South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

SF City Council

Mayor TenHaken Medical Mary Jane SF City Council Sioux Falls

Medical MJ Ordinances prove Authoritarians are running our city NOT Representatives

l3wis 14Comments

The reason we elect a city council and mayor is to have citizen representation when crafting or upholding our laws and ordinances within our city. They should not be injecting their own personal views on those laws they just need to follow them within reason.

The gross abuse of power the Mayor and the Council is showing with the Med MJ ordinance is appalling and shows the stark similarities between how this ordinance is being crafted and how the Events Center was passed.

MED MJ ORDINANCE LINK

The Event Center vote was an ‘Advisory Vote’ in other words it had no legal binding, it was just a suggestion to the city council. A little over 50% voted YES. If this would have been a LEGAL bond initiative vote it would have failed because that needs 60% to pass. Of course, a majority of the City Council ignored that fact and voted to pass the Event Center bonds WITHOUT a LEGAL bond election, and without a 60% majority on the advisory election. In other words, we were NOT properly represented by our councilors and mayor.

Fast forward to 2021, and the new mayor and council are back at their old tricks by injecting their personal feelings and opinions of a very small minority of people when crafting Med MJ ordinances. While the news has been reporting about the ridiculous FIVE dispensary rule (while we have hundreds of bars, liquor stores and telephone booth VL casinos) they have avoided talking about the 1,000 foot setback, the conditional use permitting process and most egregious of all the initial $100,000 1st year license fee and $50,000 a year after that (you have to buy a 2 year license for $100,000.) Remember, over 70% of South Dakota voters approved Med MJ and even a higher percentage in Minnehaha County and the City of Sioux Falls. They are totally ignoring the will of the voters and the majority and doing the bare minimum to restrict these dispensaries. I have also heard there was pressure from a certain bank and hospital in town, you can probably guess.

Sadly, according to the city website, these are running rates for alcohol licensing;

Retail On/Off Sale Malt Beverage (yearly renewal) $333.00
Retail On/Off Sale Wine (yearly renewal) $533.00
Package Liquor (yearly renewal) $533
Retail Liquor (Bar) One time License Fee $192,393 with a yearly renewal fee of $1,500

You could either argue that the licensing fees of alcohol (a narcotic, not a plant) is too low, or the licensing of Med MJ is too high, but they are grossly mismatched. And where did the $100K fee come from? It is obvious it was pulled from their behinds and isn’t based on any economic or financial data, it’s just vindictive. Also factor in that dispensaries would be selling a harmless plant discreetly for medicinal use and no product can be used on the premise. It’s no different than picking up vitamins at Wayne & Mary’s. The immense ignorance and dictatorship like actions taken by Mayor TenHaken and the City Council are extremely worrisome and concerning. This is why most of this ordinance was crafted in secrecy, they know it is unethical and wrong.

I also think this is a part of a statewide effort to punish voters and petitioners for passing their own laws. Just look how they gutted the minimum wage (for teenagers) transparency laws, Rec MJ and the list goes on and on. They hate the initiative process because it strips them of their authority and they seek to punish anyone who dares to participate in it. I joked that even if Med MJ passed with 99.9% of the vote, they would still move to limit it. Their greed and power sees no limits and they have no shame about it.

There is a silver lining though.

I’m guessing there will be immense pushback from the industry, and I am also guessing it’s going to be very public and very intense and will hopefully expose who is leading this city into a dictatorship. Get out the popcorn folks because it’s going to be quite a show watching the rats run for their holes but this time they may have no where to hide.

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Update II: Sioux Falls City Council & Mayor’s office gets ‘Gooey’ with Covid Aid

l3wis 12Comments

Update I: Census came out today, as of April 1, 2020 the population of SF was 192,517. So it is under the estimate of about 3,000.

Update: This probably has little to do with this post, but a city hall mole told me that the council is going to amend the Med MJ ordinance to only allow 5 dispensaries in Sioux Falls a a yearly licensing fee of $45k per year. Pretty silly we are not taking advantage of this economic impact? Flandreau has a million dollars in sales per month.

It’s like putting a double layer of chocolate frosting on brownies, it seems the Finance Director for the city got creative on how to mix Covid money with general fund money to come up with a package that has ‘a little bit’ to do with the pandemic’s affect;

It’s the result of months of work both from the city administration and the council in anticipation of excess funds that would be available because of pandemic-related federal dollars and greater-than-anticipated revenue that came into the city.

The biggest question I have wondered is why did we take the money to begin with? Seriously? I don’t mean to sound like my old friend Councilor Kermit Staggers, but unlike getting FEMA money to clean up tornadoes (with church volunteers) why does Sioux Falls or even South Dakota qualify? We didn’t close down during the pandemic, and we certainly are not using the money to encourage vaccination. It seems they cleverly mixed the money with general fund money so they could skirt the rules on how to spend it.

