Letter author only proved how little they know about city government

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I have often been baffled why so many people are concerned about the presidential election but don’t give two rips about their local government, you know, the people who determine what you pay in over half of your taxes. Just trust them, they say;

We have a progressive city leadership, and I feel they have led proudly through their many achievements.

Don’t compare the success of Downtown, the Events Center and an indoor pool to a $25 million dollar city administration that will be mostly empty and unfinished on day one. That’s not progress, that’s fiscal stupidity. The city would save millions over the next 20-30 years by leasing space. There is NOTHING in city charter that requires the city to OWN the buildings they house workers in. Especially pencil pushers.

(If) We wait another five to six years and decide to build with an increased cost of $8 million to $10 million more?

Yeah, that’s that thing called ‘inflation’ funny how it works. Maybe I should buy a case of candy bars now and freeze them, cause you know, candy bar prices are going up. The problem with his argument is that we don’t need the building today, and we won’t need it 6 years from now. As I have argued, as technology increases, the city should be able to reduce the number of administration workers, or better yet, start a home based worker program, we would save millions and it would boost morale. Let’s truly embrace a REAL progressive idea.

I trust our mayor and elected officials to lead us where we need to go. This city is flourishing.

He is right, the city is flourishing, and it all happened without a new administration building. How did city workers get so much accomplished with stagnant wage increases (while their managers were receiving corporate management style raises) and cramped space? I have often argued that if this building was really needed, we would have built it with cash and reserves before the EC or Indoor Pool. It was an after thought of the mayor, not a progressive idea at all.

There are those poor losers from previous elections that are choosing to make all things at City Hall political.

What part of elected ‘politician’ don’t you understand? Government is NOT business, and vice versa. ANY business our city government does is POLITICAL, whether they are approving a one-day wine license or a $25 million dollar administration building.

I tire of the Kermit Staggers clones that continue to throw cold water rather than seize the moment for numerous advances and the needed update to municipal offices and space. I fear our new council members will be nothing but a drag on continuing progress for Sioux Falls.

Yeah, those darn Staggers followers who got elected in the past election, and their horrible non-progressive ideas like snow gates, gardens in the boulevard and hopefully the elimination of charging for Project Trim. How dare they push these ideas off on us and drag us down by making the city be more customer service oriented, transparent and accountable to the people that fund them. What on God’s green earth are they thinking?

If voters were truly upset by City Council plans, there would be an uprising.

Yeah, because 6,400 signatures in 3 weeks is hardly an uprising.

Pathetic voter turnout is not an encouraging way to promote change; it suggests to me that most voters are complacent but satisfied with this status quo progressive city.

I wish more people would vote, but it seems our town is full of complacency, we do agree on that. But to say they are satisfied, may be a stretch. It’s an education curve, we try hard to get people involved with local government, but every time we do something, we have to hear from letter writers like you who say we are ‘interfering’. The mayor and the city council don’t own our government, WE DO, involvement should be encouraged not scolded.

Nelson Park at 10th Street and Cliff Avenue is the home of a relatively nice outdoor pool complex. Ever notice how much green space is basically wasted on the corner.

We do notice, the complex was supposed to be larger, but it seems some peeps with sour grapes over losing the election cut back on the size of the complex, which is ironic, because Drake Springs is the most popular pool in the city.

Ever wonder how much the city would have saved on the city’s new aquatic center if it had been built eight to 10 years ago on this corner?

We would be spending millions a year on maintenance if we would have built it there. Our aquatic consultant has said in their report that Nelson Park would have been a poor location for an indoor pool due to significant ground water issues that have existed for a 100 years. Besides, voters rejected an indoor pool at that location TWICE.

How bad is the traffic on busy Western Avenue going to congest across the street from a shopping center?

Maybe you should ask our ‘progressive’ and ‘visionary’ mayor and 3 city councilors why Spellerberg was chosen, when the wisest place would have been at the Sanford Sports Complex, with plenty of parking, room for expansion, and a possible partnership with Sanford that would have saved us millions.

The mayor and Councilor Erpenbach should stick to their principles.

Because fiscal stupidity and ignorance should never stand in the way of progress. Go Team!

Posted in: Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

The Chicken Lil’s are in full force over the school start date

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Here we go again, calling something a ‘failure’ before it has even been tried;

“It kind of feels like we have snow days coming up, like planned snow days, and we’re certainly going to enjoy it while it lasts, but there is that feeling that, that we’re going to pay for it at some point,” Morrison said.

