Sioux Falls Parks Director, Don Kearney, says MOU with VA is ‘Not Required’

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During the SF city council informational meeting today, Director Kearney told councilor Staggers that they pretty much don’t have a MOU, and when asked if they intend to get one, he said they feel it is ‘Not Required’.

So in other words ‘NO’.

Erpenbach chimes in and agrees with Don saying since the city owns the land the agreement is not necessary. I guess that Michelle has a degree in Federal property law, I was unaware, I sure feel like a jackass right now 🙁

We all know who advised them on NOT getting an MOU, Mr. Loophole David Fiddle-Faddle. And he probably didn’t have a choice, my guess is that the VA blew them off, and for good reason. How would it benefit the VA to have an agreement? It wouldn’t. Now if they need more parking, they have the quit claim deed on their side, the MOU would only weaken their control of Spellerberg Park. I don’t blame them for not participating in an MOU.

All and All, I don’t give a damn either way, never have.

This comes down to the continual broken promises, stonewalling and flat out lies from the administration and directors. The Mayor, the city attorney and Don have all said they were in ‘discussions’ with the VA about the MOU. It is pretty obvious they were lying once again.

They should have just told us from the freaking beginning, “We are not getting an MOU, and never intend to.”

Instead, Lies, Lies, Lies.

Posted in: SF City Council, Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

The SF City Council ‘almost’ grows a backbone

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I don’t know how many times I have told individual councilors in private and them as a body (as I did tonight) in a public meeting, that the only way you can stop the mayor from stepping all over you is to stand up to him (still waiting).

I suggested tonight they vote against the website contract, and even further suggested, even if they support it, to vote against it, and come up with their own contract. (I also noted that a jobs website was unessary and too expensive).

No luck, but no surprise, as I counted out the YES votes on my fingers with my hand in the air at the meeting they approved the very contract they cried about being constructed in secrecy. It’s like saying it’s okay for a homeless person to steal food because they are hungry and have no money.

The big disappointment of the night was Kenny Anderson Jr. While he talks a big game that he was against the way the mayor handled the contract spending in private, he votes for it tonight, with Erpenbach, Karksy, & Rolfing (Kiley absent). And bravo to Erickson, Staggers and Jamison for voting against it.

I told them in public testimony, the only way to stop the backdoor deals is to not approve them. Extra kudos to Jamison for asking Darrin Smith who chose to put the mayor’s mug on the billboards? Darrin said it was his idea.

LMFAO!

Only a city director can lie this straight face in a meeting. He must be getting lessons from Cooper and Schmidt. He mumbled something about the mayor being the face of our city. Funny, I have always thought SF was quite attractive on the surface, apparently I was wrong 🙁

I will say it again, the only way you stop the mayor from continuing to sidestep you on important decisions is to start voting against his proposed contracts and resolutions, and as a legislative body, present your own. It’s kind of your job. You know, like how you should have postponed the meeting tonight because it was in violation of city charter for proper notice of a public meeting.

We do pay the city council to be our check and balance against the mayor, start acting like you are actually punched in and doing your job, otherwise, do us all a favor and resign.

Posted in: SF City Council, Sioux Falls

City Administrators spread the myth about ‘storage’

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Had a good chuckle last night during the discussion about ‘Club Cambria’ at the city council meeting (FF: 14:00)

Besides the hilarious exchange between the mayor and councilor Staggers (in which the mayor tried to stop Kermit’s line of questioning, and Kermit just ignored Mike and asked the questions anyway)* I really got a belly roll when SMG said they would store the contents of the Quartzite Club after tearing it out of the Events Center to make way for Club Cambria.

First off, we all know that is probably not going to happen. Why would anybody, including a municipality, store a bunch of construction material that has laminate & dried glue on it and is custom cut for a specific space? I can guarantee you it will get stored for about one week, and once the air is cleared, it will be transported to the landfill in the middle of the night. That is just my assumption.

Let’s give you an example from a few years ago.

Remember when the Statue of David was removed from Fawick Park for cleanup? While David sat in a Parks storage yard, the Italian marble pedestal mysteriously disappeared. Maybe I missed something and the pedestal is in storage at a museum or something, but I am not sure. Anytime the city says they are going to store something, you can pretty much kiss it goodbye.

The best thing for the city to do is to remove the materials and sell them on the next city/county auction, instead of playing PR games like they did with the stupid Jesus snowplows. If Cambria is paying for the remodel entirely, sell the materials that are removed so we are not totally taking it in the shorts.

*The mayor has been cutting Kermit off a lot, and even after many people have told the mayor and other councilors about how the mayor is running the decorum of the meetings poorly, he continues to interrupt Kermit. So Kermit now is just choosing to ignore him.

Posted in: Event Center, Sioux Falls

The very curious Washington Pavilion roof replacement

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IMAssss

Roofers are going to keep themselves busy at the Pavilion.

Over the past few days I started thinking about why ‘engineering services’ alone would cost $78,000 for roof replacement. These are JUST plans, not actual replacement costs. Remember the window replacement bid fiasco? Or how the tuck and point job was getting messed up by a local contractor and an out of state contractor had to be brought in to fix the mess?

Then I started to get even more curious when Councilor Staggers made the comments about ‘the several fixes’ the Pavilion roof has gotten over the years, and I personally recall when I worked there about the leaky roof.

Make no mistake, the roof probably needs to be replaced, and when we are spending $78,000 just for engineering, it must be pretty serious.

I talked to a local contractor this morning and asked what their thoughts are on a project like this. They said that the leaky roof doesn’t surprise them, because as they understand, they had to join a new roof with the old roof on all 4 sides (remember the only part that was gutted was the center for the Great Hall). He said you would automatically have issues right off the bat, joining an almost 100 year old roof with a new roof, also take into account, it’s a flat roof, so during the winter/spring when thawing and freezing occurs, ice dams most likely happen at the openings of the downspouts.

He said the project will probably get even more expensive if they replace the balustrades (those buldgy pedestal thingies on the edge of the roof) with fiberglass replicas. I guess the terracota balustrade should be replaced because they could crack and break due to their age and fall on people below.

That wouldn’t be good.

Make no mistake, the Pavilion roof replacement is probably long overdue, but like the siding on the Events Center, it should have been done right to begin with. Can’t wait for the maintenance bids to start coming in on the Events Center in the next 10-14 years. Grab your ankles folks, this is gonna hurt.

Posted in: Sioux Falls, Washington Pavilion

SF City Council (Mostly Rolfing) bullies Minnehaha County Commission in denying solar energy permit

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And the ironic part about it all, the permit was OUT of the city limits. The city council should not have even been voting on the project.

I have never seen two bodies of local government at the utmost level of immaturity.

Maybe City Attorney Loop-hole Fiddle-Faddle needs to give them a lesson in ‘civility’.

Watch the whole thing here. The arguments at the end are rich. The pure ignorance of the permitting process and attaining investors went straight over their heads. I even got to go up and poke the eyes of the Koch Brother-Teabagger dirty energy lovers and all of their BS rhetoric.

The only two members of the boards that showed any inkling of intelligence on the issue were a Staunch Conservative and a Staunch Liberal, Staggers and Barth.

If you wanted to pour yourself a big cup of ignoramus, they were serving it at Carnegie Hall tonight.

Posted in: Minnehaha County, SF City Council