The Sioux Falls city council is set to debate public input again on Tuesday night (Item #35). While I support the changes (5 minutes on 2nd reading) you know my real opinion on the matter, unlimited on 2nd readings if it is quasi judicial and affecting property rights.
According to Roberts Rules the council does have the right to limit public input, they are even able to tell us when we can have it, and for how long. The chair also has the right to limit during the meeting. This is all according to Roberts Rules of course.
But could there be a Constitutional right (1st Amendment) that says total elimination of public input at a meeting on any reading is legal? While city’s like to hide behind Robert’s Rules and city charters they really are sworn to uphold the US Constitution. I also am unimpressed when city attorneys ‘TRY’ to be constitutional scholars and dance around an excuse. I haven’t seen it yet from Kooistra the current CA but Fiddle-Faddle did it all the time. I’m waiting for Kooistra’s ‘Grand Moment’.
It’s always fascinating to me to listen to local governments debate ‘public input’. I often find it an incredible waste of time and resources. Just let people talk. OPEN GOVERNMENT UP! Sunshine is a good thing!
If you don’t want to listen to your constituents, please resign.
Oh, and that’s not all. Besides the bar, they also offer wood fired pizza and heated seats.
Is this New York City? London, England? Nope, less than an hour away in Sioux City.
While our city council is busy handing out beer licenses like candy to ax throwing venues, in Sioux City they feel there is NO harm in mixing old fashions with popcorn. Of course there is the fear someone might spill their drink into the popcorn. Oh my! What about the kids?!
The Sioux Falls City council has made a lot of ignoramus decisions in the past year, but denying a beer license to a discount movie theater is pretty high on that list.
Ayn Rand died as a penniless gigantic hypocrite in public housing while drawing Social Security and Medicare. But the neo-cons would never tell you that.
This past weekend I was helping some friends in the neighborhood near the School of the Deaf. This is a long established working class neighborhood of small houses quietly existing on the hills between the traffic of East 10th and 12th. It’s the kind of neighborhood long ignored by many because they are busy making ends meet. A neighbor approached our group and asked if city “police†had contacted them about sump pump plumbing. Apparently, this neighborhood had recently been canvassed by city staff and told they needed to replumb their sump pumps to dump into their sanitary sewer connections instead of out on their lawns. They had been told the lack of proper curb storm sewer intakes or drainage has caused a problem with water and ice buildup on the streets surrounding the Eugene Field A+ Elementary school. It is interesting, we now have a sewer system emergency requiring the spending $260 million and at the same time we appear to be telling a neighborhood to overtax it more? In the rush to spend a large sum of money we are forgetting to research underlying causes. Where else is this information being spread to force the spending of $260 million?
I have attached an article. It might be a long read for some, but it is important to understand how government seems to work today, especially when we look closely at our city government. It brings to mind a woman I dated a while back who had been a member of the Ayn Rand “collective†in her younger years. We would have hours of discussions (if you can believe I would do such a thing…) discussing Randian thoughts and concepts. I completely disagreed with Randian ideas, still do. I had spent 1983-4 reading a lot, centering on Orwell, Rand and their concepts while I traveled parts of the world seeing ramifications up close. My current views of our Sioux Falls city, state of South Dakota and our Federal governments are based on this background. I see our government levels going in the wrong direction of “I†instead of “WEâ€.
Our government was created under the idea of “We the People†not “This is mine, you don’t get anyâ€.
I look at every action, including the lack of planning for a sewer plant expansion as a self-serving. Our past mayor worked to satisfy a bunch of “ME†or selfish projects. These projects were done to enrich the “ME†crowd at the expense of the rest of us.
I agree we must plan for the future of our town’s infrastructure but the secret nature of study and financing of the sewer project is suspect. There are several people and groups enriching themselves in this poorly conceived or delayed $260 million project. If this project was on the up and up, there would have been a public discussion to educate us for the last year or two.
This sewer project reminds me of the secret nature and fake stories of the Events Center, indoor swimming pool, Administration Building, Foundation Park utilities, ambulance service and so many other projects jammed down the citizen’s throats all as emergencies. If these projects were so important, why weren’t they open to the public for full review? If these projects are so critical why are they discussed only in secret meetings and only then brought up when the money is to be borrowed. Why are these projects always at critical mass and the world is going to come to an end if, we don’t act right now using the limited information given and then only shoveled out for public viewing in the couple of weeks before a vote by Council?
