Sioux Falls City Councilor Starr rips Planning Staff

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Besides an absent mayor and supplemental appropriations coming out of our ears at the city council meeting tonight, the council asked planning staff why they are continuing to tell applicants not to show up until 2nd reading.

We have suspected for awhile they were doing this and the council has nicely asked them to stop doing it, privately, that all changed tonight.

A planning staffer, Fletcher, that is a little green while addressing councilors, admitted tonight that he told the applicants to not bother showing up to the meeting until 2nd reading when the county commission will also be attendance (has to do with joint jurisdiction).

That was a mistake. Some councilors were very perturbed about it. Fletcher’s boss(?) Sam from Planning tried to deflect what Fletcher admitted claiming that since the county commission was not there, there was no point for the applicants to attend.

Wrong person to defend the position. Sam has dropped the ball so many times when it comes to open meetings and posting agendas incorrectly he is the last person to talk about open public meetings and when it is proper to attend them.

Councilor Starr wasn’t having it, telling the mayor and planning staff that they are on notice and they better not get caught doing it again (even though they will probably do it again tomorrow with zero consequences).

I often tell people, show up to the 1st reading, you get 3 minutes to dissent and you never know, you may bring up something the council will consider between the 1st and 2nd readings that will benefit your position.

It is pretty obvious planning staff is dong this ON PURPOSE! The city is ran by an authoritarian regime that must squash all dissent and I have no doubt this directive came from the corner office, or whatever playground he is doing jumping jacks on that day.

Is the New ‘No Labels’ party going to be involved with the City of Sioux Falls 2024 council election?

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I heard a rumor recently that a west coast organization was sniffing around in Sioux Falls looking for an opportunity to run ‘progressive independent candidates’. My source wouldn’t tell me the name of the organization, but passed my contact info along.

My assumption is that it is NO LABELS and they seem to have a vested interest in getting involved in local races like school board, county commission and city council.

As I understand it they are willing to assist campaigns, especially ones that are bi-partisan in nature, like a city council race.

I have been telling people I would like to see at least 3 solid candidates for each of the 4 city council races this next Spring, and it may happen.

Someone has already told me they are running for Neitzert’s NW district seat (he is term limited) and another person told me they are interested in running for a different district seat.

There has also been some recruitment efforts by Rick Knobe’s group, the Change Agents, the Patriot Ripple Effect (ultra right wing) and the South Dakota Democratic party.

I have been telling people who are actively recruiting or considering a run that Mayor MisTaken will have his 4 recruited, well groomed, christian, white lackeys in which he will endorse and feed shady PAC money to, and why wouldn’t he? It worked in the last election.

I can tell you that many who watch the council races closely have studied the shellacking the NON-PAUL candidates got in the last election, and they are not going to let it happen again.

Are Rents in Sioux Falls Affordable?

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Recently Sioux Falls Business did this article about apartment availability.

If you go to my zip code, the average 1-bedroom apartment is $970 a month. You would have to make at least $38,000 a year or around $18 an hour to afford this (30% of income).

I heard a rumor recently that 70% of job listings in Sioux Falls pay $15 or less.

It seems in Sioux Falls we have affordability issues with all kinds of things like groceries, housing, and childcare. Maybe Sioux Falls doesn’t have an affordability issue, maybe it has a wage issue?

But don’t bother our local leadership with that issue, because they will tell us that wages should be determined by the FREE market, you know, the FREE market in South Dakota that allows business owning legislators to take government handouts, or that same FREE market that creates special tax districts so developers can buy skywalks and public art, or the millions and millions we give away for parking ramps that will be obsolete within 10-20 years.

While our local governments are quick to throw money at the top and hope it trickles down to the rest of us, they really need to put their foot where the sun doesn’t shine and get businesses to pay living wages, then things like buying a home or even a loaf of bread are a lot less challenging in our community.

The city council has the power and authority to pass policies that would help wage earners in our community, for example, an ordinance that requires all businesses advertising for employment within city limits list their starting wage, or raising the city’s minimum wage to $15 per hour or more.

When we talk about the affordability of our city, it really comes down to what our employers are willing to pay and little else because all this talk about affordability is just a smoke screen to what our real problem is, CRAPPY WAGES!

Is Sioux Falls’ Boomtown Mentality creating our housing crisis?

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This interview about how Austin, TX’s massive growth caused a housing affordability crisis is an interesting comparison to what is happening in Sioux Falls right now;

People flock to booming cities for good reasons: jobs, educational opportunities, cultural and recreational activities. But traffic can be a nightmare and housing costs are off the charts.

“Very few, if any, growing cities have given real thought to what they want to be when they grow up,” said Mallach. “They’ve been conditioned to think that growth is good, not growing is bad, so what passes for planning is usually about how to accommodate growth.”

The population of Austin, Texas, has grown more than 33 percent since 2010. The median cost of a house in Austin jumped from less than $200,000 in 2010 to more than $500,000 in 2022.

City of Sioux Falls claims they have nothing to do with the Link

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The Darkness at City Hall was taken to a whole new level this week when the city said this about denying Forum News a copy of the contract with the Link;

The City of Sioux Falls has denied a request to make public the contract to operate The Link, the publicly funded triage center for people in crisis from addiction or mental illness.

Sioux Falls Live requested the contract from the city on July 17. The city denied that request on Monday, July 31.

The reason given for the denial is that the contract is not technically with the city, but rather with the non-profit created to run The Link, according to Paul M. Bengford, senior assistant city attorney.

“The City of Sioux Falls is not a party to the Agreement you are seeking,” Bengford wrote in a statement denying the request.

WOW!

‘Yeah, you know, that building the city owns and leases for FREE to the Link and helps subsidize with city and county taxpayer money, yeah, we really don’t know much about that.’

The Link was setup BY the city and county, it is occupied in a city owned building. If anyone would have the contract and know what is in it, it would be the city.

Oh, and to state the obvious;

“The Link is an important community resource, and there’s interest in knowing how it’s operating,” said Mary Jo Hotzler, chief content officer for Forum Communications Co., parent company to Sioux Falls Live. “Our interest is in transparency and accountability.”

Heck, I can’t even get an annual report from a non-profit that provides free concerts, what makes you think you get this contract? Maybe there is no contract;

During a city council meeting in July, which included approval of a new three-year agreement between the partners, TenHaken said the source of new funding was “TBD.”

It kind of sounds like most things the city does . . . by the seat of their pants. Recently it was said that the city is looking for a recruiting contractor to help find more mid-management, skilled positions. Maybe the city is having problems finding these people because no one wants to work for a certain somebody. I’ve seen morale take a 180 at places I have worked after certain troublesome management is let go. Maybe the city has an image problem?

I tell people it must be a great place to work, I saw a mid-manager at a meeting a couple of months ago wearing sweatpants and sliders, surprised he wasn’t curled up in the corner with a pillow and a blankey.

With all this darkness lately, it makes you wonder if this is about keeping information from the public or keeping information from a higher authority, and I ain’t talking about JC.