As of 11 AM today, it seems the city’s maintainers (plows) are all still parked. I did see a sander/plow out on Cliff Avenue though. Those are the bigger dump trucks to the left of the picture. I guess our new Street Manager is a REAL conservative, saving us $$$ 🙁
Click to Enlarge
One may question how the State Theater ranks 3 out of 6 votes when public safety only gets one vote from the city council (DOC: Work Session Votes Cast Results.pdf)
It would seem to me that Council Leadership is probably ‘whipping the votes’ behind the scenes for the State Theater and the administration, and like the massive proposed TIFs for downtown development, there seems to be some backdoor wrangling going on to make the appearance that these things are important to the public.
I did my usual polling this past weekend of downtowners about funding the Theater with tax dollars. While there was huge praise for the State and it’s redevelopment, most if not all, said it shouldn’t be funded with tax dollars. The most common response was that they have had plenty of time to raise the money.
I was also told that the Henkin family pulled their donation due to the delay in finishing the project (I haven’t had anyone verify that yet).
I think if the administration and certain councilors try to push forward with any significant funding to the project (the number being thrown around is $1.5 million) there will be some backlash from residents) especially with all the issues we have been having with flooding homes and potholes.
I guess we will see how this drama plays out.
It seems more training needs to be done on open government, and since Unruh lost her city council race in Tea yesterday (24/33 – That’s the vote count, not percentage) she will have plenty of time to figure it out.
She did a presentation yesterday on a Sioux Falls Housing Summit during the Sioux Falls City Council informational meeting. While the concept is a good idea, it ignores the whole purpose of having a public summit without making it available to the public. Yes, the public input sessions later in the day ARE open to the public w/o paying a registration fee, but there are some other issues with this summit.
• They are only asking people who are basically (dirt) poor to comment about housing. Most of the people who are affected by affordable housing are actually people who are working and struggling to pay rent or mortgage and spreading themselves thin working multiple jobs. These are the biggest ‘chunk’ of people that need to be served, but see, there is very little ‘government handouts’ for these folks so they focus on the very poor and underserved so they can gobble up that grant money. Who wants to hear from the working poor anyway? Please, get back to work!
• The event is NOT being filmed (or planned to be filmed) and they are hosting it on a Thursday instead of a Saturday when persons from the public could attend. This of course is done on purpose so the bureaucrats don’t have to work on a Saturday for the people they SHOULD be working for, the public. We would hate to inconvenience them while collecting a paycheck from us.
• They are charging a $20 fee for people to attend a public event. They argue this is to pay for the grub. Couldn’t they find a sponsor for the grub? The past mayor used to host a Saturday neighborhood conference that was FREE, with FREE food at a public venue (The Orpheum) and was filmed. Even if the most transparent mayor in the history of our city (snarc) can figure this out, I’m sure a Tea, SD resident can figure it out.
Once again, in attempt to make all the Harvardy, Bloombergy, New Yorky peeps happy about PTH’s night courses on leadership and innovation, the administration is missing the bigger picture about serving the public . . . it’s about serving the public.
Last night at the Sioux Falls City Council meeting, Councilor Kiley recused himself from voting on items #21-22 that have to do with Northern States Power. I do know that councilors in the past have served on some kind of board with the energy company, so it was wise of him to recuse himself.
Usually these boards have some kind of compensation to be on them, or at the least compensate for travel/lodging and meeting time. A state official has said that Kiley is NOT being paid to be on the board, which seems a little strange. Would you serve on an energy board without pay out of the goodness of your heart? And if you were not getting paid to be on the board, what’s the point in recusal?
It just doesn’t add up. If anyone has a link showing the board members and compensation, that would be helpful.
So this is an interesting story;
l3wis