Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council has special meeting Thursday morning to bail out the city’s licensing agent . . . again

UPDATE: Apparently it was the fault of the applicant. Once I get more information I will post.

City of Sioux Falls Licensing Specialist Jamie Palmer (who mysteriously left the council as an assistant clerk to be promoted after Debra Owen’s termination) has been warned about this several times over the years;

The following alcoholic beverage item is requested for consideration on July 1, 2021.
The application was not received in time for consideration at a regularly-scheduled City
Council Meeting. The item meets the criteria set forth by State Law in which no notice is
required to be published and no hearing needs to be scheduled.

I even remember Erpenbach ripping her a new one about getting her ducks in row so they don’t have to approve these licenses last minute, or after the fact (this really happened). I wonder how many times the city council and mayor’s office are going to tolerate this incompetence before showing her the door? Oh that’s right, if you are a city director, your screwups are unlimited, unless of course your name is Chellee, Jason, Matt, Brad, Mike, TJ or the poor sap who flips people off while filling potholes.

I’m sure the likely excuse will be the city council hasn’t met for 3 weeks in a row for an official meeting, but the Levitt agenda has been out for well over a couple of months, Jamie knew this was coming.

Oh, and why hasn’t the council met in 3 weeks? Good question.

I’m sure we will see the same pointy fingers at Jamie asking her how she continually f’cks this stuff up and little else done about it.

Another symptom of cruise control government.

I still have to snicker a bit they are approving a liquor license, at a special meeting, at 10:30 in the morning on a Thursday. Well it’s NOON somewhere!

Sioux Falls already has laws on the books to combat panhandling

While the city is correct it is hard to manage panhandling due to the 1st Amendment, they can only solicit face to face and not impede traffic which can mean fines for the solicitor and the contributor;

32-27-1. Yielding right-of-way to pedestrian making proper crossing–Regulated intersections–Violation as petty offense – The driver of any vehicle upon a highway within a business or residence district shall yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the highway within any clearly marked crosswalk or any regular pedestrian crossing included in the prolongation of the lateral boundary lines of the adjacent sidewalk at the end of a block, except at intersections where the movement of traffic is being regulated by traffic officers or traffic direction devices. However, no pedestrian may suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle which is so close as to constitute an immediate hazard. A violation of this section by a driver is a petty offense.

32-27-3. Local ordinances regulating crossing at controlled intersections – Local authorities in their respective jurisdictions may by ordinance require that at intersections where traffic is controlled by traffic control signals or by police officers, pedestrians shall not cross a roadway against a red or stop signal, and between adjacent intersections so controlled shall not cross at any place except in a marked or unmarked crosswalk.


CITY OF SIOUX FALLS ORDINANCE –> CHAPTER 130.000
SOLICITING. Asking for money, objects of value, or soliciting the sale of goods or services with the intention that the money or object be transferred. The goods sold, or services rendered immediately at that time, and at that place.
Soliciting shall include using the spoken, written, or printed word, bodily gestures, signs or other means with the purpose of obtaining an immediate donation of money or other thing of value or soliciting the sale of goods or services.

PROHIBITED ACTS:
(1) No person shall solicit in an aggressive manner in any public place.
(2) No person shall solicit on private property without first having obtained the permission of the owner or other person lawfully in possession of the property.
(3)No person shall solicit an operator or other occupant of a motor vehicle while the vehicle is in motion or part of traffic on a street or highway. This prohibition shall not include the advertisement of the sale of goods or services to be accomplished when the vehicle is no longer on a public street or highway.
(4) No person shall solicit by stating that funds are needed to meet a specific need, when the solicitor does not intend to use the funds to meet that need or does not have that need.
130.999 Any person violating any provision of this chapter, for which no other penalty is provided, shall be subject to the penalty provisions of §10.999 (Up to $500 Dollar Fine)

131.001 – Disorderly Conduct:
A person commits disorderly conduct when he or she knowingly:
(a) Creates a disturbance of the public order by an act of violence or by an act likely to produce violence;
(b) Engages in, promotes, instigates, encourages, aids or abets fighting or any similar violent threatening or tumultuous behavior;
(c) Makes or causes any unreasonably loud noise;
(d) Addresses profane, obscene or abusive language or threats of violence to any person present so as to create a clear and present danger of violence;
(e) Refuses or fails to cease and desist any peaceful conduct or activity likely to produce a breach of peace where there is an imminent threat of violence and where the police have made all reasonable efforts to protect the otherwise peaceful conduct and activity and have requested that the conduct and activity be stopped and explained the request if there is time;
(f) Fails to obey a lawful order of dispersal by a person known by him or her to be a peace officer under circumstances where three or more persons are committing acts of disorderly conduct in the immediate vicinity which acts are likely to cause substantial harm or serious inconvenience, annoyance or alarm;
(g) Loiters, crowds or congregates on the public streets or sidewalks so as to unreasonably obstruct or interfere with pedestrian or vehicular traffic or use thereof or so as to create an unsafe condition for vehicular or pedestrian traffic or use of the street or sidewalk and who fails or refuses to disperse and move on when ordered to do so by a police officer;

As you can see, the city has plenty of ‘tools in the toolbox’ to combat illegal panhandling yet the only thing they (whoever they is) seem to be doing is putting up random traffic marquis for 24 hours and calling it good. Cruise control government, once again at its finest. I think we should give the panhandlers the addresses of all the city councilors and mayor and drive them to those neighborhoods to set up shop. I bet you could raise a lot of money on White Church Lane.

