doubts), this isn’t about the applicants, this is about who granted the tax reductions, and it certainly wasn’t done with the blessing of the council. More to come on this.
I guess the only one to bid on taking over the Falls Overlook Cafe was Stensland Dairy. That was easy.
My testimony last night was based on FACTS I gathered over researching 5G over past weekend.
• No testimony from the FCC or Telecom industry on Health Affects of 5G. FCC currently shutdown. The contract should have been deferred until a representative from the FCC could testify.
• No public hearings. It is illegal for a private corporation to use public utility poles without a period of public comment. While the FCC rules were changed so health affects couldn’t be used as a reason to deny a permit, there are many other arguments (property values, visual affects, etc.). Isn’t it interesting the FCC took out ‘Health Affects’ for grounds of denial. Other communities have had success with 200 FT setbacks from buildings, banning them in residential areas and charging a YEARLY application and inspection fee.
• Extreme intimidation used on City Councilors about potential ‘lawsuits’ if they don’t vote for contract. Intimidation used by Mayor TenHaken, City Attorneys Kooistra and Bengford, and Deputy COS T.J. TypoOver on citizens claiming it is a ‘Done Deal’. It is not, contract still hasn’t been ratified, there is a waiting period. Houston, TX rollout was conducted in the EXACT same manner. It seems the Telecoms are using the same playbook across the country.
• What are citizens rights when it comes to how user data will be used by the Telecoms? The ACLU of California is currently looking into it. We had NO testimony from Verizon on how the data will be used.
• Senator John Thune who chairs the committee on telecoms received almost $1 million in donations from the telecom industry. Follow the money. (Thune’s personal net worth is $5 Million). How does someone get that wealthy working in public service most of their life? Must have went to the Bill Janklow school of investment or Kimberly has one heckuva part-time job.
• What are the health affects of radiation from 5G? Countries like Israel and China have strict regulations on cell phone radiation. The World Health Organization has issued extreme warnings about cell/wi-fi radiation. World famous Oncologist (Cancer Doctor) Devra Davis is leading a grassroots effort to warn the public about 5G. Davis is well known for leading the effort to ban smoking in commercial airplanes. Not some kooky conspiracy theorist trying to find Obama’s birth certificate. In the UK the telecom industry tried to put a GAG order on a citizen advocate after he called them ‘Baby Killers’, a judge threw it out of court saying he had a right to make the accusation due to empirical evidence and the industry had to prove otherwise. It seems now the telecoms are trying to stifle free speech in democratic nations.
This must be stopped, the contract must be voided! This is a BAD example of how to run government in a transparent manner. We have home rule rights. While we can’t fight this on health effects, we do have other means to stop it.
l3wis