I’ve been researching the changes in Sioux Falls government since the 1970’s. Looking at the root causes for the disfunction we continue to have in Sioux Falls. Alan Ehrenhalt wrote a series of articles for Governing magazine and then books based on the Sioux Falls mess. Here is a 1991 Baltimore Sun newspaper review of his book, The United States of Ambition. See how much has changed or hasn’t.Â
But since the 1974 upset, stability has vanished. Old city commissioners have been ousted, their replacements tainted with scandal. Political power, once tightly held, has been ricocheting back and forth between organized labor, the local branch of the National Women’s Political Caucus and a conservative anti-tax league.
For the price of a subway ride, a wheelchair accessible van would pick me up at my apartment and drop me at my destination anywhere within the city’s five boroughs. So far so good. But then she explained the fine print. I would have to schedule my ride one to two days in advance. My pick-up time could be an hour earlier or an hour later than requested. The driver would have a 30-minute window in which to pick me up before he would be considered late. I, on the other hand, had to be outside to meet my van within five minutes of its arrival or I would be counted as a no-show.
I attended the first meeting today of the task force that was appointed by Mayor TenHaken. For full disclosure, I did’t stay for the whole meeting (I left before the presentations of different arts orgs). It likely was NOT recorded and held at the City Center.
I was there for the initial discussion though. The chair and co-chair (Janet Brown & Tom Dempster) did do a fabulous job of presenting the task of the task force, though I don’t entirely agree, you can tell they have a lot of experience with these kind of things. Janet used to run the SD Arts Council and Tom was instrumental in bringing Levitt to Sioux Falls. They have both earned their chops, and I do respect both of them.
There seemed to be this push for the city to hire a full-time arts facilitator (paid) and and an arts commission (likely volunteer). The city currently has a Visual Arts Commission Board (since 2000) but they deal mainly with visual arts projects with the city. This facilitator and commission would deal with ALL the arts and it’s impact on the city.
While I am certainly NOT opposed to some of the things suggested, it just seemed to me as a top down approach by the movers and shakers of the city. I do however agree with one premise, arts brings in economic impact and tourism revenue to the city and it’s businesses. In a national study done in 2015, it showed that the city (region) brought in $84 Million in economic impact from the arts. This is a very good thing. What always seems to be left out is the ‘artists’. It seems like sometimes that is the ‘after thought’. I’m a bottom up kind of guy and have never been sold on ‘trickle down’ philosophies, especially when it comes to art. A bunch of mucky-mucks telling artists what to do goes against the whole mentality of what it means to be an artist.
I co-founded MAC (Midwest Artist Collective) several years ago which has also disbanded, and it was quite an experience. It was a club that was entirely made up of artists, and we had some interesting meetings and engagements, we also had several collaborative exhibits. I joked once that it was like herding cats, and I learned a lot about what it means to be an artist, and engagement with other artists.
I have often said that this could all be simplified by just funding local artists to create, perform and execute local art projects, they will create if they are being compensated, and ‘dictating’ to them what to do only harms the creative process. Once ‘free funding’ occurs, you will see a striving art community, and when you have that, you will see economic impact – big time.
Artists are not like line workers at a packing plant, they don’t like to follow instructions or rules. Give them a broad scope to work with, and let them create the artistic community. Everything else will fall in place.
I’m afraid the only thing that will come of this is another recommendation to put together more commissions and facilitators while ignoring the gorilla in the room – funding the arts – which means funding local artists, artisans, contractors, designers, performers, musicians, etc. The mucky mucks should concentrate on raising the money, and the artists will concentrate on creating the art, and tourism will follow. It really is that simple.
SIDE NOTES FROM the MEETING
Mayor Selfie noticed me as he came in late, and the co-chair, Tom Dempster asked everyone to stand for him (trust me, I wasn’t the only one hesitant, and it seemed kind of bizarre – I almost screamed out ‘God Save the Queen’!) As everyone was standing (including myself) the mayor decided to call me out, and said ‘That means you to Scott.’ I think I was hiding my one finger salute in my pocket 🙂
Also, on the agenda, there was NO public input listed (they may have done it after I left, but it was NOT on the agenda) I told a city official before I left that it needs to be on the agenda for the next meeting. It is state law now that all public meetings of public boards and commissions have public input at some point in the meeting, and it has been pointed out to me by several people that this administration has been skirting this law at board meetings at the city center, and have been warned about it.
Below is a chart of the money we have spent on public art facilities form the entertainment tax fund (3rd penny). This of course does NOT include the bond payments which comes out of our road funds (2nd penny) which WAS clarified in the meeting.
Overall I am hopeful things will become more organized, but I think at the end it will be more of the same, crumbs to the artists and T-Bones for the facilitators. I read a FB post the other day from a local artist that summed it up nicely, ‘To create art means to be crazy alone forever’. How true it is. How true it is. Artists are not followers, they are doers. Let them ‘DO’ good things, and you will be pleasantly surprised.
A friend asked their banker recently an interesting question (the bank is a national chain that has several branches in SF). They brought up Alex Jensen running for city council and being a business banker for First Premier and asked if their bank would allow this? He said, ‘Absolutely NOT’. He saw it as a major conflict of interest especially if the bank was seeking to do business with the city. Currently First Premier has an exclusive contract with the city of Sioux Falls. They used to spread the city’s accounts around to several banks in town, but the last mayor ended that.
Finance Director Pritchett has suggested though that a new RFP should be probably put out. Yah think?
In a very strange exchange tonight at the city council meeting, Mayor Selfie made an astonishing admission. During the public input for the proposed campaign finance ordinance, David Zokaites mentions at the end of his testimony that Paul said last week from the dais that he was running for re-election, so David said ‘He’s got competition – me!’.
Paul got irritated and told David, ‘I would remind you David Z based on that you are not to use the dais per executive order to promote your candidacy, so this will be the last time you will be able to mention that, from the podium.’
David quickly snipes back, ‘That goes for both of us.’ and PTH says, ‘I don’t speak from THAT podium. That’s just a reminder of that executive order and thank you for adhering to those rules of this chamber.’
Wow! What arrogance! First off, people have been making those kind of pronouncements from that podium for years. Why? Because they can. I actually think it is hilarious that Paul thinks he can write an executive order (and not tell anyone about it until tonight) that is unconstitutional. No mayor in any city in this country can override the 1st Amendment and the US Constitution. It only proves how thick and petty Paul is. The rules for announcements applies to city officials from the dais because they are using their government position (and ultimately our money) to promote themselves. Any candidate that is currently not serving on the city council can say anything about their candidacy from the public input podium. Also, the city council controls their chamber, NOT the mayor. He cannot write an executive order about how the council runs their meetings, that is a violation of the charter, even though I’m more worried about the constitutional violation.
Never thought I would see a mayor in Sioux Falls admit to violating the US Constitution and City Charter at a public meeting. Ellis is right, it’s amateur hour at city hall.
l3wis 
