South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

SF City Council

Patrick Starr SF City Council SFFD Sioux Falls

Is the City of Sioux Falls leasing ambulances that we are not using?

l3wis 3Comments

If you watch the testimony last night at the Sioux Falls City Council Meeting (FF: 4:20) from a division fire chief about our leases with Paramedics Logistics you get some questions answered, and have even more when it concludes.

Apparently we do get reimbursed for rides we give with the leased ambulances. Paramedics Logistics bills the client, than we bill them. So how much has that reimbursement been? $0.

Why? Because according to this division chief we have never used the leased ambulances yet for transports. So why are we leasing them? Good question.

But I have also heard through the grapevine that SFFR are in fact transporting patients, but are using OUR ambulances that we already have.

So a few questions here, if the city doesn’t have an ambulance license how can we responsibly be transferring patients when it comes to liability issues using our ambulances instead of the ones we are leasing? Also, if we are using our ambulances, how are we billing for these rides? My guess is we are not, and if we are, how does that work? Who gets the money? General fund or SFFD?

There are still many holes in this lease agreement for two stationary ambulances.

I’m not sure if the division chief was either partially lying, partially telling the truth, or just leaving out huge swaths of what is really going on? Hopefully Councilor Starr who was questioning him last night will ask for the data.

CVB Donita Trump Noem Jason Ravnsborg Kristi Noem Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls Trump

UPDATE: Experience Sioux Falls ‘Covid Tourism’ still rolling

l3wis 8Comments

Looks like they are still promoting covid tourism in Sioux Falls using $250K of our taxdollars that were funneled thru the CVB to Mayor TenHaken’s former(?) ad agency, Click Rain. Not only is promoting tourism during a raging pandemic completely idiotic and stupid, you question the recipients of this contract.

So it seems councilor Erickson’s casual plea to the CVB to put the promotion on hold went no where, as I suspected.

Maybe people should ask Paul tomorrow night on his FB live feed if he is benefitting in anyway from this dubious transfer of money?

UPDATE: During Paul’s fireside chat tonight he talked about political division in our community and blamed Facebook and told people they should spend less time on Facebook. Ironically, he was telling us this while rolling a live video on Facebook. I know, the guy enjoys tripping over himself. I have often suggested that the mayor, any mayor of Sioux Falls, should have a weekly press conference, stream it on YouTube and take questions from the press, just talking about the weekly business of the city. 15 minutes of agenda, 15 minutes of questions (and give the media a microphone so we can hear their questions). I agree, stop playing FB games and take your job seriously.

In other news, I see that the South Dakota Fascist Republican Party’s chair, Iowa Dan will be replacing Noem as a presidential elector, it seems Noem is in Washington at some dumbass Trump rallies (someone should really tell these children he lost the election 5 weeks ago)

UPDATE: I guess this is untrue, not sure where she is? The rumor going around is that she is quarantining due to her exposure to Covid this past week. If Noem has Covid or is just simply playing it safe by quarantining I wonder if she will ever tell the public?

I wonder if they have to meet in Jason Ravnsborg’s basement on Monday to vote? Can a Iowa businessman even be a South Dakota Elector? Oh, nevermind, SD Republicans are not real big on rules, ethics, morality, truthfulness, open government or high IQ’s.

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, Dec 15, 2020

l3wis 3Comments

City Council Informational Meeting • 4 PM

• November 2020 Financial Statements by Shawn Pritchett, Director of Finance (No supporting documents yet)

City Council Regular Meeting • 6 PM

Item #6, Approval of Contracts (Seems the mayor’s office has been busy spending money in some mysterious ways);

Sub Item #5, Great Bear Chairlift Replacement, $1.379 Million. (While we are fussing about a $95K remodel of a historic house in Tuthill park we are paying this amount to replace a chair lift in the middle of a pandemic. Makes sense.)

Sub Item #10, Extending Lease Agreement for two ambulances with equipment for use by Fire/Rescue to provide for surge capacity ambulance service on a limited capacity for an additional term of 90 days ending 2/21/2021. Paramedics Logistics South Dakota, LLC dba PatientCare EMS. $1.00 per month, per vehicle. (I would really like to know the details of this agreement, like how many rides the SFFR is giving and if we are getting reimbursed?)

Sub Item #17, Centralized Facilities Improvements – Central Fire Station Kitchen Remodel; Ronning Enterprises, $220K (Wow, that’s quite the remodel job! Like I said, anytime the city does anything it always costs 3 to 4 times more than what you and I would pay.)

Sub Item #23, Human Resources, Customized education program designed to enhance participant’s ability to collaboratively lead change and foster a servant leadership attitude. University of South Dakota, on behalf of its Beacom School of Business, $40K (So now we are giving business training to city employees to have a ‘servant’ attitude. Weird sh*t.)

Sub Item #24, Human Resources, Professional Services including but not limited to Strategic Planning, Mentoring and Coaching, Intersections Consulting (more training, not sure what for????)

