Sioux Falls, South Dacola, Year in the Review (Part I)

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• The new year started with a NEW Golf Contract due to an emergency meeting and a secret city RFP process.

• Repeal of Downtown parking ramp fails.

• Judge orders McKennan Park big house must go, after some appeals it is eventually demolished.

• Pat Lalley continues independent local political show, but ends it before the year is up.

• Huether has multiple pointless press conferences up until the end of his reign. He never does reveal his ‘big plans’.

• Independent(?) siding report reveals very little. Huether still refuses to admit he probably authorized the bad siding.

• New blog; thesiouxfallsheadliner.blog keeps us laughing.

• Ribfest finally ends, and nobody seems to care.

• Nick Weiland switches from the mayoral race to run against Erickson on council. The GOP Hate machine beats up ‘Man Bun’ over it.

• The push for a state veterans cemetery in Sioux Falls is successful, thank you SF taxpayers for the generous donation of land.

• Entenman’s ties to Huether doom his race for mayor, even though he spends almost triple of what his closest opponent did. That’s too bad.

• A rumor gets started that Stehly may run for mayor. God tells her not to.

• Hard copies of executive orders mysteriously disappear, rumor has it that Fiddle-Faddle and Erpenbach had a shredding party before they left the city. The world may never know.

• Representative Jamison’s secret settlement bill fails in Pierre. Secrecy continues to rule South Dakota government.

• Frequent public inputer calls Mayor Huether a SOB, twice. It causes major changes to public input.

• Charter Revision Commission allows NO changes to ordinance on the ballot. One member said that if they allow ordinance changes on the ballot, they may pass. Oh, Heaven forbid.

• Council Candidate Soehl gets funded by the big wheels, and after only winning by 40 some odd votes, he doesn’t let them down.

• Paramedics Plus changes ownership, city council approves with little discussion or concern.

• The debate over public ambulances is in full gear, due to me bringing it up during the Mayor’s race.

• City still struggles with using snow gates properly and on EVERY property.

• David Z doesn’t make the mayoral ballot, his temp help collection signatures lost track of time.

• Dumbass buys a condo DT with a patio facing a long standing nightclub and wonders why it is noisy.

• Mayor Huether goes on Belfrage’s show and says that most people probably think he is running for a 3rd term and don’t know he can’t. He basically accuses the mayoral candidates of not getting their message out there.

• We find out that Mayor TenHaken likes to take selfies, and a lot of them.

• TenHaken promises to get tough on crime during campaign, then fails to negotiate a fair contract with FOP.

• In one of the strangest votes, the city council denies a beer license to a discount movie theatre, 8-0, then turns around and approves them for several axe throwing venues. It is still baffling.

 

Posted in: Sioux Falls

It’s time to study a Public option for ambulance service in Sioux Falls

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Yesterday during the Sioux Falls City Informational Council meeting they discussed extending Paramedics Plus contract (or whatever they are calling themselves these days – Look at the INSERT COMPANY NAME line on this contract: contract-draft. They have changed their name so many times they don’t even know what their name will be when they sign the contract. Good Grief). While a 6 year contract wouldn’t be such a bad idea, it is unfortunate that we signing the contract with them;

For instance, you could have to wait a while for your ambulance — in some cases up to 90 minutes.

I think a 6 year extension would give the city time to explore and implement a public ambulance service, but I’m wondering if we should just leave it as a 5 year instead. When Mayor TenHaken was on Patrick Lalley’s show not to long ago he expressed that he may want to look at the public option down the road though people in his administration have said they don’t want to. I think if they started studying it RIGHT now, they could easily implement it in 3-5 years.

During the informational some kept trying to peddle the flat out falsehood that we are NOT subsidizing PP. We are. As taxpayers we are staffing our fire department to show up to these emergencies without reimbursement from PP. Councilor Pat Starr said just that during the meeting yesterday. Councilor Erickson tried to deflect Starr’s testimony by saying it would cost MILLIONS to run a public ambulance service. While the initial capital cost would be high, after it’s implementation we would be able to bill patients for the service and get a heavy subsidy. As of right now we are showing up to these emergencies and assisting a private for profit ambulance service and getting NO reimbursement. A public ambulance service would also be more affordable, faster, more reliable and be ran by qualified city union fire fighters and EMTs. For the public good it just makes more sense.

