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SF City Council

1st Amendment Elections Open Government Open Meetings Rich Merkouris SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Candidate Merkouris will not protect your right to Public Input

l3wis 6Comments

The Sioux Falls Election is bringing out the best of the worst, including this endorsement of taking away citizen rights by City Council candidate and preacher Rich Merkouris was expressing in 2018. 36 Citizens who gave impassioned Public Input on June 12th, 2018 were wrong? They are according to Marshall Selberg and Rick Kiley. The Mayor and 4 Councilors are saying “Stay away from our meetings, quit interfering!” We’d like to say, “Good Bye!” The Mayor is being encouraged to shove our civil rights up our backsides by the TenHaken best friend, Rich Merkouris. The City Council candidate Merkouris who doesn’t want audits of the millions of dollars he has received from the city coffers? Yup.

David Barranco Elections SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: What do we know about David Barranco?

l3wis 1Comments

Sioux Falls City Council Candidate David Barranco has said very little about his past during the campaign, which I find bizarre considering he has only lived here a short period of time. Since then (mostly Republicans) have been reaching out to me and their regret in supporting this person initially. There has even been a sitting city councilor questioning their past support. I have encouraged them to reach out to Cody Ingle, get to know him and even better, cut him a donation check.

While I have heard a myriad of rumors, it’s been hard tracking down or verifying some of the accusations. What is mostly surprising from this Texas attorney and textbook author is the several gaps in his professional life that seem to have just disappeared from the internets.

This is what we know so far;

• Moved with his family in the Spring of 2018 to Sioux Falls from San Antonio, TX after selling his home there. Barranco has never given a reason why he decided to leave Texas because . . .

• Has never applied for or attained a SD Bar License and still maintains his practice in the state of Texas where he has his law license.

UPDATE: Someone mentioned to me today that maybe the reason he hasn’t applied for a SD Bar License is because he doesn’t want to submit himself to a background check. This doesn’t mean looking into his personal criminal history or finances but the cases he has handled and his record as an attorney.

• It was discovered in September of 2021 he was past due on his first installment of property taxes.

• He has had two campaign events where he has given away entertainment to kids of supporters.

What I would really love to hear from Mr. Barranco is why did he move to South Dakota if he really has NO intent to practice law here? His wife, as far as I can tell, isn’t pursuing a career here either though she has experience in the corporate world.

While I certainly could care less that David has only lived here 4 years and is interjecting partisan politics in a city race, I will defend his right to run for office, but it would be really nice to know what brought him here and why the sudden interest in local politics and legislating when you don’t make a single dime in this town?

Many have been asking the question. When will our media?

Elections Ethics Janet Brekke SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Councilor Brekke on Ethics & Open Meetings

l3wis 1Comments

Janet Brekke set a new standard for Sioux Falls City Council thought provoking discussion on June 19, 2018. During the discussion of the fake Public Input control ordinance Brekke had to remind the proponents and everyone else what goes into proper process.

We must remember, there is nothing lost if everything is in the open following proper process. The Selberg / Kiley fake Public Input ordinance controversy never had to happen. It was a brain dead proposal to shut off voices they did not want to hear, interfering in proposals they appeared to want hidden from us, the owners and customers of our city government.

To help everyone understand, the city of Sioux Falls is technically a public corporation run through by-laws (A.K.A. Home Rule Charter). The Home Rule Charter gives the administrators certain responsibilities and are answerable to us, the stockholders. We citizens are the stockholders of the corporation, not the special interests who pay money to have more influence or pay platting fees.

The last few years we have been teaching the public how and when they should redress their issues and concerns. This fake issue was shot down by the people, those who showed up and those who couldn’t. It appeared for the time being, the elected board of directors heard the message.

Elections SF City Council Sioux Falls

City of Sioux Falls Election may be lowest voter turnout in years

l3wis 3Comments

Besides the obvious signs, like very few absentee ballots coming in and early voting, there are some factors that may make this election a dud when it comes to people voting.

Just look at what the school district did, saying very little except on their website that there were 2 seats up for the school board and NO one challenged the incumbents.

The same could be said about the city’s role;

• Very little notice about voting registration or a sample ballot being provided only a couple of days before registration deadline and early voting started.

• A popular incumbent mayor who most people think will win with or without their vote (the mayor’s race is usually the driving force for people to vote).

• Several candidates with little name recognition. Most people have trouble naming our current council let alone new people running for the office.

• While the media has done several interviews with candidates, they have done barely any stories why it is important to vote in a local election.

• Luckily we have tons of great candidates running and remember Vote NO on both charter amendments and YES to Brekke, Pam Cole, Reistroffer and Ingle for council.

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