South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Downtown Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls

Joe Kirby; Sioux Falls Needs a Plan

l3wis 12Comments

You ain’t kidding;

In 2018 Paul TenHaken became mayor and soon announced a concept he called “One Sioux Falls”. His intention was “to create a unified vision that people could get behind.” That goal of getting everyone on the same page was commendable. But I’m not sure the mayor’s plan lived up to its potential.

That’s because you cannot create a plan or vision for city government without full transparency. All plans will ultimately fail when introduced in the dark.

While the city pays for numerous expensive plans and studies, I am unaware of an overarching strategic vision for our city. Some current and former city council members tell me they never were involved in strategic planning for our community. And over the past couple decades, I don’t recall seeing any comprehensive and aspirational plans coming out of city hall.

That’s because there is only ONE plan and it was concocted decades ago by developers. Make the council weak by paying them off with campaign contributions, make the mayor stronger and his staff even stronger by negotiating private deals with the city in the dark.

Without an overarching plan, developers, businesses, schemers and volume-focused development officials drive growth in the city. I suspect that is how we end up adding more and more tough, low wage jobs to our community. For instance, in my view it was not in our community’s best interests for Amazon and a second slaughterhouse to arrive in town. Especially not when city leaders routinely fret about workforce availability and affordable housing.

Forward Sioux Falls, which promotes economic growth in our area, is currently putting together their version of a strategic plan for the community. Of course, I will be interested to see it. But their 2022 support for the slaughterhouse makes me wonder if the organization might be too growth focused, with inadequate attention given to quality of life. I think our community should discourage businesses and industries that tend to externalize their costs and offer low paying jobs.

Good plans not only tell you which opportunities to pursue, but also which to ignore.

It is simply growth for growth sakes and relying on the ‘trickle down’ approach to everyone else especially when it comes to jobs and housing. Our lack of quality affordable housing and living wages is eventually going to crush the Sioux Falls economy.

Our city charter says that the city council is the “policy making and legislative body” in city government. But the city council has never been given the opportunity to plan. Or perhaps better said, they have not taken that opportunity. After all, the charter also states that “all powers of the city shall be vested in the city council”.

Instead, the mayor’s office runs the show. Admittedly that may be due to the lack of separation of the legislative and executive powers in city government (see my blog on that topic). Everybody seems too busy putting out fires and dealing with routine problems to plan.

The city council has had since the early 90’s to come up with a plan after the new charter was approved and not one single councilor has lifted a finger except Janet Brekke who simply suggested the council move forward with a long range strategic plan and asked for the rest of the council to get on board. The result; They recruited a young female doctor to run against her with an endorsement from the mayor and thousands of dollars of his PAC money. I guess we know what happens to people who make suggestions on the city council.

I’m not sure the current city council has it in them to make a strategic plan, and why would they want to? They are enjoying the status quo. Let the mayor’s office plan things behind closed doors in the dark and have the council vote on the mayor’s plan hastily put forward and when things go awry, just ask for forgiveness. This is no way to run a city government or any government for that matter.

The only way a strategic plan could move forward is if the citizens specifically amended the charter requiring the council to put together a long range plan every two years. Make it a part of their duties and if they fail to do it, or take a half-ass approach the council should be fined and reprimanded or even recalled.

I think the citizens and media in this town need to stop pussy footing around and start making our city, school and county governments more accountable for their actions (or lack of action).

Bike Trail Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

City of Sioux Falls has survey on E-Bikes

l3wis 3Comments

While I do appreciate this survey, I’m not sure the questions really encourage E-Bike usage, but I did like the question about who speeds the most on the bike trail (the winning answer is regular bicyclists NOT baby strollers).

But there still seems to be some misinformation being spread about E-Bike classifications;

E-bikes come in four classes: 1, 2, 3 and “out of class.” Class 1 e-bikes allow assist up to 20 mph, which means you have to be pedaling for that to work. Once you hit 20 mph, the assist stops, and you rely on your own power. Class 2 allows for a throttle-based system, meaning you don’t have to pedal for the assist to work, but it still cuts off at 20 mph. Class 3 is pedal assist, but it goes up to 28 mph. Anything outside of those parameters is considered “out of class.”

While there are classes they vary much more then this. If you have a Class II or higher you can actually control the speed with what level you are locked into. So if I want to go below 15 MPH (the bike trail maximum speed) I can lock that in. While I get the premise of ‘out of class’ that really only applies to actual electric motorcycles that can usually top out at 80 MPH. While they are getting more affordable and powerful they are still a long ways from being mainstream. Anything that is a class II or higher is really just a moped despite the rhetoric;

“Anything that doesn’t fit in that class system and goes more than 20 mph with a throttle only is a motorcycle,” according to Chad Pickard, owner of Spoke-N-Sport. “It’s going to need insurance and have a licensed rider and mirrors and headlights and turn signals and anything that a motorcycle has. I don’t think people realize that.”

Moped classification under state law is simple, anything under 150 CC is classified as a moped and only requires that the operator have a valid driver’s license (not motorcycle). While you don’t need a license plate on the vehicle it is wise to have it covered under your homeowners insurance.

