Tea

City of Sioux Falls Housing Director, Unruh, working for Tea’s development?

l3wis July 21, 2019 6Comments

I just shake my head when I see these kind of conflicts. The taxpayers of Sioux Falls are paying Unruh’s salary so she can represent it’s citizens in helping with more affordable housing in SIOUX FALLS while serving as the President of Tea’s Development Board.

I don’t have an issue with her serving in either position, but she needs to pick one or the other.

C’mon Paul! This isn’t Rocket Science, it’s ethics, and this one is easy.

City of Sioux Falls Housing Director tells Tea Residents to NOT use Sioux Falls services

l3wis April 6, 2019 5Comments

While she has no problem with driving to Sioux Falls to draw her paycheck from Sioux Falls taxpayers she encourages residents of TEA to not shop in Sioux Falls or use their services.

It still baffles me that we hired a Tea resident to run our housing division, and also allowed her to run for Tea City Council. But her comments about her civic pride in Tea says a lot about what she thinks of her employer, the City of Sioux Falls.

Still baffled and Concerned. Why is the City of Sioux Falls allowing it’s new Housing Director to run for Tea City Council?

l3wis March 10, 2019 1Comments

I do stand corrected on one level. I guess an employee of the Siouxland Libraries and an employee of the Siouxland Museums serve on city councils outside of Sioux Falls. But in some ways that is a little different. Both of those bodies are funded by the county and city(s).

But I have to wonder about the conflict of interest with a Tea resident as our housing director saying this about Tea and her run for council;

This is the most important quote from the article I posted yesterday.
“The advantages that suburbs have for adapting to disruptive innovation should not be a rationale for their complacency. Adaptation needs to be nurtured; it won’t happen automatically. Suburbs have an opportunity and, more importantly, an obligation to develop proofs of concept and to share those lessons with other governmental entities.”

If Tea is just a part of Sioux Falls, why do they have a city council? Why doesn’t Sioux Falls just annex Tea into our city limits? Seems we would solve a lot of problems for both communities. But the quote also makes you wonder who Chellee will be working for? The opportunities of a suburb of Sioux Falls, or her real paying gig with the City of Sioux Falls? How can you promote development and economic growth for Tea (while living there) and promote affordable housing in Sioux Falls at your day job? While I have had problems trying to find a specific rule or law that prohibits Unruh from doing both jobs, it’s still ethically questionable. Should the SF Ethics Commission be looking into this and ruling on it before the April election in Tea? I think so. I also find it a bit ironic that her family has chosen to live in Tea. Is it because housing is more affordable there?

I also find it curious she lists her employment with Sioux Falls as of February, yet no one saw her working at her new job until the beginning of March. So it seems she was well aware of her employment with the city when she announced she was running for Tea city council. Did her new employer know? If so, why isn’t Mayor TenHaken asking the Ethics Commission to look into this? Maybe they see Unruh as a double agent as an advantage to Sioux Falls?