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Sioux Falls

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

Charter Revision Commission Sioux Falls

I have a Surprise for the Charter Revision Commission

l3wis 0Comments

If you watch the meeting today, you will see once again, under Chair Smith, they are back to a script, and no surprise he was Re-Elected as Chair (it’s always good to have a qualified director).

He of course gave his diatribe about how it is their mission to kill anything the Sioux Falls city government authoritarians don’t approve of. He of course worded as though they won’t kill anything. He really should be writing movie scripts, such wasted talent.

I started today working on a revision to the charter that I will present to the group for consideration. While I still have to do some research when it comes to the language of the proposal, at this point I can guarantee it is legal and eligible to be on the 2022 municipal election ballot. I can also guarantee if it makes it there, it will pass by a wide majority.

I can’t wait to see how the Commission handles my request.

Mayor TenHaken Sioux Falls

UPDATE II: Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken gets involved when his ‘people’ are affected

l3wis 13Comments

UPDATE II: Well I stand corrected again. Apparently the mayor didn’t initially respond to the neighbors complaints, not until he got wind of the media reports he took action. So know it seems he is even ignoring his friends. I wish the media would pressure him on a whole host of things, making him accountable gets action.

It also comes down to the public works department authorizing these towers?

UPDATE: As I heard, VAST is going to bury the boxes;

While the company is within its rights to place the boxes within the utility easements of private properties once they receive their permits from the city, it’s the lack of communication that’s led to action by the city, with TenHaken calling it “unacceptable” and adding the city had ceased issuing the  business permits until representatives had a plan to fix it.

Vast’s statement said the immediate change would be that freestanding pedestals not located with other utilities would be replaced with units flush to the ground.

While I agree with them being buried, I’m wondering where the complaint department is with the city to bury the ugly 5G towers all over Downtown? Isn’t it astonishing when the mayor’s friends complain, quick action is taken. Which is wonderful, but what about us regular folks who don’t fund election campaigns? We certainly now know who he represents.

While I can understand that the people in this neighborhood are upset because Vast didn’t notify them properly I will point out two very important things on this topic. This was noticed with the city council and approved by them AND would you rather have a goofy little green tower in your yard or a big ugly 5G tower? I think we know the answer.

At first, Will Bushee assumed the green box in his front yard was temporary.

There’d been road construction near his home in southern Sioux Falls, but when a hole was bored into his front yard and filled with a green pedestal, he started to have concerns and contacted the city.

They told Bushee it wasn’t a city project, though. Vast Broadband, an internet service provider in Sioux Falls and Vermillion, is expanding their fiber optic network throughout the city.

And once Vast receives a private utility permit from the city, they’re allowed to place “telecommunication pedestals” within a utility easement on private property, which can include a home’s front yard.

Competition is a good thing? Right? For the longest time all you ever hear from people is how Midco needs competition and they are essentially running a fiber optic monopoly in town. But what peaked my interest in this story was not the project but a particular person complaining who has a direct/indirect line to the Mayor’s Office. Mr. Bushee is the VP of MarketBeat, a company ran by Matthew Paulson. Why is this important? Matthew Paulson assisted both Mayor TenHaken and City Councilor Alex Jensen in getting elected to office. You can connect the dots.

So it didn’t surprise me when the mayor put the brakes on this almost immediately, even though this was passed by the city council. I also find it a bit ironic he seems to be so concerned about transparency (in the private sector). I do agree they should notice people, but as the city engineer said, they went through the proper steps, they just supposedly failed on the last one.

But the other part that makes Paul’s immediate action glaring is his support of Verizon’s 5G network in Sioux Falls. By halting Vast’s project he could be showing deference to not only Midco but Verizon on a project that was approved by city council. Where were these people when those meetings were taking place?

I guess if you need something done in this town by our Mayor, it’s best if you helped him get elected, he’s there for yah.

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.

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