UPDATE: Early Voting Starts Monday, March 26 for Municipal Election

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This Monday you can start voting early for the Sioux Falls Municipal Election at the Minnehaha County Auditor’s office. I highly suggest you do. I have voted early for at least the last 5 years. It is very convenient and I have NEVER waited in a line to do so.

While I know who I am voting for in all the races, I know not all of you agree with me. So I’m going to make my suggestions and tell you why I made them.

Mayoral Race

I’m voting for Greg Jamison, but my second choice would be Jolene Loetscher. Let’s face it, no matter how many times you throw the cards down, Jamison is the only one in the race that has the experience to run the city administratively on day one. While Jim and Kenny also have experience, Jim’s ties to Huether are worrisome. Kenny just hasn’t convinced me he is prepared for the job. Where Jolene lacks experience she makes up with passion and compassion. I really like these qualities about Jolene. If she would make the runoff and win mayor she would also do an excellent job, but she would have an enormous learning curve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnBzO-VK78Y

Central District

This one has been a tough one for me. I originally supported Zach DeBoer, but more and more I like the working class fiscally conservative values of Thor Bardon. Thor will get my vote. But a vote for Zach or Tom Hurlbert would certainly not be the wrong way to go. I think all three men are very talented and have immense qualities that would make them great city councilors. I know nothing about Scott Bartlett except that he was a teabagger at one time. Scary. Curt Soehl, while being a former firefighter is a great quality, his attachment to Huether and developers in his campaign donor list makes it obvious where his loyalties lie, not with the people. I was also put off about his comments about the media. Love or hate the media, let’s face it, as a city councilor or other elected official you have to be an open book with the media. It is essential to open and transparent government.

At-Large ‘A’

Janet Brekke is the obvious choice in this race, hands down. Janet’s experience as a former city attorney (she created the city attorney’s office) will help the next council be guided through complex contracts. She also has many great ideas on deregulation, code enforcement changes, customer service and strategic and budget planning. John is a nice guy, but he is running the same losing campaign he ran when he lost to Stehly two years ago. In the past two years he hasn’t offered us anything new. While I agree city government should be more positive he offers no solutions. Ritch Whoever is the really winner in this race because he took the high road and decided not to run this time.

At-Large ‘B’

I’ll be honest with you, I would probably be helping Erickson right now get re-elected if it wasn’t for new friendship with the mayor and her votes on the Downtown Parking Ramp. I have had many discussions with Christine when it came to the school start date, free swimming and bus rides for the kids and other citizen friendly programs. Something changed in Christine over the past two years, and it is worrisome. The Downtown Parking ramp wreaks of corruption and she was in on the deal from the beginning, sitting on the RFQ committee that picked Legacy. Nick Weiland will get my vote, and while Nick may have a learning curve, he has a great passion about redeveloping our core and making our city more digitally advanced which will help with customer service and save taxpayers money.

So on Monday, get out and vote!

Posted in: Elections, Greg Jamison, Sioux Falls

AirBnB mysteriously changes from Bed & Breakfast zoning to short term rentals

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Short term rental or short term friendship with the mayor?

First off, I agree with the city, a ‘short term rental’ like AirBnB should be just that, a rental. For it to be considered a Bed & Breakfast it has to have a ‘service’ kitchen that serves food to the renters that needs to be inspected by the health department. Since it does not, it is pretty much like any other apartment, but just for a shorter time. But this could ruffle the feathers of your homeowner neighbors who ARE not short term renters.

The rules seem simple. The state requires a tax license;

Beginning Sept. 1, Airbnb will begin collecting and remitting state and municipal taxes on all eligible bookings in South Dakota.

The City of Sioux Falls requires rental registration;

Short Term rental properties (such as Airbnb, VRBO, etc.)

This all makes sense, taxes paid, registrations in check.

But here is where it gets a little ‘sticky’ and all that ‘transparency’ thingy a lot of council candidates like to talk about lately. This story from 2015 paints another picture;

“A bed and breakfast requires a Conditional Use Permit and approval of the Planning Commission for that permit to be approved,” said Shawna Goldammer, Sioux Falls Zoning Enforcement Manager.

Goldammer says an Airbnb is considered a bed and breakfast. Chances are, Airbnb hosts are unknowingly operating illegally.

“What the ordinance does for us in Shape Places makes residential residential. So when you live in a residential area under a residential zoning district, you can expect residential in your neighborhood,” said Goldammer.

Like I said at the beginning, I don’t consider short term rentals a bed and breakfast. What I take issue with is that after Shape Places passed and Goldammer made these statements, somehow the rules disappeared into the night without any action from the city council . . . that I can find.

What is also very interesting is that council candidate and incumbent, Christine Erickson’s main business is ‘short term rentals’ and AirBnB. Please tell me the rules didn’t change quietly in the night after a secret handshake with our mayor and code enforcement?

