Tree Branches. We’re On It.
l3wis 
Sioux Falls
Sioux Falls City Council Meetings • Nov 18, 2019
Sioux Falls City Council ‘AT-Large’ race should be at least a ‘Threesome’
There seems to be a lot of people concerned that Theresa Stehly is running for re-election for the At-Large position with the Sioux Falls city council. Even last night at Alex Jensen’s kickoff party he brought her up without bringing her up. As I have said in the past, I’m not sure if Stehly is going to run. The last conversation we had about it she responded, “I’m not sure.†and said something about needing to clean her house.
I have been telling people it doesn’t matter if Theresa runs for re-election, we need to have a lot of people running for the seat since it is At-Large. I mean, just think about it. If Theresa doesn’t run, our only choice would be Alex who basically vowed in his speech last night to do whatever the administration wants him to do and developers and business people, which is code for ‘rubber stamper’. I would like to see 4-6 people run for the seat including Alex and Theresa. There will ultimately be a run-off anyway if there is three or more.
I would also like to see more people run against Neitzert in the NW District. He has been a total disaster, not only supporting projects and initiatives that have been detrimental to our city, but going back on his promise of good government and transparency. And his unapologetic support of the Bunker Ramp and new Internal Auditor is truly despicable.
I often tell people when municipal elections roll around to get involved, and to either run as a candidate or help a candidate. We can’t continue down this rubber stamping road.
Sioux Falls City Council financial update reveals some interesting tidbits
I guess I missed the first part of the informational meeting where financial director Mr. Pritchett revealed some interesting things going on. I appreciate Shawn’s honesty.
The first thing he reveals is that Sioux Empire Community Theatre owes SMG or Global, or whatever they are calling themselves these days $74K for past rentals of the Orpheum and that they have an agreement to pay $1,000 a month until it is paid up. What a deal! The Pavilion, which runs the Orpheum now requires the SECT to pay rent for events now with 50% up front.
Then there is the Event Center that actually pulled in less revenue last year, but get this, made a bigger profit (according to Global). I guess when you don’t have to pay anybody (part-timers) to work events (because very few are going on) you make more money. Go figure. I wonder if we mothballed the place we could make even more money!
We also found out why we had to ‘repair’ the HVAC system at the Denty, because it has severely malfunctioned causing leaks in the roof and damage to the ceiling. So now we have the siding and the HVAC system, makes you wonder what other things we cut corners on. A former Denty employee told me once “Don’t lean too hard on the interior walls, you may fall thru.”
Speaking of leaky stuff, the Pavilion is requesting around $6 million to fix the roof and railing on the roof. Where are they getting their bids? Certainly not from Mitchell Roofing 🙂
We also got to hear about the deteriorating Sioux Falls Stadium and what we are going to do with that money pit, but that discussion really didn’t go anywhere – as usual.
Yet we need to charge non-profits who actually bring successful events into Sioux Falls that drive the economy $70 an hour, per officer, for police protection. Go figure. As one of my former co-workers used to say about our boss/owner of the company we worked for, “He’s concerned about pennies as dollars are flying out the window.”
Sioux Falls City Councilors question the fees for police service
I first want to make a correction. According to council staff the police department is the department that is pushing for this and NOT Councilor Kiley (though I have heard differently). That aside, several councilors questioned charging non-profits for this due to economic impact at today’s informational meeting. Councilors Erickson and Starr were the most vocal. Starr went on to ask Deputy Chief of Staff, TJ Nelson if the city would be giving rebates to the non-profits putting on these events because of the massive economic impact.
Erickson talked about youth sporting events.
There was some discussion about maybe separating non-profit from for-profit events (which makes sense). They all agreed that more discussion needs to happen before they move forward.
I remembered when we were told about the economic impact of the veteran’s cemetery and why it was a good idea to gift the land.
While I think it is appropriate to charge for for-profit events, I’m not sure it is wise to charge non-profit events. As Starr also pointed out, if we need more money for staff and overtime for the officers, they should budget for it instead of tying it into this. I think he said something like the police union got ‘HOSED’ by the city last year in contract negotiations.
Another funny moment was when Erickson asked about how you determine something is a political rally/protest which is considered a 1st Amendment event and the city could not charge for police security. She jokingly said (and she did apologize for the comparison) that what if the Zombie Walk parade said it was actually a political event to bring awareness to pro-life issues 🙂