Mayor Paul TenHaken’s office plays the bait and switch again tonight, or is it less complicated then that?

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I’m actually surprised a good X-Tian like PTH doesn’t know what the NT has said about hypocrites;

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. – James 1:22

So this has happened three times now;

Stehly and Starr suggest we fund pothole fillin’ more, resolution gets voted down yet the mayor sends out an army to fill potholes (a couple an hour).

Stehly and Starr suggest Events Center Book Club meetings are open to the public, resolution gets voted down (or thrown out) can’t remember. Mayor opens up the meetings (yet no recordings have happened yet).

Tonight, happens again, Starr and Stehly suggest the housing summit’s registration is FREE and video recorded. It fails in a 4/3 vote with mayor breaking tie. But during the discussion, Tea, SD resident and Housing Director for SF, Chellac Unruh announces the fee will be waived (for the poor folk) and it will be video recorded.

So if Stehly and Starr’s resolutions are so bad and fail to pass, why is the mayor implementing the policy anyway?

Oh, right, that thing about being a hypocrite, I forgot.

Stehly responds to ED Board

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I couldn’t have said it better myself, and for the record I never saw this response until I read it online a few minutes ago. I know some people think that I ‘feed’ Theresa stuff, but I have often contended she is her own person;

I will continue to make decisions and take actions to support, inform and protect the citizens I am pledged to represent.  I refuse to go along to get along as the Editorial Board suggests. I will continue to promote constituent concerns while reaching out to help the taxpayers. They are the boss and taxpayer revenues are theirs. I will strive to make prudent, informed decisions, even if my colleagues don’t agree with me.

Yes Theresa, unfortunately it’s all about the Reindeer Games in Sioux Falls.

Does Sioux Falls City Councilor Stehly already have a challenger?

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I know, pretty crazy considering a Sioux Falls City Council election is about a year away. Besides that, Stehly hasn’t decided whether she will run for a second term, she has a long time to decide.

This all started about a month ago when a new comer to city politics who worships the ground PTH walks on and is a local entrepreneur (or something) said he would raise $100K to whoever would run against Stehly.

It seems he has found his guinea pig.

Until I get it confirmed from a couple more sources, I will only say this prospect is a young professional in the community (30’s) who had a short stint in the SD legislature and is a devote Republican.

I know them, and they are intelligent and very capable of giving Stehly a run for her money. But I also think there will be other challengers.

Never thought I would be talking about the the 2020 city election this early, but it also doesn’t surprise me with how this current council and mayor has been performing.

Sioux Falls Board of Ethics, April 25, 2019

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Surprise, surprise Sioux Falls government ethics is in question. The Sioux Falls Board of Ethics was asked what should have been a simple question by City Councilor Theresa Stehly on April 25, 2019.

Can a developer, who is planning a major downtown project where they will be pitching a $24 million tax break, host a food and booze event without an ethics violation being levied against the invited city officials?

Anything can be can be questioned if it has de Minimis or nominal value. Even if there is no minimum or maximum value, if there is no minimum or maximum time period, it can be an ethical conflict. If dots can be shown or perceived or the optics can make it look bad, it is an ethical conflict. These have been the rulings in two previous decisions of the Board of Ethics.

What we learned in this meeting, apparently this does not apply to City Council or department staff if a developer wants to wine and dine the right people.

This was a preemptive advisory request by Stehly, not a post event ethics violation she was asking the Board to rule on.

The Board decided, since there is no “crime” yet, there was nothing they could do to preemptively advise the people in their jurisdiction to not attend the heavy food and alcoholic drink event designed to soften the $24 million TIF request.

The previous ruling requests were preemptive in nature, so was this one. Explain this to the cops and librarians, how South Dakota has only ethics laws affecting them (kind of).

UPDATE: Sioux Falls City Councilor Stehly asks for advisory opinion

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UPDATE: The Ethics board determined they could not make a decision because they didn’t have evidence that the City Council would vote on TIFs. Stehly told them there was an Argus Leader article on it, but she didn’t have it with her though Bruce offered to show it on his tablet. Since they are quasi-judicial they have to have the physical evidence.

Bruce pointed out at the end of the meeting during public input that it was unfortunate that they did not offer an opinion because now if there are pictures of city officials and city councilors at the event and later they have to make a decision on TIFs, ethics violations could be filed against them for accepting gifts before the vote. The Ethics Board could get very busy next month.

The meeting will be at 10:30 AM this Thursday at City Hall. Stehly is asking if it is ‘ethical’ to be accepting FREE ‘Food & Drink’ from a developer that will be potentially asking for a TIF from the very people who are being asked to attend this event.

Personally, if I was a city councilor, I would NOT attend the reception portion of the event. It not only looks unethical, it likely is unethical. This will be an interesting Ethics Board meeting to watch and what laws are applicable. In South Dakota where we have very few ethics laws for lawmakers I could easily see a ruling either way.