FOX Business Host says what we are all thinking . . .
Hey, Kristi, call us when you are not an A . . . .
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Hey, Kristi, call us when you are not an A . . . .
Last night, the city council, mostly councilor Kiley got irritated with me because I pointed out the shell game they played with Covid money. Rick was even more frustrated with the fact that I accused the council of NOT being involved. While he did correct me that they were involved, I reminded them that it was behind closed doors with the mayor in private, non-quorum meetings instead of open to the public working session with the ENTIRE council. According to open meetings laws they can to this, but it really isn’t that ethical or transparent, you know, SOP for the TenHaken administration. (ironically they scheduled a working session today for this Friday at 2 PM, you know, so working people can attend 🙁 they had to schedule the session because of the executive session they had to skip yesterday because the city council meetings start to close to the informational meetings, 6 PM)
So how did they pull this off?
It is true that the city did follow Federal guidelines when spending the initial money, where they played a game with it is what they did after spending the money. The city basically paid for stuff that was already in the 2021 budget following those guidelines. Since the Federal aid paid for those budgeted items, they transferred the budgeted money to other projects that WERE not included in the Covid guidelines (Parks, Zoo, etc). Personally, I think it is questionably legal. The best way you could explain it is using car insurance money to fix the fender on your car to buy a big screen TV and turning around and hiring your neighbor Chuck to fix the fender at a fraction of the cost.
It’s sneaky, very sneaky and probably the reason it was arranged in the mayor’s office with the lights down low. Not sure if the Federal government would even look into this practice since initially the money was spent correctly. I have a feeling this has been going on across the state and country. I reminded the mayor and council this is what happens when you have bad leadership and decision making behind closed doors, rules are broken.
I also reminded the council at the informational public input portion that we are being extremely overtaxed and Downtown Sioux Falls needs to move towards a more walkable downtown.
PARKS DEPARTMENT ASKS FOR WAGE INCREASES FOR LIFEGUARDS
Ironically, this is because the HR department and the City’s chief liar, the parks director, are finding their jobs very difficult in hiring seasonal workers at $11.50 an hour (I think they want to bump it up to $13.00 an hour). During my public input on the matter I said it is because the city is setup like a for-profit corporation when it comes to pay (execs and directors get overly paid and the minions are underpaid). I also said that no manager, director or city employee should be paid more than the mayor (he makes $130K a year and 19 managers with the city make more than that, with his COF making $177K and almost 90 making over $100K). Which got a good chuckle out of Councilor Soehl (I am assuming because he agrees). Three separate councilors railed on the issue about how we need to pay our seasonal employees better. Which was good.
The police are also receiving two drones that they will share with the Fire Department. After that item passed an officer explained to me they have thermal cameras and will be used for fire inspection, traffic accidents and missing persons. He also told me that they had to follow National Civil Rights rules and objectives when using the drones. In other words they can’t hover over your house while you are having a drunken orgy in your hot tub 😊 While the drones themselves are around $2K, the thermal camera’s put the price tag in at $9K each.
During public input at the end of the meeting I reminded the council they need to put a public task force together to combat panhandling and they need input from the public. Believe it or not at least 4 of them were nodding their heads in agreement while the mayor continued to scowl and grunt into his microphone. That’s mostly all he does at every meeting.
Cruise control government at it’s best once again.
There is also a push to make newly elected CountCilor Jensen vice chair in next months council chair election even though both Starr and Brekke have been there longer and deserve the seat.
EDITOR’s NOTE: This is a guest post by Mike Zitterich. I found a lot of the information helpful. He does opine towards the end of the post, feel free to comment.
