South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

SF City Council

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Operations Committee Meeting

l3wis 3Comments

They discussed several changes to their policy manual including;

• Reimbursing council staff for local travel (this basically would fall in line with the administration’s staff).

• Updating attending meetings remotely (City Clerk Greco did suggest this be updated, he didn’t say it was being abused, but you got the feeling it has become complicated. IMO it was being abused after Covid and it needs to become more strict).

• They discussed limitations on public comment (Clerk Greco referenced that meetings needed to wrap up at a certain time and that may be why public input is limited. Hogwash. Any meeting that may go over an allotted time slot can be recessed to the next day to allow for more information. One of the main reasons regular city council meetings were held at 7 PM instead of 6 PM was to allow more time for presentations at the informational, while also allowing a dinner recess for the council. Now everything is slammed in. The real change would be moving the meetings back to 7 PM with 5 minutes of public input at the beginning).

• Council Chair Soehl said being chair has left him out of touch with the other councilors (I found the statement completely odd considering the main role of the two council chairs is to inform the rest of the council of what the administration is up to. A council chair that is NOT communicating with the rest of the council is a serious issue and the procedures should be put in writing).

• Councilor Merkouris suggested not having an audit manager and maybe replacing them with an operations assistant or an executive assistant to the council. (Not needed. The audit committee should just hand down the audit directives to the current two auditors and management review can be done by the chair of that committee. The city council already has 3 clerks, an operations manager, a legislative manager and 2 auditors, they have plenty of staff. I have even suggested in the past they we eliminate our legislative manager (not sure what the guy does) and our head city clerk and have the duty shared by the two assistant clerks. I believe the current city council staff does a decent job, and I have never felt they are overwhelmed. The issues with the council, communication and transparency with citizens sits with the elected councilors NOT council staff. If the council wants to make communications better, the council has to put forth the initiative NOT the council staff).

• Neitzert brings up the question of who’s responsibility it is to inform the rest of the council about disciplinary action by the vice-chair when it comes to HR issues and council staff. (I find the timing of the question interesting considering the recent departure of the audit manager, was she under some disciplinary action at the time of her departure)?

• Neitzert also adds that the informational meetings are being rushed.

Homeless SF City Council Sioux Falls Washington Pavilion

Sioux Falls City Council Informational Meeting

l3wis 6Comments

Next week the city council has decided to tackle three big topics all in one game;

• Washington Pavilion Management Agreement Renewal by Shawn Pritchett, Finance Director

(two questions councilors need to ask; 1) what is the current compensation of the CEO, Darrin Smith & 2) Why is there $5.2 million dollars in the management companies savings account? Also curious is how that savings account jumped $2.2 million in one year? I will be honest with you, I think it is wonderful the Pavilion is building such an account, but it should be an endowment. And why do we continue to subsidize them operationally? I don’t take issue with maintenance costs, because as taxpayers, we own the joint, but after over 20 years, when will it become the place for ‘EVERYBODY’?)

• Homeless Task Force Report by Council Member Rich Merkouris Here is a simple breakdown from The Dakota Scout (and me);

• $500,000 – Homeless engagement

The recommendation calls for entering into a contract with a third party on a two-year pilot project referred to as a street outreach team.

The cost estimate of $500,000 includes $300,000 in the first year and another $200,000 the second.

(This is a good step forward, BUT, the SFPD also needs to have officers on follows to learn from this. I guess it has been successful in Rapid City.)

• $125,000 – Public education

The task force wants to tap into the existing nonprofits already working in the social services arena to develop a public education campaign that teaches area residents about the challenges of homelessness, how it can be addressed and how to deal with panhandling.

(I personally think it is ludicrous to have to educate people about panhandling and homelessness, BUT, before I lived in a NW coastal city in my teens, I knew very little about these things so it is merited, BUT, the local media, print, radio and TV need to step up and just do this out of the goodness of their hearts.)

•$352,000 – Rally around Network of Care

A grant program could be created to help more nonprofits and other social service agencies become partners in the Helpline Center’s Network of Care, which was created in 2015 to give social service agencies a mechanism to connect with each other in aiding clients.