To be fair, there are things in here that we should get Federal dollars for anyway, but some of the stuff just seems like frosting. Let’s review;

$5 Millon Low-head dam reconstruction for Big Sioux = Good

$6 Million for Pavilion roof = Bad. Not only should we NOT be spending Covid money on this, we shouldn’t even be spending city money. This was a major screwup by the contractor who was supposed to replace the entire roof at the beginning of the project. The roof has been leaking since day one. They should have sued them 20 years ago. This is probably the most ridiculous expenditure in this package. Next they will use Covid money to fix bouncing balconies . . . wait.

$6.8 Million, Water Reclamation = Good

$1.25 million for a cul-de-sac at 7th Street by Arc of Dreams. I could see this coming miles away. I warned people that just because the sculpture itself was privately funded we would be paying as taxpayers to prop up the area. I still think the piece is cool but I also think it’s in a bad location. I also don’t think it drives any economic impact to tourism in Sioux Falls. If someone can find me the numbers that prove people came downtown and spent money just because of the Arc of Dreams, I would love to see them. Most visitors come downtown for entertainment and discover the Arc.

$9.5 Million for River Greenway by Sioux Steel = Bad. So after giving a $25 million dollar tax break to these folks for a parking ramp the public doesn’t need and a top secret land transfer that probably violated open meetings laws, we are also expected to pay for their landscaping along the Big Poo. There is only one word to explain this; Boondoggle!!!!

$800K for Skate Park=Good/Bad. While I am all for giving them the money, 1) it should be more & 2) it should come out of the Parks Budget instead of Covid money. Remember, this will be a public park on public land when it is completed, no reason why the city shouldn’t be footing the entire bill for this project which brings us to another stupid investment since we already have, MORE tennis courts.

$512K for MORE Tennis Courts=Bad. I continue to ask the question, how many damn Tennis Courts do we need in Sioux Falls?! I don’t think the tennis folks will be happy until every park has courts, then they will want the city to start building them in city parking lots. Is it really that popular? I also wonder what we got for our $500K investment in Mayor Bucktooth & Bowlcut’s indoor tennis arena? It would be nice to get an update from MMM someday how we are benefitting from that.

$300K for Mary Jo Wegner Park=Bad. While this is a public park and should be funded, this is another example of how the money should come from the parks money pot and NOT Covid money.

$800K for Dakota Aquarium and Butterfly House=Bad. Not sure if this is totally bad, but it is a private non-profit that can raise it’s own money and also not a wise expenditure of Covid money. You can always tell when the council knows it is highly questionable when they have to have Councilor Rick Kiley give one of his sugar coat speeches about how we need to do this.

$5.5 million Housing=Good. This is actually something most of the funds should be going towards with workforce development ($4 million). As laid out in Federal guidelines, these are things the money should be spent on. Not only would it help shore up some of the issues associated with these projects, it would have the greatest economic impact, unlike tennis courts and river greenways.

$500K, Public Safety Homeownership program=Bad. While I understand the premise behind this program, I’m not sure why it is needed in Sioux Falls. Starting pay for new officers and firefighters is actually pretty good, pile on benefits and I don’t see these folks buying homes in poorer neighborhoods and if they do, GREAT, but not sure they need MORE subsidies from taxpayers. Maybe an education program for officers willing to buy in these neighborhoods instead of a handout and if they need fixed up, an interest FREE community development loan.

$1.4 million Youth Programs=Good. This is a good use of Covid money where you can actually measure the impact of the funding.

$ 11.2 million public safety and health=Good. Ding! Ding! Ding! This is actually how most of this money should be spent with the housing and workforce development.

I still haven’t heard from the council or mayor’s office the real justification for how some of this money is being spent. But like most things in local government, if there is a pot of Federal money, they will find a way to spend it on crap we don’t need. But nothing beats us spending $27 million on dirty railroad land we probably already owned in Federal easements and not getting the trains to move out of town. The worst negotiation in the city’s history. But hey we gave another $25 million in tax breaks to build luxury condos on the land – so everyone wins â˜¹

Corona Virus County Commission Minnehaha County SF City Council Sioux Falls

Shell email circulating to local politicians

l3wis 10Comments

This same content email has been sent multiple times to different local officials over the past week, the only thing that changes is the greeting and the signature;

Dear M——,

As your constituent and your boss, I demand that you do everything in your power to ban Vaccine Mandates and Passports. This is an unconstitutional deprivation of liberty without due process and is a critical issue to me. It is unconscionable that Americans freedom of movement would be threatened in an attempt to coerce people to get vaccinated, even as Anthony Fauci is urging masks be worn by the vaccinated and unvaccinated. I’ll be watching how you vote.

Sincerely,

I can tell you from talking to one of the elected officials who got this, there was some frustration, but if you want to make a point, you should probably write your own email instead of copy and pasting from InfoWars.