Sub Item #29, Belbas Theater Projection System Upgrade; $68K+ (I may be mistaken, but I thought this was just upgraded a few years ago?)

Sub Item #32, Engagement Agreement for Foundation Park TIF Provide legal services relating to Foundation Park TIF Project, Davenport, Evans, Hurwitz & Smith, L.L.P. $6k (So why are taxpayers paying for a TIF agreement? I have a feeling this TIF is going to cost us quite a bit . . .)

Item #18, 2nd Reading, Mask Mandate extension.

Item #23, 1st Reading, Re-Zone, (I guess the neighborhood is opposed to this because it was zoned office just a couple of years ago and when the developer couldn’t move it for that he changed his mind and wants to put up apartments. Here is a comment from a neighbor that was emailed to the council;

I am writing this letter with the concerns of the proposed rezoning of the corner of 22nd and S. MARY Beth Ave. I purchased my home a little over a year ago, 1604 S. Mary Beth, before I purchased the home the corner was zoned O and west of Mary Beth single family homes. With that taken in to consideration we made the purchase of our new home. I would have never bought this home with the understanding that there would be an apartment complex going on that parcel of ground. With apartments come more traffic and with the main entrance onto MaryBeth our once quite street will have traffic none stop. The value of our homes will decrease and crime will go up. These are proven facts. We will have a towering apartment complex with renters peering in our back yards, all for only the good of the City, MORE TAXES THAT the City will collect from the Developer. It is so unfortunate that the City does not realize this and NOT Approve the rezoning of this ground.

I always find these rezones interesting. I will just warn the neighborhood, you will probably lose this one, the developer in Sioux Falls usually wins 99.999% of the time (unless they are immigrant or a minority). Good Luck.

Item #24, 1st Reading. You can only get Papa John’s Pizza at the Aquatic Center, maybe that is why attendance is down?

Item #27, Resolution, City Council Legislative Priorities, looks like they are still pushing TIF’s;

The Sioux Falls City Council supports tax increment financing (TIF), an economic development tool that has led to millions of dollars in increased property value, benefitting both the state as a whole and the local entities sponsoring the districts, while at the same time maintaining the integrity of the process.

This statement is the biggest line of B.S. I have ever heard. It says nothing about good paying jobs or benefits to the community as a whole, that’s because TIFs are just a ruse. The last line made me laugh. What does that even mean? Integrity would be doing a study showing us the benefits of TIFs, there have been none. And when it is brought up, all you hear is cricketts.

Item #28, A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, OUTLINING THE EXPECTATIONS FOR THE PEOPLE OF SIOUX FALLS TO TAKE ACTION TO SLOW THE SPREAD OF THE VIRUS THAT CAUSES COVID-19. (ONE SIOUX FALLS COVID-19 ACTION PLAN.) – Wonder if they are going to tack this plan to all the telephone posts in town so people can read it?

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, Dec 8, 2020

l3wis 5Comments

Informational Meeting • 4 PM

• COVID-19 Update by Jill Franken, Director of Public Health (no supporting documents yet in SIRE).

• Engineering Design Standards Updates by Nick Borns, Aaron Fagerness, and Ryan Johnson, Principal Engineers (no supporting documents yet in SIRE).

Regular Meeting • 6 PM (This is the NEW meeting time because of the authoritarians on the council).

Item #7, Approval of Contracts

Sub Item #1, Leasing Police Vehicles. This one actually surprised me, I thought we bought vehicles and once they run their course we auction them. I am not opposed to it, but would be curious what vehicles these are. As I said with the administration building, it made little sense for taxpayers to spend millions in capital and maintenance when we could more economically rent office space, or better yet have many work from home.

Sub Item #8, Affordable Housing Solutions, Neighborhood Revitalization
Program Site Acquisition/Development Agreement. $165K. While I am all for creating more affordable housing, our approach in Sioux Falls is comparable to killing a gnat with a bazooka. I still think my idea of giving small apartment building owners and smaller home rentals and small individual homeowners mini-TIFs to fix up property goes a lot farther and has NO initial costs except collecting less property taxes for a small amount of time. I have suggested the TIF’s should be only 1-3 years at most. Of course this is NOT how we do things in Sioux Falls, we give to big time freeloaders and hope the urine trickles down to us little guys.

Sub Item #11, Training Werks, Agreement to Provide Coaching, Assessments, and Consulting to Employees and Officers of the City. I’m trying to figure out when the city stopped hiring ‘qualified’ people. Wait, don’t answer that question. We seem to be spending a lot of money to coach these folks. I also don’t know if I have much confidence in a place that can’t spell works correctly 🙂

Item #11, Deferred from the meeting of Tuesday, December 1, 2020; A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS AND AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE, COUNTY, AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES. (I’m not quite sure what will happen, but I guess the council has not been happy about how the Mayor put the budget forward before this contract was finalized).

