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Sioux Falls

Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls

Mayor TenHaken proposes new budgeting process

l3wis 0Comments

At first glance I like the direction of this new process, especially the first tier;

It’s a two-page summary of the request that is then scored by committees of city staff from all 11 departments based on five criteria:

  • Does it meet the goals of the city?
  • Is it innovative?
  • Is it sustainable?
  • Does it foster partnerships with other organizations and agencies?
  • Is it measurable?

After scoring about 50 of those “RFRs,” which Pritchett declined to share details about, the ones with the highest score are prioritized. That’s when the public engagement aspect of TenHaken’s budgeting process comes in.

This is really how department heads SHOULD be submitting their budgets through a scoring process. I also like the 5 questions, but where it gets wobbly is the 2nd tier where they say the ‘public’ would be involved;

“We want to engage people that may not have been engaged in the process in the past,” said Pritchett, who this month will bring the highest-scored proposals to a citizen group of Leadership Sioux Falls members to get even more feedback.

While having the public leadership group involved is also a great idea, I would apply it a little differently. As I have mentioned in the past, the City Council, the legislative body of the city should really be putting the budget together after the 1st tier is implemented and the leadership group weighs in. After that I think the COUNCIL not the MAYOR should introduce a preliminary budget that is presented to citizens in at least 2-3 public meetings/open houses where citizens can tell councilors what they like and don’t like. And during the process there should be an online participatory budgeting website that people can leave comments (an idea council candidate Weiland suggested). After that process is finished the council can present there final budget to the mayor and public.

Why shouldn’t the mayor be involved? First off, under charter, the council controls the purse strings, and secondly the mayor’s office is really just another department that can put in it’s requests like the other departments.

The city needs to get back to having our citizen representatives draw up a budget that reflects citizens instead of corporate welfare and play palaces.

SFPD Sioux Falls

It’s time the SFPD equips all officers with body cams

l3wis 22Comments

We have seen the video. If someone would not have privately recorded it, it would probably have been swept under the rug. I guess we can speculate all we want, but at first glance I have two questions? Why didn’t the officer use his stun gun instead and why did he kick him? Even a well drained dog can do the wrong thing, I guess I don’t blame the dog, but I’m wondering if kicking someone is protocol. I would think not. Mr. Ites is no angel, he has a rap sheet a mile long, force had to be used, but the officer had options.

This is why the police force needs to do two things ASAP;

• Equip all officers with body cams (this protects the officer and the public from being wrongfully accused)

• Have a REAL internal affairs department

Right now they just investigate ‘internally’. Well how do you think that will turn out? An independent review needs to be done to see if the officers followed procedure. The dog could have mutilated the man, bitten internal organs or even worse caused a serious infection (that could still happen). Unleashing the dog should have been last resort.

I’m also concerned that the officer had to actually pull the dog off of him. Is the dog properly trained to heel when told? It didn’t look like it.

I have many concerns about this and hope the truth comes out, but I’m not going to hold my breath at this point.

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda • May 7-8, 2019

l3wis 7Comments

City Council Informational • 4 PM • Tuesday May 7

We will get an update on the Levitt Shell, Future Growth areas and a Water Connection Fee ordinance. There is also an executive session, and if I was a guessing man it’s probably about the parking ramp.

City Council Regular Meeting • 7 PM • Tuesday May 8

Item #7, Approval of Contracts/Agreements

There is an item to renovate the baseball fields at Terrace Park. Wondering when they are going to reset the walkway stones?

There is an item for $50K for legal counsel pertaining to the parking ramp. The FIRM handling it has a division in construction;

We help drive real estate and construction projects forward using innovative strategies to ensure smooth completion and mitigate risk. Our deep bench includes lawyers who advocate when real estate and construction disputes arise,

Item #29, Beer license, new brewery at the Cascade

Item #50, 1st Reading, $1.875 million in surplus going towards 2019 road projects. Interesting, when Stehly suggested extra money for potholes she was told they had enough money budgeted. Now all of sudden roads are getting another big chunk of money.

Item #51, Resolution, Stehly is asking the housing summit doesn’t have a registration fee and be recorded by CityLink. With the current attitude of the council towards Stehly, this will likely fail, but it will be interesting to hear the excuses from the majority. I understand that there should be a fee for food, but that can be separate from the registration fee. The timing of the event is also troublesome. People who need affordable housing the most probably won’t be able to attend on a weekday.

Item #59, Resolution, Jeff Eckhoff will be appointed director of Planning. I believe Jeff will get full support of the council.

Mayor’s State of the City Address • 2 PM • Wednesday May 8 (at the Hub on SE Tech Campus – Correction)

Not only will this meeting NOT be a Carnegie Hall, it seems it will be live streamed on FB instead of on Citylink or via SIRE on the city website. Not sure how I feel about that. The mayor is probably doing the SOC at the Hub to talk about the proposed community college, which I think is a great idea if they can keep tuition and education debt low.

Denny Sanford Premier Center Event Center Sioux Falls

2018 Events Center Finance Report tells us very little

l3wis 10Comments

This is quite the spreadsheet for a multi-million dollar business (Full Doc: Denty-2018-Finances)

I have asked since the place has opened what their yearly sales are. If I had to guess, looking at the sales tax paid (3 pennies) it would be around $55 Million. Where does that money go? Straight out of town to artists, promoters and to Ovation’s coffers (they are the concession provider). We get back a whopping $3.7 million in which $2.1 million (the net operating income) goes into a revolving fund the city has in their bank account but that SMG controls.

Am I the only one that has noticed that the economy in Sioux Falls has been staggering ever since the Denty opened? Well, when you send $55 million straight out the door of our community each year, it has an effect and not a good one.

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