Censorship, Public Input & the SF City Council

by

After several months of holding it in, I finally let Council Chair Erpenbach and the rest of the council know how I felt about public input and censorship at the council working session yesterday.

I told them that 1st Amendment rights organizations like the National Coalition Against Censorship defend council rules when it comes to public input WITHIN THE LAW. I reminded them what city ordinance was, ‘5 Minutes Per Person’ and by not following that ordinance they are in a sense violating city charter and breaking the law. I recommended that in the future it would be unwise to violate this ordinance again because next time there ‘would be consequences.’ I also reminded them that they take a oath of office to uphold the US Constitution, the State Constitution and the City Charter. They are bound by that oath to NOT violate city ordinances. I also told them that they are well within their rights to limit discussion ONCE the discussion has started if someone is being disruptive or even repetative.

I told Michelle she was not being totally truthful when she said Munson limited discussion. While I agreed that he did, he only did it AFTER the discussion had started and if people were being insulting or disruptive. I said,

“He never ONCE sent out an email 24 hours in advance to the council about limiting a discussion that hadn’t even started.”

Michelle mumbled something about MMM giving her latitude on how to run the meetings. I didn’t want to get into a long rant with her about how the MAYOR is the administer of the meetings and it is actually his duty to decide where the public discussion is going-NOT HERS. They seem to be pointing the finger back and forth on this, and it is getting tiresome.

Councilor Dean Karsky asked, “Shouldn’t the council have a set policy on public input?” DEAN! YOU ALREADY DO! It is set in city charter, 5 MINUTES PER PERSON! Follow the ordinance. That is all we are asking of you.

There was some good things that came from the discussion though. There will no longer be a sign up sheet to speak to the council (I never signed that stupid thing anyway). And councilor Jamison suggested that they don’t split the PROs and CONs into two separate groups. He said just let people come up and speak when it is their turn in line.

I hope I was clear enough with the council and especially with Erpenbach. Limiting public discussion will NOT be tolerated in the future.

Posted in: 1st Amendment, Censorship, SF City Council

More ethical questions about councilor Entenman?

by

As a South DaCola foot soldier pointed out to me this morning, City Councilor Jim Entenman has served as a board trustee for Sanford Health-Merit Care since at least 2009. Besides the obvious conflicts of voting on zoning issues with Sanford Health and missing council meetings to attend the Sanford board meetings (which he has), one wonders what Mr. Entenman knew about the Skyforce moving to the Pentagon before the EC vote? He comments on the Skyforce leaving the Arena in the informational meeting (FF: 18:00). Councilor Jamison asks who knew what after Entenman’s comments:

Councilor Greg Jamison said he wants to know whether members of the administration knew the Skyforce would be leaving before the events center vote.

“I think that’s a big piece of information we should have known,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that we didn’t.”

This is starting to stink more and more everyday. And as far as I am concerned Mr. Entenman needs to make a choice, does he work for the taxpayers of Sioux Falls or Sanford Health?

Posted in: Jim Entenman, Sanford Hospital, SF City Council, Sioux Falls

Another gutter editorial by Randell Beck

by

Randell just couldn’t resist gloating about the events center passing, he acts like it was some kind of miracle;

Not only did Huether and the Build it Now forces defy logic and tradition by rallying voters to approve the largest bond issue in city history, they did it by engaging the young adults that we boomers like to complain are generally disconnected from local issues.

They did it by spending over a $250,000 dollars on a misleading ad campaign that only showed one side of the Events Center while the opponents spent virtually nothing. This money was funneled to a group of lazy greedy cheerleaders called our local media who gladly promoted the EC any chance they could (as long as those ad dollars kept coming in). STORMLAND TV was the worst, even allowing the Mayor to use air time to give his presentation. The opposition was literally Bambi.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u99n-F1QP7E&feature=fvst[/youtube]

The local media also continues to sell the lie about NO TAXES.

Likewise, in Sioux Falls, people who are more focused on the future than the past — remember those young adults — studied the mayor’s no-tax plan for building an events center, recalled their last visit to that 50-year-old barn we call the Arena, and concluded that voting yes was a no-brainer.

The mayor was clear on our podcast about that. There is nothing stopping future councils from raises fees (which are taxes) on other services to help pay for the EC. He said he ‘can’t tie the hands of future administrations’

Randell also is branding opponents of the Events Center as ‘negative’. Because I guess voting for a piss-poor funding option, location and plan is a positive thing for our community. I would have to disagree. But it didn’t stop him from painting councilor Jamison as anti-progress;

In that vein, the most illuminating moment in the media coverage of the election might have been KELO-TV’s interview late Tuesday night with City Councilor Greg Jamison as it became obvious that the measure was passing by a large margin.

If anybody can ever resemble a deer caught in the headlights it was Jamison, as he sought valiantly — but unsuccessfully — to spin his own strident opposition in a way that didn’t obliterate his chances to run for mayor in a couple of years. If you looked closely, you could see a softball-sized lump in his throat.

During the next year, it will be fun watching him try to parlay his “not-now” role on the events center into that of vigilant watchdog of the public purse. Maybe he hopes that will resonate with all those families out west.

