Sioux Falls

Was Mayor TenHaken handed a turd sandwich?

l3wis May 13, 2019 9Comments

While there are many things the PTH administration needs to work on within their own philosophies of leadership, I think Paul was handed a lot of problems caused by the last mayor and rubber stamp city council. Unfortunately he seems to be eating the sandwich and liking it. Here is a list of things Paul is battling on those fronts;

ROADS. Let’s face it, while the weather hasn’t been the best for our pothole situation, some question what progress was done over the past 9 years? When Munson left office, our roads rated 7 out of 10, when the last guy left, the rating was identical. There was NO progress made (I’ve even argued that neighborhood streets in central SF have gotten much worse). I have contended that it’s not just a matter of money, it’s a matter of engineering the streets better.

THE BIRDCAGE. This facility has been losing money for well over a decade, and it really is just a money pit. It’s time we bulldoze the facility and find a better use for the property. I think another hotel with retail center surrounding it would be the best use. As for a new baseball stadium, I think the big wheels in town can fund that on their own or they can play at Harmadon Park.

THE EVENTS CENTER MONEY VACUUM/CAMPUS CASASM. As I mentioned above with SF stadium, we have issues with the area, it simply was built in the wrong location. It’s easy for visitors to pop off the interstate, go straight to the show, and leave right afterwards. The approximately $55 million in sales at the facility last year go straight out the door to promoters, artists and other vendors without recirculating in our community. This needs to be addressed.

DOWNTOWN PARKING RAMP. This project is the mother load of sh*t sandwiches. Paul had the chance to halt the project before ground was even broken, but moved forward anyway. Now we are faced with the unknown of a possible lawsuit, a new developer and RFP and Gawd knows what else. The administration should really be OPEN and TRANSPARENT about the process. I know they are acting like they don’t want to scare off the developer, but last I checked that may not be such a bad idea. If someone doesn’t have the money, that means they don’t have the money. It would be like feeling guilty for NOT giving a lazy panhandler money.

BUILDING COLLAPSE. The city really should have done their own investigation of this disaster. Furthermore, PTH doesn’t seem to concerned about it either. Not only should there have been an independent investigation by the State’s Attorney’s office, but there should have been a full audit of the building services department for ignoring repeated complaints about what was going on there. The illegal asbestos removable should have been the first red flag.

TRANSPARENCY. Speaking of the DT Parking Ramp fiasco, the last administration ran city hall like a cold war dictatorship. While Paul has been trying different things with getting more information out to the public, it’s very select, and the important things are still done behind closed doors, something we like to call ‘smoke and mirrors’. Sorry, Paul, we learned all the tricks from Bowlcut, they are NOT going to work this time around.

RAILROAD REDEVELOPMENT. This of course was the worst negotiated deal in the history of the city. Just the other day, after giving BNSF millions for land that Federal taxpayers essentially owned anyway in easements and reversion rights, the State has to take them to court over a $50K piece of land. Paul needs to cut the city’s losses on this banana shaped plot and sell it to the highest bidder ASAP.

ADMINISTRATION BUILDING. What did we say all along? We didn’t need the extra space. In fact, after building the new City Center we are finding out we have so much space that we are putting the IT department there and clearing out an entire city building for the Triage Center. Don’t get me wrong, the Triage Center is a worthy cause, but the taxpayers are really being taken to the cleaners on the city center and we still haven’t heard whether or not we are footing the bill for the defunct HVAC system.

MIDCO AQUATIC CENTER. Still not really at capacity, and worse yet, customer service reports from the facility are less then favorable. This will be another money pit for years to come. If I was PTH I would try to sell the facility to a private organization and wash our hands of it. Maybe the VA would be interested, they already own the land . . .

MASSIVE FLOODING. We know how the last guy thought about massive growth and development. If it was up to him he would have paved the entire city including all the public parks. Paul needs to slow this down, it is resulting in a lot of pavement and very little runoff and drainage. The action they are taking in the Rose/Lotta neighborhood is a good move, but more needs to be done by dedicating more of the 2nd Penny to drainage upgrades.

Like I said, Paul was really handed a plate of poo, but besides trying to re-polish it, he really isn’t tamping out the fires of closed government and corruption, but if you looked at his campaign donor list, you would know why. Follow the money folks.