Posted in: Paramedics Plus, SF City Council, Sioux Falls

Is TJ Nelson Paul’s go to BS Artist?

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There are a lot of FACTUAL arguments for and against using a public ambulance service. So let’s try to stick to those. Councilor Starr did;

And because in 2019 the city will begin a practice of allowing paramedics on the Sioux Falls Fire Rescue to perform advanced life support at emergency scenes, Starr said now is that time.

“All fire fighters are EMTs, and we have a large number of paramedics that we pay to train,” he said earlier this month. “I’d like to see them take on that role because I see ambulance service as a utility, and it shouldn’t be a for-profit business.”

But that didn’t stop Mayor TenHaken’s Deputy COS, TJ Nelson, from spinning the issue;

“This is really a philosophical discussion,” said T.J. Nelson, deputy chief of staff in the mayor’s office. “But it’s unrealistic to think the city could prop up a city-run ambulance in two years and that’s not something we’d even propose.”

Philosophical? Has Nelson been reading Plato? It is an easy discussion to have based on research that is already out there. This isn’t a conservative vs. liberal philosophies. This is an ambulance service. I do agree you would NOT be able to start one in two years, but a 4-5 year time frame would not be unreasonable.

But this statement is just flat out false;

But Nelson predicts that study would show an astronomical financial burden on Sioux Falls and its taxpayers should future city leaders want to do away with the for-profit model historically used here.

“That would be a huge lift, dozens of new FTEs and millions of dollars in capital just to lift that up. And we’re getting it all now for no cost,” he said referring to the staffing increases a change would require, the construction elements that would come with equipping fire halls with additional space to house ambulances and the liability that comes with providing ambulance service.

NO cost? Was that some kind of sick joke? Right now the SFFD is responding to emergency calls, in fact over 90% of fire calls are medical emergencies or similar events. They are ususally the first ones there before the ambulance. Our reimbursement for responding to these calls and essentially subsidizing Paramedics Plus is ZERO! With a Public Ambulance service we could contract a 3rd party to collect payments and work with insurance companies and medicare for a commission, we would receive the remainder. In other words we would be able to collect payments for service. Right now PP pays the city NOTHING for responding to these events. While initially the capital costs would be high, once the system is in place we would actually be taking in revenue from it. Just because it is PUBLIC doesn’t mean we cannot receive payments for the service.

As for having a consultant looking at options, Cameraman Bruce adds;

The use of J Fitch and Associates as our future ambulance consultant should be held in scorn. This is the operation caught in the middle of the federal probe of questionable practices. Paramedics Plus, it’s personnel and J. Fitch are partners in many operations and “clubs”. Any help from them would continue the wrongs we are experiencing.

It is time to explore a Public Ambulance service, but let’s do it in a HONEST and Transparent way.

 

 

Posted in: Mayor TenHaken, Paramedics Plus, Patrick Starr, SF City Council, Sioux Falls, T.J. Nelson

So fire sprinklers in parking garages are useful

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Call me a MORON, no really, please do. When they were planning the parking garage for Village on the River I questioned why it needed a sprinkler system, apparently they are useful;

The first arriving crew found a porta potty on fire 15 feet inside the first floor (Washington Square) garage entrance. The fire was under control by the building’s fire sprinkler system. The fire was extinguished within a couple minutes of crews being on scene. Additional fire crews checked the remaining parking area and found no fire extension. Residents were alerted by the fire alarm system and were moved to the adjacent city parking garage until the fire sprinkler and alarm systems were checked and controlled. All residents were allowed back in the building after about 15 minutes.

Of course it was a porta potty and NOT a car. Funny part is I saw those porta potties a few weeks ago when I parked in there and thought to myself, “Why is there porta potties in a parking garage?” I guess they won’t be there anymore.