Comparing CC to electric output can be difficult, but there are horsepower comparisons. It really comes to maximum output. At full charge an electric class II bike can really have a lot of torque, similar to when you hit the throttle on a moped. It is really what is the maximum output of the moped NOT based on a speed or power source.

I love my E-Bike and encourage people to buy the safest and most powerful one you can get for maximum usage and let Pierre try to figure out what a moped is and what a motorcycle is.

SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE II: Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, Monday Feb 6, 2023

l3wis 13Comments

UPDATE II: The frosting could not be put on any thicker;

For Cherapa Place, that’s especially key. Developer Jeff Scherschligt said he’s finalizing a retail deal and timing of the roadwork is “very critical” to tenants.

“We could not have that situation asking them to build out a retail space, and a year or two later the construction project closes down Sixth Street,” he said. “It would be a nightmare. We understand how difficult this was for the council. And yet why the city of Sioux Falls is successful is because city councilors can see through some of that haze and do the right thing for the community and the commitments the city has made. I really do want to thank those councilors, all of them.”

Yes, let’s thank the council for doing the ‘right thing’. They actually made the decision based on false and misleading information and when having the opportunity to fix it they roll over to the developers. Not sure they showed a lot of courage.

And what do we have here tacked onto the price tag of the project but a bunch of diagonal street parking;

The ‘extras’ in this project is what is going to make it expensive and since it is being ramrodded so fast so some condo users are not inconvenienced by having to drive an extra 2 blocks around the construction the change orders ought to be interesting.

What the council doesn’t realize is how tarnished their reputation has become after approving this project. I don’t talk to one single person (even those who think our city government runs great) that don’t think the council really missed an opportunity to flex their muscle butt instead scurried like rats.

UPDATE: NO city councilor brought forth a reconsideration vote during the meeting tonight. I know, shocker. Guess who had a change of heart;

But Cole did not make the motion to reconsider. She said in an interview following Monday’s meeting that she has since met with a developer and others affected by the project.

“Development in that area depends on that bridge being completed,” she said. “While the timing is frustrating, the development needs to move forward.”

There was also a practical reality.

“The votes weren’t there,” she said.

As I have said, it would probably be cheaper and better to wait a year, but the developer always wins at City Hall and Carnegie because they own it.

The meetings are on Monday this week due to it being municipal day on Tuesday in Pierre. I guess the council needs to kiss the ring.

CALENDAR

Informational Meeting • 4 PM

• Compensation & Benefits Study by Bill O’Toole, Director of Human Resources; and, Mike Verdoorn, Principal Consultant from Gallagher (there were NO attached documents. It will be interesting if the study includes director and management pay, something that has been excluded for a long time. You don’t need a study to figure out what to pay the underlings. You offer better benefits and union employment the private sector does not, and you bump it up a notch. Not rocket science.)

Regular Meeting • 6 PM

What you won’t see is the reconsideration on the 6th street Bunker Bridge because that would be under the last item ‘New Business’. As of yesterday I was told that Councilor Dr. Sarah Cole still intends to bring a reconsideration motion. If she does and it is seconded by ANY city councilor, the discussion should be intriguing.

I still think they don’t have the votes to overturn the bridge quote, but you never know.

“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.” – Thomas Jefferson

Developers Development Downtown Sioux Falls Riverline District SF City Council Sioux Falls

What is really going on with the Riverline District?

l3wis 13Comments

GeoTek surveying the Riverline District Property • 2/7/23 (H/T to a South DaCola Foot Soldier for providing me the links)

That is an excellent question with few answers and a whole lot of speculation.

If you do a little research on the Minnehaha County GIS you will see where the current SD Social Services building is sitting. That property is NOT owned by the state but an LLC called ‘State Partners LLC’. The listed business address for the LLC is 101 South Reid Street, Suite 201 which is the exact same office address of Lloyd Companies in Downtown Sioux Falls.

While the information I provided above is factual, the rest of the story is purely speculative.

So why would a developer who already owns a huge chunk of this property (there are other individual owners for the smaller parcels) want to sell it to the city which passes it back to the development foundation and potentially SECOG then turns around and pitches it to the very developers who sold it to the city to begin with?

I know, baffling, but you know there has got to be a catch.

Now for the speculation; It could be that the developer is going to make money on both ends – current LLC sells high to the City; new LLC controlled by developer buys cheap from SF Development Foundation, after one or both suck TIF money for the project (and various other grants and tax rebates they can conjure up).

The other reason for city involvement could be in order to facilitate a land trade – offer city park and greenway property in exchange for land on which a stadium and parking would be placed (sound familiar)?

I really have no idea what path this project is taking, but we have to keep a close eye on the players and the conflicts of interest if taxpayer capital is involved. Just like the Bunker Bridge the council will probably only have a couple of hours to decide on this project.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

You Missed

Audit SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Internal audit has a busy schedule

Uncategorized

It’s the little things

South Dakotans State Legislature

What the?

Drinking Liberally

Drinking Liberally Update (8/23/24)