My thoughts based on studying the 2020 C.A.F.R – The City of Sioux Falls did fairly well considering the rest of the Country, Sales Tax was not as bad as first thought, and the population grew to 195,000 residents. While the sales tax remained constant from 2019, we did not seem to lose $1 compared to the year before, we simply lost our “gains” of $3,500,000 a year we have been accustomed to. Here is a list of Excise Taxes, Duties, and Imposts that I have noted within our 2020 CAFR along with our Net Position (State of the City), along with fun statistics regarding Water/Water Reclamation and Public Parking the two most hotly contested topics of the “people” … Â
Direct Property Taxes:
Sales Tax (First Penny) – $67,135,048Sales Tax (Second Penny) – $67,135,016Property Tax – $70,288,580Sales Tax (Third Penny):
Duties (User Fees):
Imposition Fees:
State Motor Vehicle Funds:
**The City Council should discuss ‘auditing’ these Motor Vehicle Funds Collected Each Year to determine proper collections, use of funds, manage the funds, appropriate the funds, etc. We get these funds from two sources within the law itself – Minnehaha and Lincoln Counties transfer payments quarterly (sub-section c), while the State Dept of Revenue deposits 0.335% annually into the City Treasury (subsection b). By choosing to audit these funds, we can assure that they are being properly appropriated and used.Â
Total Cash In Bank Accounts – $300,345,555Net Position of City of Sioux Falls: $1,949,969,607 or $9,999.84 Per Resident
Total Cash in Enterprise Funds (Net Position of Fund):
NET POSITION = defined as the total net worth of the CITY OF SIOUX FALLS after Expenses, Liabilities, Debts, Future Employee Obligations are paid for…
Water & Water Reclamation Statistics:
Public Parking Statistics:
*Note: IF we would had 95% Spaces Used it would have generated $3,721,390.44 Annually; the City 10 Year Average Spaces Used is 86% of total parking spaces; so if we use the ten year average, we can expect to generate a projected $3,369,367 in revenues for Public Parking with annual expenses of $2,638,179 + $1,200,000 Debt Payment for a negative 468,812 deficit. Our goal should be to maintain 95% Spaces Used to maintain sufficient revenues, and keep from having to use as much of the 2nd Penny Sales Tax as possible. As per the 2021 City Budget, we are projecting revenues to be $3,320,213 about on par with the 86% User Rate.
Tuesday, 13, 2021 during the Informational Meeting, the City Council will get updated by the Finance Department of the Results of the 2020 Fiscal Season, I’d say, our finances are much better than realized, and the State of the City is in very good hands.
My only question for the City Council is as follows – Where was the so called “emergency” or pandemic that was supposed to cause such a racket, and did the City of Sioux Falls really need to take the “CARE ACT FUNDS” based on the 2020 Financial Report. The difference in “CASH VALUE” as stated on page 28 of the C.A.F.R is $300,690,042 million dollars, roughly an increase of $54 million from the year prior. If my memory is correct, that is the same dollar amount we as a city took from the Federal Government as part of the Care Act Funding. Now, I do understand, much of those dollars are being appropriated thru-out the 2021 Budget in Capital Expenditures – but I do not see a huge decrease in Tax revenues from 2019, that we necessary had to take such federal monetary funding. So what was the so-called “Emergency” really about?
My answer to that question, in “my opinion” was to allow the States and Municipalities to grab more and more federal dollars in order to expand their already bloated ‘budgets’ of wants and needs. Which then obligates us to federal rules, codes, regulations the more we take such funds, this tends to dampen our ability to self rely on ourselves in the sovereign whelm.
I have become a big advocate for ‘knowing’ our total TAX REVENUE as it relates to the actual budget to determine where the excessive revenues derive from over and above the actual ‘tax revenue we collect from state and local taxes (excises, duties, imposition fees).Â
The City Council has approved to spend the Care Act Funds in places such as:
Which leads me to my next thought: “Economic Local Stimulus Plan“Â
This city is in great shape, even thru the Economic Emergency Crisis I felt was caused by many federal policies in the past, and our future; and I often thought, what if we can build a “Economic Stimulus Package” here in Sioux Falls, that encourages residents, businesses, to not only save money, but to invest those dollars more so in the future providing us new found tax growth.Â
Something I thought of more as I drove around this city, if we can lower the 2nd Penny to let’s say the 2005-2009 rate of 0.92% for two years, as we as individuals do as we manage and control our personal incomes while committing a small portion to debt, if we:
What if we held this such discussion during the summer months of 2021, as we discuss future budgets, goals, and projects, plug into that discussion a “City Wide Economic Stimulus Plan”, that that in the short term (2 years) lowers the 2nd Penny to the 2005-2009 rate of 0.92%.
