South DaCola

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SF City Council

Paramedics Plus SF City Council SFFD Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Most of the Sioux Falls City Council still in denial we are subsidizing Paramedics Plus

l3wis 1Comments

FF: 1:32:30 – Sioux Falls City Council Meeting, 11/13/2018

Watch the discussion about the six-year contract extension for the private ambulance service.

I guess you can continue to repeat a lie hoping people will finally believe you. Certain councilors continue to say we are NOT subsidizing PP, but we are, and it costs taxpayers a lot. The SFFD and the SFPD usually are the first to show up to a medical emergency. Just a few years ago, a study from the SFFD showed that over 90% of fire calls are medical emergencies. We also are going to now have ALS trained firefighters so they can use life-saving procedures when they are the first to arrive. Which is awesome, since we have no idea when our private contractor is going to show.

Last I checked our firefighters and police were NOT volunteer, and the gas that fuels their vehicles is not FREE. By showing up first to these emergencies we are essentially subsidizing PP and getting no reimbursement. Taxpayers are swallowing that cost.

Some councilors are so against a public ambulance service they continue to peddle the lie that it would cost taxpayers more. Not sure what math they are using. Right now we get ZERO reimbursement for being the first responder, if we provided the entire ambulance service we could bill the patients or their insurance provider.

I guess I kind of understand why some councilors are against a public ambulance service, because it will take a lot of work and initial capital to get one started. But please, just admit you are against it, and STOP LYING to the public. We are subsidizing PP, and that’s a fact.

UPDATE: FF: 1:09:40 – Changing time limit of public input for 2nd readings to 5 minutes.

You know my feelings on this. I think if it is a 2nd reading and people are trying to protect their neighborhood, property or welfare as long as they are being pertinent to the topic and not repeating other testimony, they should have no time limit. This is how the Minnehaha County Commission handles it, and it works well. Brekke has proposed they change it from the very restrictive 3 minutes to 5 minutes. While I will applaud her effort in making it better, we could go further. Other councilors including Councilor Neitzert agree it was too restrictive and needs to change. I thanked Greg last night for his testimony. He pointed out the real problem with public input had more to do with the previous chair than the public itself. The former chair ran the meetings horribly, and treated citizens with extreme disrespect. I predicted when they made the changes that they were not needed because the chair and a certain other councilor who were contributing to the disruption would be gone. Council is now realizing that is exactly the case, and I am happy some of them are seeing it.

Now they need to overturn Rolfing/Erpenbach’s horrible majority vote council seat resolution.

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, Tue Nov 13, 2018

l3wis 0Comments

City Council Informational Meeting, 4 pM

The meeting is jam packed with presentations;

SF Development Foundation will do a presentation. My educated guess is that it is about their new workforce development manager and what they plan to do.

We also get a progress report on the response to the Emerald Ash borer.

Cotter will give us a water rate increase presentation. Can’t wait! Wonder if he will talk about all the delicious extinguisher foam in our water?

We will get a presentation on the city’s proposal to implement Asset Management Software. This is the first I have heard about this. Should be interesting.

City Council Regular Meeting, 7 pM

Item #1, Approval of Contracts;

(16-17) Enterprise Asset Management Informational System, $835K

Enterprise Asset Management Informational System for strategic asset management and work order system for the City. The system will be deployed city-wide to provide life cycle management and long range forecasting on City assets while creating a standardized workflow for all departments. Contract will be five years from the final approval date with a base cost of $835,000 and an annual software maintenance cost of $60,000 for the first five years. The City has an option for a full pavement management package at $291,500. Contract No. 17-0095

This is the item the CC will be briefed about at the informational meeting. I still have NO CLUE what this is, and when I talked to a city councilor today about it, they were clueless also.

Item #3, Surplus Property. Apparently when a city vehicle gets in a wreck they just junk it out. So the question is, did they get any insurance money? Who’s fault was the accident? No biggee, just junk it out.

Items #14-15, 2nd Readings, Naming rights at the indoor pool. Am I the only one finding it funny one is for a greasy pizza chain and a healthcare provider? Or is it a greasy healthcare provider? I get confused.

Item #16, 1st Reading. Changing public input on 2nd readings that are quasi-judicial from 3 minutes to 5 minutes. While this is all well and good, you know my opinion. On second readings, citizens should have unlimited time if they are defending their neighborhoods. As long as that defense isn’t repetitive or disrespectful and pertinent to the topic. As I have said several times, there are NO time limits on the meetings. So why time limits on public input? Silly, but more importantly, Anti-Democratic.

Item #17, 1st Reading. Renewing the private ambulance provider until 2026. With that kind of time frame, this would be a good opportunity to research a public ambulance service.

