South DaCola

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Elections Joel Dykstra Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls

Next Generation Leadership PAC

l3wis 6Comments

I guess one of the reasons the PAC cannot be found is because somehow the filings for the PAC have disappeared off the city’s website. I was able to get a screenshot of the last page of the PAC’s July 3rd filing thru a city contact. Curious that city employees have access to this document but citizens don’t. But I don’t have time to go into that rant and how our new innovation department is finding ways to hide information from citizens unless you have a traceable login.

You will see below in PTH’s July 3rd filing he received an almost $25K donation from the PAC. The same day, the PAC filed itself. It seems they are on a mission to recruit more candidates like Paul. God help us all!

(The rumor in political circles, and the reason Dusty Johnson had a freakout on a fellow Republican in RC recently is because they believe Rounds will not run again for senate, leaving Johnson to run for that seat and TenHaken to run for Dusty’s current seat, but like I said,  just gossip at this point.)

I also find it interesting that Joel Dykstra was not only the treasurer of PTH’s campaign but also the PAC’s. Well isn’t that convenient? You may know Joel who got his rear end kicked by Tim Johnson. But Joel is also a well known developer around town that likes any developer welfare and zoning breaks he can get from Sioux Falls taxpayers. I guess this is what they mean by ‘Next Generation’. Republican elected officials taking money from the working poor and turning into big profits for his ilk.

Joel also gave money to Alex Jensen. This must be their first ‘recruit’ in the PTH Next Gen movement. I expect more recruits from this PAC that has seemed to slide under the radar up until this point. I guess it helps when public officials conveniently hide your filings (if someone can provide a link, I will gladly retract that statement).

At least we have cleared the air on who they are so far, it will be interesting to watch them dump bundles of money into ineffective campaigns and lose. (PTH’s full report: 20180703-TenHaken-CFDRT (1)

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Kristi Noem

Hey Noem, some people actually pay for their own security

l3wis 17Comments

Please protect me from my constituents, especially in a salon lobby.

Another Democrat showing just how cheap the president and Noem are;

EL PASO, Texas – Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke’s campaign, Beto For America, has fully reimbursed the City of El Paso for its March 30th campaign kick-off rally in Downtown.

But the $20K Noem still owes the citizens of Sioux Falls is a spit in the bucket compared to the $400K she is looking for from the state taxpayers for a fence around her residence. If Noem wants to continue to be paranoid about her security, fine, but she can do it on her own dime.

Alex Jensen SF City Council Sioux Falls Theresa Stehly

Alex Jensen to run for At-Large seat currently held by Stehly

l3wis 10Comments

Let’s talk about getting in the game early. I guess his treasurer, Matt Paulson wants to get a head’s up on the game. I guess it takes awhile to raise $100K.

You may remember when Alex was in the legislature, he had to move out of his district 12, but before he resigned that position he decided to take out papers to run in his new district 13, then he lost.

Is this best you could find Paulson?

DOC: JENSEN-Intent

Art Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls’ Greatest artist has died

l3wis 1Comments

So many things I could say about Carl Grupp. He passed away today. I met him when one of my friends was going to Augie for art and I was so amazed by not just his versatile talent, but his stories and infectious sense of humor. I have always said when it came to Sioux Falls artists, there was Carl and then the rest. He embodied being an artist, there are not too many of those people around these days anymore.

I always laughed about this quote Carl gave to the Argus after one of my paintings were vandalized at NitWits;

“A lot of (Ehrisman’s) art is protest art to begin with. It’s weird that they would protest the protest,” Grupp said.

Somehow, I think there was a joke in there.

We will miss you Carl!

Open Government Open Meetings SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council continues to chip away at open government through little battles

l3wis 6Comments

I was reminded of proposing a total transparency ordinance a year ago after talking to a city councilor yesterday. I was trying to tell them that while the little battles over open government have been slowly chipping a way at transparency, it is much more like going two steps forward and three steps back. I suggested that they propose a total transparency ordinance, and if it fails, keep bringing it back with tweaks until it does. Let’s face it, the city council has had over a year to come up with a permanent solution. I think they should ALL work on this together, first in a working session, operations committee and city council informational.

Right now all we have seen the past year is a back and forth game of what should be transparent and what should not. I have said in the past that there has never been a government body in SD who has gotten in trouble for being too transparent, so open it up and put it in writing (in the charter).

I guess we can continue to have the school yard fights over registration fees and book club meetings, but the council should really be looking for a semi-permanent solution to fixing transparency and communication, because until that happens, I’m not going to listen to the whining anymore.

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