In the recent city election campaign, there was a discussion by one successful candidate to finally start the Council on its required Charter duty as the city’s policy making body. A policy body to set the how and whys the hired mayor and staff would have to work. As of right now, the Council are constantly being insulted as lapdogs of pseudo staff and hired special interest “experts†who are only concerned about the “I†of their positions and not the “WE†of the citizens who own the governments. I have little sympathy for the Council’s  position
I disagree with every statement made by Ayn Rand and her collective. These are not the values of our country’s shared history. These greed values are the roots of our current unrest in this country and our town of Sioux Falls. There are many employees of Sioux Falls who are being twisted in knots because they are also citizens of Sioux Falls. They see the problems based in the secrecy and the conspiratorial nature of planning then implantation of the latest emergency to be solved. As our city government moves along to the next emergency to be solved, our elected leaders might understand why certain information is made available by the many city voices asking us basic questions such as “WHY?â€.
The questions come from our fellow citizens trying to understand poor planning, based on the immediate needs, to satisfy what appears to be a greed.
There is no emergency to spend $260 million on a sewer project today or next week. This is similar to “no emergency†to spend $24 million on an office building. There was no emergency to spend $24 million on an indoor swimming pool. Our past administration liked spending money for any new edifice, a plastic naming badge could be attached to. Why can’t this Administration and Council take a few more days to educate the public of through a real discussion. Don’t just use the marketing magic or same talking points to wear people down. Real education takes work but in the end it the public will be satisfied they were actually, really informed.
If this project so important, why didn’t this get discussed and put as a public need for the recently past elections? If is 10 years overdue, where were our staff “experts†raising the alarm bells during the past 10 years? Just because we are having issues today doesn’t mean we have to run scared to the only solution pseudo self-interest experts thro at us. Why didn’t our “experts†raise alarm bells to tell us it was coming and let us know to start planning for it ten years ago, or even last year?  Why has this not been discussed publicly after the disastrous sewer line blow-up of 8 years ago should have created the public policy to solve it in a timely manner?
Why does it take a forgotten neighborhood with a special school to remind us of the screwed up messaging, planning and lack of cohesive policy directives causing so many of our town’s “emergency†issues?
The 2nd penny was designed to help pay for roads and infrastructure, like sewer plants, but city hall seems to be clueless about it;
Stehly’s repeal efforts, though, face long odds of gaining success. T.J. Nelson, deputy chief of staff for Mayor Paul TenHaken, said the administration opposes the resolution because it is a less equitable way to provide sewer service to Sioux Falls residents.
That’s because right now, sewer and water customers — including businesses like big box stores and industrial type companies — pay for what they use. Nelson said if the city shifted from consumption-based pricing, the average citizen who pays sales tax could end up subsidizing water and sewer services for the heaviest water and sewer users in the city.
“Councilor Stehly’s proposal goes completely against the heart of the issue,” he said. “Her resolution would to have the opposite effect of what she thinks it will.”
Yet every time I go buy groceries or anything in this town I am subsidizing people who are attending shows at the Denty. Doesn’t that go against the ‘Heart of the Issue?’ Why should I have to pay extra for milk and eggs so people can be entertained? If we truly want to use user fees, then we need to have the users of the Denty pay for the Denty.
Stehly’s proposal is simple, use user fees to pay for operating and maintenance of the sewer system, use the 2nd penny to upgrade the infrastructure of the sewer system. It’s not rocket science, in fact it is the fiscally responsible thing to do and worked for decades in Sioux Falls until the former mayor had to get his mitts on extra money for his play things.
Also, the bigger question is why didn’t hear about this expansion until after the election, they have known about this for a very long time (Public Works).
While I think the study is needed, I’m wondering why Augustana (a private university) had to get reimbursed for a ‘research’ project? I guess Augie has trouble scrounging together $27K. Well that’s what you get when you have a Democrat running the joint, poor fundraising skills . . . ouch.
What is also ironic, the local government entity that serves the most homeless, poor and underpriviledged in our community didn’t contribute a penny to the study (SF School District). I guess they have already identified their homeless issues.
l3wis 