I also found this part of the SFFD’s press release interesting;

Sioux Falls Fire Rescue responded with 5 fire trucks, 2 support vehicles, and 21 personnel. Sioux Falls Fire Rescue was assisted on scene by Metro Communications, Sioux Falls Police Department, and Washington Square management.

I’m sure because they thought the high rise with several million dollar condos was on fire, but it just turned out to be the shitt’r in the garage. They also left out this part on the press release;

Paramedics Plus showed up 2 hours later, didn’t see anything so drove off.

Just kidding.

Posted in: Downtown Sioux Falls, SFFD, Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Sioux Falls City Council Meeting Agendas, Sep 11, 2018

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City Council Working Session • 2 PM

They will be discussion unobligated funds and amendments.

There are some interesting proposals in the unobligated funds;

• A NEW Batallion Chief for ALS and EMS. It will be interesting to see what proposal the Mayor’s office has with public ambulances.

• SWAT armor for bomb techs. One city councilor asked me, “Don’t they have this already?” I would hope so.

• A new Full-Time Bike Trail Service worker. While this isn’t unusual in itself, at $64K a year, where do I apply for this job?

• A ‘community branding’ expenditure of $25,000. Not sure who they are giving this to and what for? I would think that the CVB would have this in their budget already with the BID Tax.

City Council Informational Meeting • 4 PM

They will be approving the CVB yearly budget and getting a presentation about the early renewal of the Paramedics Plus contract. Hopefully we will have more details about the Mayor’s proposal on EMS.

City Council Public Services Meeting • Around 5 PM (After Informational meeting)

They will get a presentation on updating the Landfill ordinances.

Councilors Neitzert and Erickson are also proposing new ‘community standards’ for outdoor natural gas fire pits at commercial/retail/public/hospitality locations. Apparently they met back in May with city officials to discuss it. Who knew?

City Council Regular Meeting • 7 PM

Item #1, Approval of Contracts. Another EXTRA $56K towards the DT Parking Ramp boondoggle.

Item #3, Approving a Parks and Rec consultant at $200K. I do know that some of the councilors are dissenting on this, so I am not sure if this will pass or not.

(FF: 1:31 to hear me discuss the parks study)

Item#4, 1st Reading. A 2.1% property tax increase by the city. This has never failed to pass by the council for a very long time. I would expect they have the votes to pass this on 2nd reading, but I would also guess there will be some dissenters. So much for the $2 a month tax increase? Right?

Item#5-7, 1st readings, ordinances dealing with Ash trees that are needed. I feel there will be 100% support on these items.

Item#9, Resolution to certify the City Council supports stopping demolition of historic homes. I still don’t know all the details on this and why they are voting on this again, I thought it was a done deal. I was told this was only to ‘certify’ the vote and decision already made by the city council, which I find odd. It will be interesting to see what kind of testimony comes from this and if this is some kind of trick to reverse the decision. Seriously, I am clueless on this one.

Item #10, Resolution adopting 2019 Budget and Capital Budget. I believe this is when the city council will debate the budget and amendments. I have NO idea what those amendments will be, but they will be revealed at the working session earlier in the afternoon. When Dr. Staggers was on the city council he propose several amendments. I miss those days 🙂

Item #11, Resolution approving the DT special assessment role. Not sure if any businesses will dissent paying this extra tax that helps to fund DTSF, but has been some in past years.

Item #13, A resolution approving the BID Tax budget for the CVB.

Item #14, A resolution asking for grant assistance from the state to help with the Emerald Ash Borer and equipment that needs to be purchased to remove trees.

Items #16-17, resolutions, An alley way and street vacation. I don’t know much about these items, I guess I will wait to see the presentations.

Charter Revision Meeting, 4 PM Wednesday, Sep 12

They will be discussing the mayor’s salary. I find it interesting that the Sioux Falls mayor is one of the highest paid in the region, even with much larger cities. Madison, WI and St. Paul, MN only pay more. Sioux Falls mayor makes $124K full time, Des Moines mayor only makes $52K, Lincoln, $80K and Omaha, $102K. These are all full-time positions. I’m wondering if Des Moines pay is so low because they may have a city administrator?

Posted in: SF City Council, Sioux Falls