First off, Greg always looks like that on camera, and I didn’t think he acted like he failed at anything. Greg has told me in the past that he doesn’t like doing interviews with the TV stations because of their creative editing. And who can blame him after reading this slasher job by Beck? At least Greg was willing to put himself out there unlike the star of BIN’s TV ad campaign, Nicki Ellerbroek who was ‘at home sick’ the night of the election and unavailable for comment. Kind of sounds like Jamison wasn’t the only one who thought this would fail.

 

Posted in: Event Center, Sioux Falls

We are competing with Phoenix and Chicago? (Phoenix and Chicago are now laughing)

by

The Mayor’s Golden Boy

Okay, sometimes I must resist posting when Mayor Good Folks says ridiculous things, like when he referred to testing snowgates as ‘Creating a Monster’ (Inside Stormland TV), but this latest quote while defending growth and development city expenditures is a bit over the top;

Sioux Falls’ main competitors no longer are Fargo and Sioux City, Iowa, but metro areas such as Phoenix and Chicago, Huether said.

Okay, I’ll play along on industry and jobs. But you also have to factor in world class music clubs and museums. And while Chicago shares our horrible weather extremes, I would much rather be in Phoenix right now.

Councilor Greg Jamison said he supports the efforts of organizations such as the Sioux Falls Development Foundation and the Chamber, but he’s not sure about the city’s new efforts.

“I’m just concerned that we might be creating another layer that’s not necessary. (The organizations) have been doing a pretty great job throughout the years,” he said.

This is about CONTROL for Mike, it’s not about whether these other orgs have been doing a good job or not, and for the most part they have. Sioux Falls is definately not stagnant. Could growth be better? Sure. But it takes more then a mayor with a big mouth and big hair to change that. It takes progressive thinking, something the business community is short on, unless they can make a buck.

Unlike the organizations, the city can rezone a property or refund sales tax as an incentive, Smith said. But he wants more incentives on the table in order to compete with states and cities offering such things as cash.

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. While I am all for easing zoning and property tax discount incentives, handing over taxpayers money to a private entity in the form of cold hard cash is a slippery slope, and I hope Megan ‘Patron’ Luther was misquoting you. If not, we need to be very weary of these intentions.

BOSOM BUDDIES

What is a strange twist on this article is the political relationship between Huether and Smith. I hope you can handle all the back slapping and boot licking;

“I just think that he (Smith) was unbelievably qualified. He’s very passionate, and he’s such an informed guy,” Huether said.

Apparently not qualified enough to finish out his councilor term, but qualified enough to pick the pockets of taxpayers in a Huether administration;

Smith, who has known Huether and his wife causally for a decade, contributed to Huether’s campaign and volunteered “bad advice from time to time and he was smart not to listen,” Smith joked.

Like when you ran to Stormland TV news like a little school boy about Staggers’ fake junket trips? That wasn’t bad advice, it was just plain ruthless.

Posted in: Darrin Smith, Mayor Hubris, Mayor Subprime Mike Huether, Mike Huether, Sioux Falls ⋅ Tagged:

What did I tell yah?

by

Another back door deal, luckily it fell through;

The negotiations had been a closely guarded secret, and some city councilors were unaware of them. As late as Monday night, administration officials were declining to talk about the issue. But on Tuesday, Mayor Dave Munson confirmed that talks had ended.

“They looked at what they felt they could do,” Munson said. “It just wasn’t close to where we were at, so we dropped it.”

What I can’t figure out is why ‘some’ councilors were let in on the secret and some were not? Does the mayor view some councilors more important then others? He sure does. According to this article, at least one person knew about it.

“I know that there really wasn’t an appetite for us to spend money,” Councilor Greg Jamison said. “It was supposed to be on the cheap. I told them that it was the only way I could support this.”

I can bet that Knudson was probably also let in on the secret. Government works best when it is out in the open, transparent and has checks and balances. Why were there only a couple of councilors serving as those checks and balances? This stinks, but is no surprise. Here is an example of the partisianship that exists;

Rumor has it few weeks back the city councilors and mayor received an email from a event center task force member accusing one of the councilors in participating in class warfare, and organizing the effort to kill the Events Center recommendation. I know this councilor very well, first off I won’t even respond to the class warfare comment since that is the typical talking point rich people drag out every time the little guy mentions they don’t want to pay for their playgrounds (and this guy is rich, trust me) but as for organizing the effort, I can say this, I know this councilor very well and at no time did he ever mention to me or Cheryl Rath that we should attend EC task force meetings. In fact, Cheryl is the one who encouraged that same councilor, myself and the media to show up to the meetings because the shit was going down. I haven’t seen the email yet, but I’m crossing my fingers that it will surface in the media and reveal once and for all some of the bullies that sat on the Task Force ramming their flawed plan down taxpayer’s throats.

But back to the original topic. I have often felt that the city should have refurbished the coliseum for a performance hall and converted the old Washington High in joint offices for the county and city and left Carnegie as a museum. But it is still not too late. The city owns the Pavilion and has dumped over $20 million into it’s maintenance and upgrades since it opened over 10 years ago. I have suggested all along they close the Science Center (except the Cinedome) and make the space into offices for the city. It wouldn’t cost us a penny.

Posted in: Munson, SF City Council, Sioux Falls