The irony of this is that Erickson could have had a very public debate about it, and would have probably won and got citizen support. Or maybe not. Would you want to own a home next to a short term rental in a residential neighborhood? I have renters in my neighborhood, I don’t take issue with it, but it’s not a revolving door either.

I would really like to know how these rules just magically change when it affects a city councilor’s business and a mysteriously renewed friendship with the mayor.

Kind of like the Downtown Parking ramp deal, Erickson got a little back peddling to do.

Posted in: Christine Erickson, Elections, Planning Commission, SF City Council, Sioux Falls

Dem Forum; At-Large ‘B’ Candidate Forum, Erickson & Weiland

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Notice later on in the debate how Erickson tries to blow off her involvement with the Downtown parking ramp. She mentions that Hultgren is no longer involved and Lamont properties is in charge.

Hmmmmm.

When Erickson sat on the SECRET RFQ (Request for Qualifications) Committee, she picked Legacy, ran by Norm Drake and Aaron Hultgren. When she voted for the Parking Ramp, it was being developed by Legacy, Norm and Aaron (no mention of Lamont). When it was found out that Norm, Aaron and company were dragging illegal asbestos across our city and being criminally investigated, Erickson voted AGAINST the repeal.

Don’t let Christine fool you, she was all in from the beginning with Norm and Aaron, and she continues to support a private/public partnership with a company that is being sued in civil court and criminally investigated by the Feds.

There ain’t no splaining that will get you out of that.

Posted in: Christine Erickson, Elections, Nick Weiland, SF City Council, Sioux Falls

If it Smells Bad and Looks Bad, it is probably Bad.

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This is exactly what I told the city council last week in reference to doing business with Legacy Development for the Downtown Parking Ramp PPP.

Today it was announced that the piling on continues;

A lawsuit was filed on behalf of Emily, Mike and Chris Fodness on Tuesday.  The defendants named in the court filing include Legacy Development & Consulting Company, LLC; Aaron Hultgren; Hultgren Construction, LLC.; Boomerang Investments, LLC; CLP Investments, LLC; Olympia Real Estate Holdings, LLC; and RISE Structural Associates, Inc.

Besides the McMahon and Fodness families suing, the Federal Government and OSHA are still investigating, those charges could be coming very soon.

Many in the public continue to ask the question; Why would a majority of the council support this project? What do they know? Many feel there is some kind of underlying corruption going on. Makes you wonder, and if there is what could it be?

Let’s look at what we know for sure;

We know that for some strange reason the city agreed to pay for ALL of the foundation costs which basically doubled the price of the parking ramp.

We also know that the hotel got one heck of a deal on the lease without a proper appraisal.

So what would happen if the bonds (around $21 million) are taken out in April and the deal with Legacy or Lamont falls through before a shovel goes in the ground? This means the city would have this money sitting in an account to use for almost anything. Why? Because the bonds will be taken out with the 2nd Penny as collateral. Like the $9.1 million mortgage payment on the Denty per year and the $1.1 million mortgage we pay on the administration building we would have to pay an additional $1 million out of this fund, which is supposed to be for road repair.

When this deal was struck many directors and councilors claimed that we would never have to worry about that because the parking department’s enterprise fund produces enough revenue to make the mortgage payment. No way. The revenue basically covers wages and maintenance now, and not much left over for bond payments. Those fees will have to be raised significantly to cover that payment. Let’s face it, it was no accident that the 2nd penny was used as collateral, because it will have to make this payment. No getting around it.

So is this just a scam to get our hands on $21 million for something else? Not sure. But the whole deal stinks really, really bad. I guess we will have to wait, once again, on the courts to open the books.

Posted in: Developers, Development, Downtown Sioux Falls, Legacy Developments, Sioux Falls

City of Sioux Falls Big Salary increases even with slow tax revenue

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We are still waiting for the last month to come in on the financial reports, but it looks like we are hovering around only 1% growth in tax revenue from last year.

But it didn’t stop our CEO (Mayor Huether) from giving huge raises to some directors, ironically the same directors that were involved with controversial projects like the Downtown Parking Ramp. It seems the good soldiers who followed marching orders were well rewarded.

(Raises are Approximates rounded to nearest thousand)

Turbak, Finance Director; $6K (he got a $10K raise last year)

Leonard, City Attorney; $5K

Ketchum, Director of Community Development; $5K

ONeil, Community Development; $5K

Bofenkamp, Community Development; $5K

There were some others that got some questionable raises also. Even though crime continues to increase and the minions in the police department only got 1.5% the chief received a good raise;

Burns, Chief of Police; $4K

The Director of the Public Health, Dr. Tinguely, the highest paid city employee ($204K per year) got a $11K raise and one of her assistants, Collura got $5K.

Read all about here; 2017-Wages, 2018-Wages

Posted in: Employment, Sioux Falls