Morrison was against the change in the district’s school schedule which pushes the start date to after Labor Day.

“There is a little bit of feeling of dread that our kids are falling behind,” he said.

Like the campaign before the vote, they think the handful of AP students are not going to be able to pass testing after Christmas break. I guess if teachers think that is the case, they need to take a long hard look in the mirror. If you have been teaching students for several months and you think they are going to lose that knowledge over a short Christmas break, you must not have much confidence in your teaching abilities. I don’t think these kids will lose a beat. Let’s admit it, this is about SPORTS and they are using the AP students as an excuse.

“From talking to other teachers, too, I hear that, they’ll probably go with it for a few years, and I can see it changing back to the way it was, based on high school students and the AP tests and semester tests,” Middlen said.

“They’re going to negotiate a change, I’m sure of it,” Morrison said.

The School Board had SEVERAL opportunities to negotiate before petitions were taken out, they ignored voters, parents, businesses and tax payers. You lost the election, face reality. A majority of school district voters said they want to start after labor day. Done deal. These are people who pay your wages not some superintendent that used to hide in dark corners with her school board to make decisions. This reminds me of the people who still complain about Drake Springs Pool that was voted on over seven years ago, even though the city’s aquatic consultant said building a pool at Nelson Park would have been a mistake because of ground water issues. So please, let’s stop the bitch session about losing the election, and get back to teaching our children.

Posted in: SF School District, Sioux Falls

Councilor Rolfing makes ignorant offhand comment, but I’m not surprised

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I left after the public testimony last night for a reason, I knew a majority of the council would get out their rubber stamps and approve the pool and ambulance service. Fortunately Med-Star will have their day in court.

But what get me every time is the continued sour grapes over Drake Springs pool, it’s one thing for the public to be misinformed about the situation at that park, but when the mayor and councilors say stupid crap they know isn’t true, (or maybe they don’t) it really chaps my hide.

Councilor Rolfing jokingly insisted that we budget extra money last night so we could fix the mistake we made at Nelson Park and build an indoor pool there. The crowd laughed and applauded. I laughed to, but not with you, but at you for your ignorance.

As our outside aquatics consultant said in their report to the city, there is groundwater issues at Nelson Park that would prevent us from building an indoor pool there, because of maintenance issues. Councilor Staggers even pointed out they are having maintenance issues already with the outdoor pool there.

So please, enough with Drake Springs already, your own consultant even said it was a bad idea. Thank God Stehly stopped the indoor pool at Nelson Park, just think of the millions we would be on the hook for now fixing it.

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

Councilor Erpenbach grasping at straws over snowgates

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Like the Drake Springs pool vote, it seems some on the city council just can’t stand the fact that citizens passed snow gates. Like Drake Springs*, they need to get over it and move on. Like I told a person yesterday, I didn’t vote for the Events Center, but the citizens said they wanted it, so it is what it is, all I can do now is make sure the facility is ran properly, and the councilors should do the same about snow gates. Huber put on a great presentation that was factual, positive and forthright, and all Rolfing and Erpenbach did was grasp at straws about snow gates usefulness. Michelle even went as far as saying it might potentially affect real estate values. She mentioned that people on the end of the block may not get as good of service as people in the middle, and somehow in her crazy reasoning, this would affect home prices on corner lots. (Actual Presentation, starts at 1:04)

WOW. Michelle has said some pretty ridiculous things, but this takes the cake. It also shows how little she knows about real estate and should concern us that she is voting on affordable housing issues and planning and zoning.

First thing I was told when I was looking for my first home, “Don’t buy a corner lot.” They are notorious for more sidewalk to scoop, more yard to mow, more trees to trim, and you are responsible for scooping the sidewalk ends. Some people like corner lots, but they are known for more maintenance, this isn’t some real estate secret, and certainly, snowgates are not going to change these facts.

Michelle and Rex need to accept the vote of the people, and move on, snow gates are a part of city ordinance passed by the citizenry by over 70% of the vote. Stop crying about them.

*Actually, ironically, it is good thing citizens voted for an outdoor pool at Nelson Park, since the Aquatics Consultant the city hired said due to groundwater issues at the park, an indoor pool at that location would have had maintenance issues.