(MLZ contributed to this post with ordinance references)

Is there a connection between Smithfield & Wholestone Foods?

The short answer is I have no idea, and I really didn’t ponder it until someone told me the other day that many of the execs with Wholestone are former Smithfield management.

There is also the question of who really owns the CAFOs that produce the meat for these plants? Is it local farmers or are they simply contracted by the packers like Smithfield and Wholestone which have ownership in the farms? Maybe the producers are merely leasing from the packers?

I don’t know. But I do know that is how it works with poultry.

In my couple minutes of digging on the interwebs I could find little about Chinese investors in CAFOs and Smithfield’s possible investment in Wholestone. Maybe this is a backdoor plan to close the DTSF plant and transfer all operations to the new plant? 

Wondering if one of Sioux Falls’ super talented investigative journalists will dig into this and find a connection, or maybe NO connection. Oh, that’s right, we don’t have any of those in Sioux Falls but we do have a lot of hog sh!t.

Pot, Taxes, Conflicts, Tractors and other Tidbits

It seems Levitt has turned up the music, just a little bit. During the Mae Simpson concert last Saturday the decibel reading was 83, which is comparable to a lawnmower, motorcycle or truck. An outdoor rock concert is usually at 100 decibels. I’m sure the city is being very strict about the decibel level, but c’mon, can we at least get it up to 90? How about a compromise? Fun Haters.

The Radical Right Authoritarian Blog was at it again, attacking private citizens who are no longer elected officials. Plump and dumb posted former city councilor Stehly’s property tax bill as delinquent (late payment). Funny part is when I checked in the afternoon, she was up to snuff on her taxes. I’m sure this was a leak job by the new Right-Winger in the Treasurer’s office or one of her boot-lickers (this is public information). So why would Fried Fat Pitty want to bother with a private citizens taxes? Because they know that Theresa is the leading candidate for the At-Large position in 2022 that Erickson will be termed out from. I believe also that if Stehly runs, she will easily be back on the council, and they are scared shItless. Remember the rich and connected in Sioux Falls had to spend $125K to only beat Stehly by 99 votes. If she runs again, she will seal the deal. They might have to spend $300K this time around to beat her though. Better get out fundraising.

Our Town, but not for hard questions apparently. I attended the screening of Our Town the other night at the State. It was the first time I saw a movie there. The digital screen is wonderful, but the reclining leather seats, while comfortable (for a nap) not the most ideal seat (to stick to) while watching a movie. I think they  should have went with a more comfortable upholstered seat that is more upright (and they probably could have gotten more seats in there also) either way, this is what happens when you have rich donors tell you what to do. You can’t buy taste or common sense apparently. Either or, the movie was okay, even though there was very little about Sioux Falls since they mostly focused on immigrants who work at Smithfields and the tribe in Flandreau, which was great, because during the Q & A, it gave the film makers an opportunity to school Ten Haken about embracing diversity in the community. Either way, I was looking forward to asking a question about growth for growths sake that came up in the Bend, OR portion of the movie, but the mayor was calling out the questioners and the microphone hander outer was on the opposite side of the theatre, so I knew where this was going. Towards the end when they finally got to our side, a gentleman in front of me, who I believe worked for Billie Sutton’s governor’s campaign was set to ask the last question but before he could, the Mayor reminded us all it was the last question, and it would not be letting this guy ask it because someone else had been ‘winking’ at him longer. Paul can’t even resist censoring people at a Q & A session. He obviously hates transparency more than I thought, and Dems even more.

Who is the SD Supreme Court leaker? Many found it interesting that a State Legislator seemed to know when the SD Supreme Court was going to release a verdict. This is usually not the case unless a staffer has leaked that information. The SDSC did the right thing by rebuking the legislator. Some have also been wondering why it is taking so long. The gossip out of Pierre is that the court already wrote their opinion but are waiting for a review from another person (judge or lawyer) who is familiar with State legalization to make sure the language is proper. I guess the high court does this on occasion. At this point, I have NO idea how they will rule. But I hope they will rule in favor of the intent of the voters, but may still give the power of regulation and taxation to the State Legislature in which the SDSC would have to probably put a 1 year moratorium on the Amendment to work out those details. We will see.

An Englishman, an Italian and a Dutchman walked into a bar . . . This seems to be the opening line to the deal Raven inked with their new owners, Case – New Holland. Am I the only one a bit suspicious of a company headquartered in London, with Italian owners and incorporated in the Netherlands? It’s no secret why they bought Raven, but do you think they will keep the Raven location in Sioux Falls? I have no idea, but usually these international companies find a way to trim the fat, so to speak. I wouldn’t expect them to close the doors immediately, but I would expect some layoffs. This of course would be nothing new to a lot of Raven employees. Raven has had a habit of laying off people when sales are down and trying to get them back when things are good. We all might be pleasantly surprised, maybe CNH will expand the Sioux Falls location, hire more workers, pay better wages and unionize them . . . LOL. They do have unions at some of their other American plants.