South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Sioux Falls

Event Center Sioux Falls

UPDATE: So the Events Center Campus Book Club accomplished what?

l3wis 6Comments

After watching the press conference, I’m confused as to what was accomplished;

UPDATE: This is Bruce’s video which includes Q & A at end.

And according to the press release;

The next steps for the administration is to use the recommendations as the basis for developing a long-term master plan for the campus. Any major construction or changes to the campus will require budgetary approval by the City Council.

In other words the ‘administration’ will do whatever they want to, and put those numbers into next year’s budget for the rubberstamp council to approve. This project(s) will cost close to $50 million dollars, this is something voters should approve, not a handful of public officials. I also like the bait and switch of the administration when it comes to the ‘recommendations’. Basically they have used the book club as patsies to get the end result they wanted. I could have told you in a 20 minute meeting before the task force even met what needed to be done. What a waste of taxpayer resources and time. Heck, Teri Schmidt probably could have told them in a 5 minute phone conversation.

Homeless SF City Council Sioux Falls

City of Sioux Falls to have meeting about homeless issues at a Wine Bar

l3wis 6Comments

Oh, I had to do a double-take when I saw this;

Sioux Falls City Councilors and other City officials will meet with members of the Whitter neighborhood business community Wednesday.

The meeting is at 1 p.m. at the R Wine meeting room, 322 East 8th Street.

According to an email from planning and development services, the meeting has been officially noticed so Councilors can attend.

The Bishop Dudley Hospitality House and the Union Gospel Mission will discuss their programs’ policies and things that have worked and not worked for them over the years. The Sioux Falls Police will also discuss how they have been trying to address issues in the neighborhood.

Would you like a little cheese with your ‘whine’ business owner? When the city has a meeting, they should have it in a city owned building with FREE daytime parking. While I like Ricardo’s place, it is certainly not the appropriate venue for discussing this issue.

It makes me wonder if they are trying to get ‘certain’ people out of the discussion. I know that when councilor Stehly organized the first meeting, Grant Houwman (Million Dollar Condos/TIF Funding man-Washington Square) interjected himself and tried to cause a little chaos by inviting more councilors to create a quorum issue (I see they fixed that this time). He seems to have some butt hurt issues over Stehly. My philosophy is that you don’t always have to agree with a politician on every issue, but if you are both working towards the same result, it’s best to suck it up, and work together. This is what has often irritated me about the RS5, they just simply made a pact to vote against anything the RW3 wants to do, whether it is good or not. As I told a gentleman last night who follows the blog, “City government is one step forward and three steps back. It’s getting worse.”

SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, Sept 10-11

l3wis 4Comments

City Council Informational • 4 PM • Tuesday 10th

Presentations on the CVB BID Budget and Regular Budget Amendments. I’m not sure how many amendments there will be, but I do know about a couple of them.

Regular City Council Meeting • 7 PM • Tuesday 10th

Item #12, Deferred Resolution, Street Vacation. This will probably pass because the RS5 seem to be leaning that way. I think the only two that will vote against it is Starr and Stehly. What is weird is that the vacation isn’t really needed, and the State who are involved with it, doesn’t seem to care either way.

Item #16, 1st Reading, Supplemental Appropriations for the parks department for bike trail upgrades. No real explanation for this.

Item #17, 1st Reading, Property tax increase. The council hasn’t failed to pass this every year for well over a decade. I don’t think this year will be any different. Ironically, the city really doesn’t have to pass this, they can just leave the rate where it is. The excuses for raising the tax rate should be interesting . . . and TOTAL BS!

Items #18-21, Resolutions on the 2020 budget(s)

Charter Revision Commission • 3:30 PM • Wednesday 11th

The Commission trudges thru more articles of the charter.

UPDATE: The Presser on Tuesday at 10 AM is for the Events Center Campus Book Club recommendations.

Sioux Falls Washington Pavilion

UPDATE: Naturalization Ceremony at Pavilion

l3wis 2Comments

I was pretty excited to hear there was so many new US citizens being sworn in this time around they had to have a bigger venue, so they chose the Great Hall at the Pavilion which is an excellent venue for it.

But I heard an interesting rumor, the Pavilion charged rent for the ceremony. I’m assuming if that is true, the Feds paid the tab. While I understand they have to have staff work these events, if they are during the day, isn’t the staff there already anyway?

What I also found interesting is that the Pavilion gets ‘some’ Federal money, so they turn around and charge rent?! The Pavilion is also subsidized by local taxpayers and is a city owned building that receives millions each year in operational and maintenance funds.

So if the rumor is true, my question is, is the Pavilion so hard up for money they have to charge for such an event? Oh that’s right, this is the same entity that also charges admission into the VAC, even though they could get sponsors to cover those expenses.

UPDATE: There were several volunteers working the event, but I still have not heard if the Feds had to rent the place. Since the Pavilion has taken over the Orpheum, the city has to pay rent if they want to use it.

Alex Jensen SF City Council Sioux Falls Theresa Stehly

If I was Stehly, I wouldn’t spend one single penny

l3wis 34Comments

As I told Alex last night when I ran into him, I’m not sure if Theresa is running for a second term. But I what I did not tell him is, she is unbeatable, no matter how much money you spend. The only thing that could make Stehly vulnerable is if several people jump into that race (I do think there will be others). But in a head to head challenge between Alex, or anybody else, she can’t be beat. I am so confident of that, I would advice Stehly to raise NO money and spend NO money if she decided to run for re-election. It would be an amazing sticking point to prove money in local politics corrupts the system.

While I don’t agree with Theresa on many things (trust me, we have a lot of disagreements, and I also argue with her about her ‘style’ and ‘form’ sometimes) but the one thing that makes her extremely re-electable is that she listens to the people, and is their voice when NO one else on the council will speak for them, and for this, she will be impossible to beat if she runs.

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