Posted in: Michelle Erpenbach, SF City Council, snow removal, Snowgates

The final word on an indoor pool at Spellerberg: The city cheats at the game

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A brief timeline of events:

A petition drive was successful to propose an outdoor pool replacement at Spellerberg park. The opposition, CS365 has had 7 years to raise money for a private/public partnership or start a petition drive of their own since the indoor pool vote failed at Nelson park. They have done NOTHING except beg the city to build them a pool to be subsidized by ALL taxpayers whether you use it or not.

An aquatics study done by an independent contractor suggested a centrally located indoor pool at Spellerberg (ironically the next pool that needed to be replaced and probably the only reason this site was picked). It also said that the Sanford Sports complex would be a good location. The same report also mentioned that an indoor pool at Nelson park would have been a mistake, due to ground water issues in the area that may have caused issues for an indoor pool building. Good thing the indoor pool was voted down there, it could have ended up costing taxpayers millions in upkeep and maintenance.

The city spent $46,000 of taxpayer money before the recent municipal election to provide drawings of an indoor pool that wasn’t even on the ballot, misleading voters.

The city did several taxpayer funded meetings about Spellerberg and indoor options before the election (which was probably a violation of State election laws).

Incorrect ballots were sent to Central District voters by the auditor’s office. The county has asked for an investigation. The SYN group has also asked for an investigation of misleading ballot language.

The ballot language had a date typo and misleading language which prompted a court hearing a day before the election. As a witness for the city, the SOS, Jason Gant admitted that the city did not have to have a complicated and wordy 17” ballot and could have used the standard 14” ballot because state law only requires you name the title of the initiative on the ballot. When further asked if he would have had a ballot with this much language on it, he said ‘No’. But the city can do what they want, since they handle their own elections. The 17” ballots caused complications with tabulation machines.

After the election many admitted they weren’t sure what a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ meant. The meetings, drawings and misleading ballot language confused voters on election day. 70% voted No to an outdoor pool at Spellerberg, but many people who voted NO have mixed feelings about an indoor pool at that location, or what they were even voting for or against.

CS365 claims that the election was a mandate to build an indoor pool at Spellerberg, BUT;

  1. There was not an ‘indoor pool’ on the ballot
  2. There was not enough funding set aside for an indoor pool in the budget before the election
  3. CS365 used a ‘push poll’ before the election as evidence people want an indoor pool at Spellerberg

I have no doubt people want a community indoor pool, I’m just not sure they specifically want it at Spellerberg, and with that location, there is issues;

  1. A quit claim deed with the VA which could be preventing the city from getting a bond for the pool.
  2. Using levee debt repayment to build a recreational facility (This money should be used for drainage and infrastructure) which is extremely fiscally irresponsible and not PRUDENT.
  3. Traffic issues, park congestion, parking.

What is the alternative? Sanford has offered to do a study, give the city the land, offer a donation towards a public indoor facility, and the best part of it all is that it would be built at a location that already has the infrastructure in place, parking and host to other athletic facilities, such as tennis, hockey, basketball, football, wrestling, etc. etc.

There are also other issues with the Spellerberg plan.

Councilors Entenman and Aguliar should not be allowed to approve this deal at their last meeting at the end of their terms. Why? If something goes awry with the Spellerberg plan if approved, what are the consequences for these two councilors?

There is a NEW claim that Spellerberg was only meant to be ‘recreational’ and not ‘competitive’ so Sanford can go ahead with their facility. If this is the case, why do so many people complain about the Drake Springs pool being too ‘recreational’ and not having enough room to swim? The indoorers want swim lanes at the Spellerberg location, not just play aquatics. This is a flat out lie.

The other false claim is that the Spellerberg neighborhood needs to be ‘revitalized’. Since when? It’s a beautiful neighborhood that won’t change one single bit if that outdoor pool gets filled in and more greenspace is produced. The indoor pool at that location will literally look like a sore thumb in this quaint and nicely aged part of town. If they are concerned about revitalization there are a lot of other Centrally located neighborhoods that would benefit.

Sanford will probably build an indoor aquatics facility no matter what is decided tonight, so why not just wait for their feasibility study, then make a decision?

As I have said before, don’t care where this is going to be built, at this point I think we all agree the community wants an indoor public pool. It is the process that concerns me. There is no reason we need to ramrod this, it will get done, let’s do it right and without a bunch of smoke and theater

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