Sioux Falls Mayor Race

My latest conspiracy

All the talk lately about who may run for mayor and the possible appointment of Erickson had me thinking. Even though Huether has been out of office for 8 years, there is plenty of ‘bad press’ surrounding his previous term that is still fresh. I guess what I am trying to say it will be hard for him to defend his reputation.

So what is my conspiracy theory? I don’t think he is running, BUT, I think he has been mentoring a candidate and will likely run their campaign. If this person wins (I have NO guesses, but I’m sure it’s some stuffed shirt banker) this would set up an opportunity for Huether to be chief of staff (which basically means he would be running the city like the current COS does).

I base my theory on NO evidence, but a gut feeling about how he operates.

I will admit though, if he does run again, I would rather listen to him talk every night on TV instead the Orange Menace.

Who is running for Mayor of Sioux Falls?

The guy who runs Dakota Wuss College thinks he knows who is running for mayor. He basically lifted my predictions that I have had since this summer. You are welcome. But Pitty brings up 3 new names that made me laugh so hard I just about passed out. While we know Erickson, Beck, and Huether will probably run, Pitty says that Councilors Jensen, Merkouris and Selberg are also considering. Pitty says they will have trouble raising money, but it’s NOT money they need to worry about, it is their reputations;

• While Alex was city councilor he gutted the internal audit department to one auditor that basically sends emails to an outside firm. This all came about because he couldn’t properly discipline a city council employee for poor attendance and she ran off to the finance department escaping punishment and got a raise from the mayor to boot. If this guy can’t manage ONE employee, he certainly can’t manage a city. If he announces I will probably piss my pants laughing.

• Oh Marshall. This guy ILLEGALLY lived out of his district for a year (verified by one of his friends) and lied on campaign finance forms. He doesn’t belong in the Mayor’s office, he belongs in a jail cell.

• Rich Merkouris has a pretty clean record, but if you dig, just a little, into his past, you will see he isn’t really respected in the clergy community because of past grifting of a church. It’s a long complicated story that happened several years ago, but the wounds are still fresh, and if you ask the right people, you will get the story.

While I think none of these people are dumb enough to run for mayor, they might. And trust me, I have years and years of proof and data on ALL of the candidates and none of it is good. I think Erickson will rise to the top quickly and will be in the runoff, but who is the darkhorse? Huether may run on the great Trump comeback. Which I find funny, he got the same number of votes in 2020 and 2016.

Greg Jamison told me this summer he would likely not run, and it’s not for the reasons you may think. Greg told me he just wants to spend more time with his family and grandkids, and who can blame him?

I told someone recently that I hope a well intentioned rich person runs for mayor with a good record of community engagement and charity and they will run away with the mayorship. Populism is where it is at these days and no one is interested in electing old (corrupt) hats.

I have a feeling our next mayor will be someone no one has heard of.

Bravo to the City Council and Cathy Brechtelbauer!

The Sioux Falls City Council will be holding a special meeting at 5 PM on Tuesday to approve FREE youth ridership on the city busses for the summer. I don’t suspect any city councilor to vote against this.

Great Job! This is what happens when the city council shows great legislative leadership in getting things done for our town. It also shows they recognize a need in our community and support sustainability in transportation. I will say today that I am truly proud of my city and leadership in these efforts and thank city personnel for their timely and diligent cooperation.

And a big hand to citizen and youth advocate Cathy for getting the ball rolling on this!

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So now our city clerk is the judge of what is ‘intentional’ or ‘unintentional’?

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The city clerk’s new decision making aid

Curious story in the AL today about campaign finance disclosures;

City Clerk Lorie Hogstad said there’s no penalty for errors in the disclosure form as long as they’re not intentional. Candidates can file updates that are placed online alongside the originals, Hogstad said by email.

So Lorie, please explain how you know if it is intentional or not? Did you use a magic 8-Ball? So you are telling me, let’s take the mayor for example, that a man who marketed a subprime credit card doesn’t understand disclosures? There are pages and pages of disclosures on those applications. He clearly understands them, and not listing his revenue was very INTENTIONAL.

Now let’s compare him to a candidate who did file their disclosures;

State law requires all candidates to disclose any enterprise that provided at least $2,000 in income or more than 10 percent of their family income during the past year.

On one end of that spectrum, Schwan included a three-page list of 57 different individual municipal bonds she owns. On the other end is Huether, who listed general categories of investments: “mutual funds, stocks, bonds, investment property, ethanol, municipal bonds, money markets, annuities, IRAs.” In each of those, Huether said he is a “common shareholder” with no “advisory, consulting or voting role.”

Schwan asked Hogstad for guidance and was told she should list each bond. Gathering all that took several days.

“I wanted to make sure I was in complete compliance with the statement of financial interest,” Schwan said.

I know for a fact that Schwan’s question about what to disclose was probably brought before the city attorney. So why wasn’t this same advice granted to Huether, the city attorney’s boss? And if it was, why did it differ from what Schwan was told. Apparently if you ‘Play Stupid’ you don’t have to comply with the rules. Ignorance of the law is not excuse, and I am sure any judge in this county would agree with me.

I will give Schwan props for following the rules and for having the common sense to know ignorance, or pretend ignorance is no excuse. The mayor, not so much.

Remembering Janoct, RIP ‘King of the Hobos’

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Hanging with Janoct at Jazzfest, he never missed one.

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Campaign Material

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Photo of Janoct I took at Black Sheep Coffee

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Painting I did of Janoct that hangs in his mother’s house

Not sure what to say after hearing about Janoct’s death today. The man lived a full life, and did some pretty crazy-wonderful things. Always a fixture in Sioux Falls. I first met Janoct outside of JAMZ in about 1994(?) playing his blues harp and I haven’t been able to shake him since, even after we got into fight last year about ‘city shit’ he actually made up with me, proving he was the better man. He even gave me ‘the shirt off his back’ once, when I told him I liked a blues t-shirt he was wearing.

We have had our differences, but I have always enjoyed talking to him (or should I say ‘listening’ to him). You will be missed.