I don’t think they would like to see my selfie
l3wis 
Sioux Falls
A Sioux Falls Constitutional Lesson on the 1st Amendment
While I don’t recommend anyone tell the police to ‘F’ck Off’ while they are working on a traffic issue, it is perfectly legal to do so as long as the person isn’t interfering in their work. The person in the video below did say some ‘mean’ things, but he wasn’t interfering with the traffic investigation. He was also on a public sidewalk. In fact the PD were about to leave when they decided to attack him.
I keep telling the city a big 1st Amendment case is coming, if not several, and they are really screwed on this one. This is why they should all have body cameras, because these kind of arrests would start going away once officers start getting fired.
The first video is the incident (lots of cussing BTW) and the second video is the cameraman asking the PD what happened.
Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, August 13, 2019
City Council 2020 (2nd) Budget Hearing, 3 PM
Budget presentations on Health, Fire, Police, Parking, Planning, Housing, and Transit.
You can see a copy of the Mayor’s proposed budget summary HERE.
City Council Regular Meeting, 7 PM
Item #14, 1st Reading, Ordinance to reimburse the city $1 million from FEMA.
Item #26, Resolution, Stehly and Starr are asking if people can donate their parking fines to Project SOS. I’m opposed to this. While I think it is great if people want to give their money to Project SOS I don’t think it should come at the detriment of the city. While I think parking fines are too high already, their is a reason we have them, to fund our parking system. If anyone should be funding school supplies, it should be the School District. I have often thought that schools should supply kids with the bare necessities if they cannot afford them. But instead they are handing out 16% raises while we have to have bake sales to pay for school lunches and now parking fines for school supplies.
Item #27, Resolution, the city council is moving forward with their 2020 legislative priorities, including promoting TIFs even though they have never conducted a study proving they provide ANY economic impact.
Best Levitt picture
It was a great season, only 2 concerts got fully cancelled (?) and tonight’s concert ended after about 4 songs due to lightning and rain. One more tomorrow night to wrap it up with local rockers Kory & the Fireflies.
I took this picture last night of the accordion player from the High Kings.
And I saved all my drink tickets from the concerts. Ironically, the guy who complained about not being able to bring his own beer bought quite a few drinks.
Corruption, Incompetance and Blatant Ignorance
After hearing about the settlement yesterday in the Copper Lounge collapse, we got the verification we all knew was true, Legacy and Hultgren were attached at the hip. Duh.
So when you read the headline in this blog post, you probably think I am talking about Aaron Hultgren or Norm Drake, I am NOT. They are beyond help.
I’m talking about the city councilors/mayors who approved the Bunker Ramp deal to begin with.
It is very irritating and frustrating to listen to some of the members of the RS5 blow off the bunker ramp as just a ‘bad decision’ and that they are not perfect and sometimes make ‘mistakes’.
I would qualify NOT giving a movie theater a beer license as a ‘mistake’ or ‘bad decision’. Something that can be easily passed later, and even if it isn’t, it doesn’t harm anyone. The bunker ramp is a COLASSAL F’UP! Taxpayers are currently paying $1.5 million a year in bond payments for a parking ramp that is unoccupied and will be for a very long time. We may have to dip into the 2nd penny to help make these payments.
The evidence and writing was ON THE WALL! There was mountains of evidence that shouldn’t have passed, but out of pure arrogance a majority passed it anyway.
I am still awaiting at least an apology from those who voted for it, but I still think there needs to be greater consequences. They essentially committed FRAUD on the taxpayers by supporting a project they knew would never happen and the current and past mayor are also to blame. There is also a ton of past and present city employees who helped ramrod it through.
I would like to see a recall and termination of all involved that still work for the city. But there is something you can definitely do this Spring. You can make sure that councilors Selberg and Neitzert don’t get re-elected, and if they had any sense at all, they wouldn’t run for re-election (I do know that both of them already have STRONG challengers waiting in the wings). I would also suggest to re-elect councilors Starr and Stehly who opposed this from the beginning.
We all know that elected officials often make ‘mistakes’ and are not ‘perfect’. But when you have so much evidence showing you it would be a bad decision and you pass it anyway, you have to wonder what kind of corruption is going on behind the scenes. Maybe we get lucky and the Feds that are investigating the building collapse will investigate the city for attempting to go into business with Legacy. We can only hope!