Of that $352,000, $250,000 would specifically be used to fund the grant program, while the task force is calling for an additional $102,000 directly for the Helpline Center “for HIPAA compliance,” the recommendation reads.

(This is a wonderful software(?) program, the issue I have is the cost. If every service registered with this program used it, wouldn’t that bring the cost down? A good question to ask.)

• $500,000+ – ‘Housing First wraparound services’

The City Council will be asked to create a joint committee with the Minnehaha County Commission to explore grant funding opportunities for new properties and partnerships that could lead to additional housing stability with associated programming for employment and substance abuse recovery support.

While there’s no finite estimate on what it might cost, Merkouris speculated it could be anywhere from $500,000 to as much as the Council and county might be willing dedicate to the plan.

(I have argued from the beginning that this would be costly, BUT we need a plan to look at before throwing money at it. There are zoning laws and regs we could change to force developers to provide this kind of housing which would cost taxpayers $0.)

• SiouxFalls.org Website Redesign by Allie Hartzler, Communications and Culture Officer; and Justine Murtha, Digital Communications Manager;

• siouxfalls.org was last redesigned in 2016.
• Each month, the website has more than 70,000 monthly users, with 60% of users visiting on mobile devices.
• More than 4,800 pages, 9,000 documents, and 6,000 images* exist today.
• In June 2022, the City selected Granicus as a partner for the redesign.

(This is long overdue, and I feel sorry for Allie for getting this dumped in her lap, and the newly hired(?) Digital Communications Manager. But I also argue that this isn’t rocket science. The internet has been around for 30 years, web programming is mostly on auto-pilot and we can learn from other cities, like Omaha, who has a great city website. And we certainly should NOT be hiring a company that has f’kup our website and council agendas for years. It could be done internally by a very capable IT department (would have been a great work at home Covid project) but once again we are jobbing it out.)

1st Amendment Open Government Open Meetings SF City Council

This looks familiar

l3wis 4Comments

If you follow my rants on here and at city council meetings, you know my thoughts on limiting public input by the chair of the meeting and prior restraint.

Well, what do we have here? A chair of a city council meeting trying to talk down public commenters, except this time, they are suing;

As I have mentioned in the past, as long as you are addressing the body about policy and government they cannot shut you down.

Here are some highlights from the suit (PDF DOC);

Mayor Owens frequently uses her authority as Presiding Officer of Eastpointe’s City Council to suppress dissent and criticism by interrupting and shouting down members of the public who criticize her or raise subjects she finds personally embarrassing.

At one point in the meeting, the city attorney even intervenes and tells Owens that public commenters are free to say what they want to.

I have argued for a long time that the city council and it’s chair (Mayor TenHaken) have been violating citizens 1st Amendment rights when it comes to public input and trying to shut them down (while huffing and puffing, sucking on candy and calling commenters losers).

I will be watching this case closely . . .

Air BNB Christine Erickson Curt Soehl SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council considering banning short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods

l3wis 3Comments

Imagine my surprise when I read this article this morning;

Members of the Sioux Falls City Council have begun conversations with the city attorney’s office about drafting an ordinance that could include prohibiting any new listing in residential-zoned neighborhoods. And that would all but eliminate the use of Airbnb and VRBO in Sioux Falls, where nearly every property listed on those sites now is located.

Right now, short-term rentals are subject to few regulations. State statute requires that rentals where occupants stay for fewer than 28 nights at a time remit sales tax. The city of Sioux Falls does not regulate short-term rentals. And at the city level, there’s almost no oversight from municipal government.

For a time, under Mayor Mike Huether, the city planning office held that Airbnb-listed properties fell under the Sioux Falls bed and breakfast ordinances, which required residential properties to meet minimum parking standards. But that interpretation on short-term rentals did not come with any enforcement. And since Mayor Paul TenHaken’s administration took over, the city has shifted to a position that existing ordinances are silent on short-term rentals listed on online platforms like Airbnb, VRBO, Furnished Finder and Guestly.