Kristi Noem Levitt Pavilion SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council meeting highlights

l3wis 0Comments

Besides the fact that two housing proposals got approved that have serious drainage issues, there were some other highlights.

The SFFD got their contract renewal with a caveat that if a firefighter is ALS (Advanced Life Support) trained and may have to use those skills they get an extra $1 an hour. While I don’t have an issue with that, it goes back to my argument that we continue to subsidize the private ambulance service more and more. We might as well be researching a public option.

During public input, John Cunningham brought up the fact that Noem should reimburse the city for police security during her VERY private event featuring President Trump. I came up shortly after him and agreed. Trump’s NON public event cost SF taxpayers $29K.

I also talked about the Levitt’s decision to NOT allow people to bring their own beer to the FREE concerts that are subsidized by the taxpayers. The Levitt said they will allow people to bring coolers with their own food and pop but NOT beer. They are putting out an RFP to find a beer and wine vendor for concerts as well as providing food trucks (which I think is fine) but they should also allow people to bring their own beer. I even suggested that even if you bring your own you will need to get an ID bracelet proving you are old enough to drink.

My bigger issue with this is that the Levitt and the Parks department made this decision without public or council input. I have been asking about it for over a year and been getting the runaround. Now I know why.

Some of the other Levitt’s across the country ALLOW concert goers to bring their own beer. Isn’t that the whole point of having a free community concert so you are not required to purchase something at the event? In Sioux Falls, we always have to try to get people coming or going. I think this should be a public decision, not a decision that is made behind closed doors.

Out of the 7 currently operating, 4 allow BYOB and sell on site, 3 Sell Alcohol on site, but NO outside alcohol and LA bans alcohol all together in the park.

https://levitt.org/locations

Arlington, TX – Allows own Alcohol, no glass

Memphis, TN – Allows own Alcohol, no glass

Dayton, OH – Allows own Alcohol, no glass

Westport, CN – Allows own Alcohol, no glass

Denver, CO – Allows NO outside Alcohol but can purchase on site

Bethlehem, PA – Allows NO outside Alcohol but can purchase on site

Los Angeles, CA – NO ALCOHOL

Planning Commission SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, Monday Nov 5, 2018

l3wis 1Comments

The SFCC will meet again on a Monday instead of Tuesday next week.

City Council Informational Meeting • 4 PM • 11/5/2018

Lots of interesting presentations without any SIRE docs or attachments at the present time. I guess they want it to feel like Christmas morning Monday afternoon.

Presentations include;

• Update on Cascade Project (who cares)

• Levitt Shell update

• Population projections (this should be good, wonder if they will bring back ol’ bowl cut to inflate them?)

• Legislative priorities (what kind of anti-citizen legislative have they cooked up this time?)

City Council Regular Meeting • 7 PM • 11/5/2018

Some more Siouxper Hero awards.

Planning Academy Graduates (wonder if they will all get a Sanford or Lloyd shirt?)

Item#1, Approval of contracts;

Apparently it costs $32K to fill a couple holes at the Pavilion. Could have given me $500 and a few sheets of sub flooring and call it good. Oh and BTW, the $32K is for ‘design and engineering’ of filling the holes. It will cost more to do that.

Items #25-26, 2nd Reading. Both controversial zoning items in which the neighbors oppose. Both have apparent drainage issues, and one they want the building turned around. I expect a lot of testimony on these and probably some yipping back and forth between councilors on allowing enough public input. As I have said, they could solve all of this by making it unlimited as long as they are NOT repeating themselves, saying what others have said or being offensive. Works for the MCC. I think both will pass, but I do expect some votes of dissent on them. So I guess Mickelson will get his apartment building, but probably not his tobacco tax.

Item #34, 1st Reading, Woot! Woot! An extra million left over for streets!

Item #35, 1st Reading, There the SFCC goes again, taking care of the important business, gas fire pits Downtown!

Items #36-37, 1st Readings, more naming rights to the indoor pool. Ironically one is sponsoring greasy pizza, the other healthcare. LOL. Maybe the place will eventually break even.

Item #40, Resolution, Union Agreement with the SF Firefighters. (Summary Report: Summary-union-agree)

I found it interesting that if a FF performs ALS they get an extra $1 an hour;

While I don’t have an issue with that, I find it interesting that we don’t just pursue a public ambulance service where the taxpayers of SF would get some kind of reimbursement instead consistently subsidizing a private ambulance company. If we are showing up FIRST and provide life saving care, we might as well just haul the patient to the hospital. It’s insane that we are now subsidizing a private company because we can’t depend on them to show up in time.

SF Planning Commission • 6 PM • WED 11/7/2018

There is only one item that planning staff made NO recommendation, a Casino next to Wells Fargo on 26th & Minnesota (Item#6) it may have something to do with the plans being written on a bar napkin?

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