Item #12, AN EMERGENCY ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, TO REQUIRE FACE COVERING IN AN INDOOR PUBLIC PLACE WHERE 6-FOOT SOCIAL DISTANCING CANNOT BE ACHIEVED. (this is an extension of the mask mandate, but still has no penalties for non-compliance).

Item #14, A RESOLUTION DECLARING CERTAIN REAL PROPERTY OF THE CITY SURPLUS AND AUTHORIZING THE DEMOLITION THEREOF. (This is the Tuthill house demolition proposal. I suspect many people will be coming to testify against this. If I had to make a guess on how the council will vote, I think they will have at least 5 votes to save the house, or at least give it a year to figure it out. I am hoping that the council takes to task the Parks Director, Don Kearney, for letting this property go to Hell).

Item #15, A RESOLUTION APPOINTING MEMBERS OF THE DISTRICTING COMMISSION.

It’s actually a pretty good crew (besides the hospital executive, but I guess he was the only one to apply in that district) I am not sure who all applied, but I do know some ‘rats’ didn’t make the final cut;

Name • Party Affiliation • District
Bob Thimjon • Democrat • Southwest
Joseph Kippley • Republican • Southeast
Mark Millage • Republican • Northwest
Barbara Brooks Johnson • Democrat • Northeast
Tom Hurlbert • Independent • Central

Item #16, A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING REPORTING STRUCTURES, PAY SCALES, AND EVALUATIONS FOR CITY COUNCIL-APPOINTED STAFF. (It is interesting while they list the pay scales, they don’t tell us what ‘step’ each of the employees are currently at. What you will notice is that the pay range right now varies between $63-108K a year plus benefits. Interesting with such good wages you would think they would be able to figure out how to run meetings, properly record them and provide documentation to the public. Maybe instead of a ‘step’ raise it’s time to give them a kick in the rear.)

SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

City of Sioux Falls should remodel Tuthill Event House

l3wis 8Comments

For the record I have not spoken to anyone that is for or against tearing down this house, and if the city council approves it being torn down, I guess I won’t lose too much sleep over it. I have never been to any events at the home. But my main concern is how did we get to this point? My short answer (guess) is that the Parks Director is completely and utterly incompetent, a consistent liar, and should have been fired a long, long, long time ago. I also think Mayor TenHaken has been robbing money from the parks budget to spend on other stuff. The Parks Director has had a habit over a very long period of time to neglect maintenance in certain parks so things he wants to see gone gets rundown and gives him a reason to tear it up. He is currently playing that game at Terrace Park.

As you listen to the testimony (FF: 9:00) at the last Parks Board meeting where they approved the demolition (Motion passed with board members Stavenger, Nachtigal, and Begeman voting YES, and Conlin and Weber voting NO) you will hear several stories from neighbors about the suspicious neglect of the structure even though it has been taking in revenue. Also notice that the Parks Board Chair put NO time limits on the testimony and even allowed CALL IN testimony. Bravo! When can we get this at the regular council meetings?

As for what it would cost to remodel the home, even if the bid was close to $250K being floated by the Parks Department, that is a spit in the bucket. Heck even the neighbors said they would raise money privately to remodel it if the city would grant a one year moratorium. In my opinion, they should not have to raise the money privately, the city should have kept up on the maintenance. Also, remember, we are losing millions each year on venues all across the city, like the EC, Sioux Falls Stadium, The Arena, and the Convention Center (Maintenance and Mortgage is well north of $25 million per year). The remodel costs pale in comparison.

The home is also historical, kind of. I am often on the fence about what should be considered ‘historical’ or not. I guess I wouldn’t be opposed to building a more functional event structure to replace it, but that is not in the Parks Department plans, so remodeling the home seems to make the most sense.

Let’s face it, it is just another example of the Parks Director scorched earth plan for certain parks and a weird obsession by the current mayor to start defunding our parks. He probably wants more people spending time in church instead of in our parks.

I am not sure how the city council will vote on it, but I have heard a couple of them are NOT happy about the lapse in maintenance.

WINTER WONDERLAND

Speaking of waste of money, I have been after the city for years about what this costs taxpayers each year. I have heard all kinds of various estimates from $50K to $100K a year (installation, tear down and electricity costs) but I don’t think the actual numbers have been released for well over a decade, I wouldn’t be surprised if the cost was closer to $500K a year, and to be honest with you, I don’t think the city could even produce the numbers.

Now I’m not some kind of Scrooge, I think we should keep the exhibit, it’s nice in a cheesy small city Crissmassy sort of way. But I have suggested for a long time we should have it sponsored by various businesses and non-profits and let volunteers decorate the park while the city foots the bill for electricity. I guess the way I look at it, if we call church volunteers to clean up after a natural disaster (and then get reimbursement from FEMA), why not use volunteers to put up holiday decorations? Heck, the city and parks department might even be able to make some money from it to go towards expanding it?

We suggest remodeling a historic home is a waste of taxpayer money but blow money on ‘decorations’ year after year when we could privately raise that money. This is just another example of how the parks department likes to change the narrative when they don’t want something.

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