I find how this is evolving to be interesting considering former city councilor Erickson has a pretty good family business with short-term rentals and was rumored to convince former Mayor Huether to lift the restrictions on them, which he did, I believe through executive order or simply instructing the health department to NOT inspect them anymore.

Rumors aside, I do agree Schmidt;

Rather than overhauling the city’s rental ordinances, Sioux Falls Experience Director Teri Schmidt said the council could enact changes that level the playing field between short-term rentals and the traditional lodging industry.

Schmidt’s convention and visitors bureau organization is funded by a $2 fee paid by hotel and motel guests visiting the city, which is used to lure potential tourists to the area by marketing Sioux Falls attractions.

Those efforts drive demand for lodging in the city, and Schmidt says that includes short-term rentals. But the short-term rentals are not subject to the $2 fee, therefore not directly contributing to Sioux Falls’ tourism industry, she said.

“There is no doubt that with the increase in the number of Airbnbs in South Dakota, hotels are losing that business. Otherwise, they’d have stayed in a hotel,” Schmidt said. “They need to pay their fair share into the (business improvement district).”

Soehl said a formal proposal likely won’t come forward until spring.

Not only should the short term rentals pay a BID tax, they should also be registered with the city as short-term rentals AND be subject to at least ONE surprise inspection per year by the health department.

I have used VRBO in the past and there is a screening process, that is actually way more restrictive than using a hotel. I think there are many misconceptions about who uses VRBOs. Users are NOT renting a home in Sioux Falls to party like it’s 1999. If the city council tries to do this, there will be backlash.

SF City Council Sioux Falls Video lottery

Support the Video Lottery cap in Sioux Falls

l3wis 5Comments

As we know the city council will be voting on a 2nd reading Tuesday night to CAP the number of video lottery licenses in Sioux Falls (Item #23)

Background & Objective:  The proposal limits the number of video lottery placements for malt beverage and wine licensed establishments to 160. The authorized number of video lottery machine placements will increase every even numbered year based on population growth. When the additional lottery placements become available, the ordinance provides for a lottery.

Item #24 would cap malt beverage licenses for casino locations to three;

Background & Objective:  The proposed ordinance clarifies 111.021 by stating that there can be no more than three malt beverage/wine premises that share an opening for employees, refrigeration, etc., but is not accessible to the public.

As I have said in the past, I do support the cap, but it really should have happened 20 years ago. Siouxfalls.business and Sioux Falls city Councilor Merkouris touched on the dilemma;

For a while, I’ve watched new video lottery casinos open or expand and wondered about the market that is driving them. They wouldn’t be open unless people were supporting them and the business model penciled out, right?

So when Councilor Rich Merkouris told me he’d visited dozens of casinos in the past two months in putting potential ordinance changes together, I asked for his impressions.

“Every one is so different,” he said. “Sometimes, you go in, and there’s only one person sitting there. For an hour and a half.”

Many of the customers he talked with represent people living paycheck to paycheck, he said. And while, in the worst cases, an entire paycheck might be spent in a casino, in most instances these are people just wanting to unwind with the hope of a win.

That is the problem with video lottery, does the revenue from it cover the social ills that come with crime and addiction associated with gambling? I am not sure, because like TIFs, I don’t think the state has ever done a comprehensive study to determine what those costs are.

Jodi thinks people are gambling because of hope;

We all, at our core, hope tomorrow is going to be better than today or yesterday. How we define “better” might vary, but that’s the root of everything from a political movement to what prompts someone to play a game of chance.

People gamble because of addiction, not hope, but the real hope could come from beating your addiction.

As a local governing body, the Sioux Falls city council does have the authority and the justification to cap video lottery, I am not sure they have the votes. Mayor TenHaken did tell the The Dakota Scout that he would vote for the cap if it ends up being a tie.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

You Missed

Uncategorized

It was only a matter of time

Uncategorized

Internal audit has a busy schedule

Uncategorized

Every Single South Dakota Democrat shows up to the convention

Cartoon Miranda Bayse SF City Council Sioux Falls

Beyond Help