The big question would be can we decrease the 2nd Penny at the same time having debt obligations, but I ask the council, what and how do private citizens deal with loss of income while affording to keep up with such obligations of debt, they simply ‘change’ or ‘amend’ the terms of the contract during that short term period of time until their income expands. Here are my thoughts to interject within conversation of passing or establishing a “Economic Stimulus Package” as it relates to the City of Sioux Falls:
Agrees to:
I believe we have the ‘sovereign ability; to as a governing body and/or the people to adjust our tax rates at anytime as per state laws, that was proven by precedent in 2005; we can adjust them lower and higher as the need is warranted, but most importantly, in times such as these, establishing tax policy in times where we need to re-energize the economy, to benefit the long term planning of the city, is the key motivator here.
Keep in mind, the direct sales tax is tied to population growth, as it adjusts itself in subsequent years following the rate change; we should study the effects of population growth of the City as it relates to the gains or losses we have had over the past 10 years.Â
Until this economic emergency crisis where many of the Multi National Corps were following C.D.C Guidelines, adapting to federal resolutions, laws, causing so many people to spend less income, the Sales Tax of Sioux Falls has constantly remained at a steady growth of $3,500,000 per year in direct comparison with the growth of our population. Even if we cut the rate of tax this year, what will the gains be in years 2, 3, and 5?Â
Those are just a few points of reference I would raise as part of this economic discussion moving forward, and I think my ideas coincide with many of our stated goals of protecting the health of the city, protecting our economy, and encouraging people to invest fully into the city through private/public partnerships.Â
What would a small rate cut in our sales tax mean for the people of the city, we do such a great job of maintaining reserves, managing our debt payments, to investing in the city, instead of giving back as some have stated, a ‘refund payment’ of any concurrent surplus of revenues, a small decrease in the rate would effectively accomplish the same goal, without any liability of the city, cause my theory is as such – those residents, myself included would then be able to increase our buying power, spend more locally which then affords us to collect more tax revenue, let alone attract more new jobs, tourism, and visitors to the city, in coalition with the population growth, the tax base automatically expands.Â
With All Due Respect, and Continued Support, I thank you for your time…
I did this in 2014 and one of my better BS sessions;
SIDE NOTE: So I got tipped off on Friday that the Veterans Community Housing project was actually on the agenda of the Planning Meeting that was posted last week on Friday (Item 2F) and this is likely how the media figured it out. But if it was on that agenda and the Planning Briefing Agenda, why wasn’t it on the informational agenda? This open government thing seems to be a real difficult thing for the current administration.
We will finally get a presentation on the 2020 Financials and an update on Downtown Parking, but as I mentioned above, good luck getting a sneak peak, there are NO attached documents.
Item #6, Approval of Contracts, sub item #17, this one is confusing because you would have thought they would have already had a design in place in case they wanted to expand the upper level of the Link. Oh, my mistake, I assumed that the city plans ahead.
Items #13 & 15, 1st Readings, Supplemental appropriations for all kinds of things. Apparently we need more money for the outdoor pools that don’t open for several months. Huh?
Item #14, 1st Reading, Naming agreement for the new refrigerated ice rink at Falls Park. As I said to someone the other day, “We need this rink like we need a hole in our heads.†and what makes it even more ironic is that you will have to PAY to use a rink that is being funded with taxdollars and private donations.
Item #16, 1st Reading, leasing parking to the Federal Courthouse. What I find funny about this one is that no where in the contract does it mention the Federal Courthouse.
Item #17, Resolution, A RESOLUTION AMENDING THE 2021–2025 CAPITAL PROGRAM TO ADD DRONES AND A TRACTOR LOADER IN 2021. (Police, $18,000; Entertainment Venues – Events Center, $75,000)
So now the coppers are going to be patrolling us with drones. Sounds reasonable. NOT!