As for vaccination mandates, by private employers, I don’t agree unless you work in a critical field like healthcare, education, public service, transportation and food processing. I also think it goes against worker rights, especially in a right to work state like South Dakota, ironically where an employer can fire you for any reason, vaccination requirement or not. Employers in SD have the right to have ANY requirement, uniforms, shoes, or shots. While I think anyone eligible should get the vaccination, and if you don’t you are freaking moron (you really are) I don’t think your employer should be telling you what to do when it comes to your health. Besides, if your employer has to tell you this, they really should consider what kind of people are working for them 🙁 Trust me, I understand some people can’t get get the vaccination. I have several friends who have been told by their doctors not to get it. Most of those cases have to do with Cancer and blood clots. But a vast majority of Americans are eligible. As of today 96% of American doctors are fully vaccinated. If you don’t like your employer telling you what to do, be smart and go get a shot and you can avoid all this crap, oh and you might live.

Mayor TenHaken Medical Mary Jane SF City Council

Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken’s Medical MJ ignorance

l3wis 10Comments

While I won’t give Greg Belfrage much credit for normally asking soft-ball questions to local politicians, he threw a real toddler lob at Paul this morning and we finally got to hear what he thinks of Med MJ. Greg’s question was pretty vague, he simply asked Paul to comment on zoning of dispensaries in Sioux Falls. I was thoroughly expecting a non-answer, but he suddenly became fired up, and his true colors showed, or should we say ignorance.

He says that Med MJ doesn’t belong in pharmacies because it is not medicine. Technically, he is correct, it is medicinal which means â€˜(of a substance or plant) having healing properties.’ Think Flintstone vitamin that makes you feel funny. He could have left it at that, but then he proceeds to say, ‘It’s NOT medicine because the FDA has not approved it.’ The FDA cannot approve a plant as a drug. Drugs can be patented because they are made of chemical compounds, in labs by chemists and scientists. You cannot patent a plant because it is made by nature.

His second funny, that he actually said first was the real kick in the pants. He said that Med MJ dispensaries are being pushed by ‘Special Interests’. Apparently in Paul’s dark little authoritarian mind 70% of the voters in SD and even a larger percent in Sioux Falls are considered ‘Special Interests’. Special interests are the developers and banksters who funded your campaign so you continue to hand out tax incentives to them. The people who approved this law, in which it states the only zoning restrictions are 1,000 feet from schools were a majority of the voters, a very LARGE majority. Authoritarians hate it when there is direct democracy and the state legislature has been trying to fiddle and f’ck with it for years. Until those rules change, that’s how things are done in South Dakota, and if Mayor TenHaken doesn’t like it, maybe he should resign and go back to being a special interest partisan hack like he was before he took office.


He also says he will be ‘bullish’ about controlling dispensaries in Sioux Falls because he doesn’t want to turn us into San Francisco. Really?! So you will choose to ignore a law that was passed by 70% of the voters because you have a misguided view about cities that have dispensaries? I have never seen so many closed minds surrounding this issue, even the legislature is so scared of the constituents finding out how they are gutting the law, they are meeting in private, which is highly unethical and questionably legal.


The ultimate irony of Mayor Stoneless’ comments today is that he is NOT part of the policy making body of city government per charter. Sure, he is in charge of planning staff, but the City Council and Planning Commission make the final decisions and write the policies when it comes to zoning. The only duty the Mayor has when it comes to policy is breaking ties. I’m still wondering when a councilor, any councilor will get up the courage to file charges against Paul for violating his charter duties. He is NOT supposed to be sponsoring policy legislation. Now he has every right under the 1st Amendment to give his opinion about policy to the council or on a radio interview, he just can’t be writing and sponsoring it. My point is he shouldn’t even be involved with the Med MJ zoning ordinances especially since he doesn’t know the difference between Viagra and a Joint.


As I have mentioned to the Mayor and City Council during public input. Your opinion about a law passed by the voters is NOT your concern, your job as elected officials is to uphold that law to it’s fullest extent.

And BTW, I’m still curious who these mysterious people are that you are trying to protect?

Public Utilities Public Works SF City Council Sioux Falls

City of Sioux Falls puts out Garbage Survey

l3wis 8Comments

I find this SURVEY to be a bit odd. We have had a rule in Sioux Falls that haulers must pick up your cans next to your home for years, during they Covid they got an emergency exception, which was fine, but now it needs to go back. The issue I have is that they are giving NO discounts to the customers for saving labor costs at curbside. I have argued we need a municipal garbage system that contracts about 4 private haulers that split the city into 4 sections so all the garbage on your block can be picked up the same day by the same hauler which would save us significant money, not to mention tipping costs. It would also allow the city to cap the fees so we all pay the same. It could also consolidate those charges on your water and sewer bill.

I encourage you to take the survey.

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