Ignore the crappy roads, they will always be crappy

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At the Sioux Falls city council informational meeting yesterday we had a presentation about the conditions of our roads in Sioux Falls from a consultant who studied them last year. They put in a rating system on the roads.

After Councilor Stehly asked why we will not be putting more focus on the worst of the worst streets, Mark Cotter explained that we must focus on the fair streets more to keep them resurfaced before they get bad. Which I am in partial agreement. He concluded that it cost 8x more to replace a bad street then to just resurface. Stehly argued that we should be doing more to fix the bad streets.

Of course the naysayers came out in full force. First they complained the money wasn’t there, than in classic ‘make stuff up Michelle’, Erpenbach basically claimed we were driving on streets of gold.

I will agree with her partially. Anybody visiting our community will see our arterials and main routes are in very good shape, our residential streets in Sioux Falls central and proper, not so much.

I encourage anyone to either drive, or better yet take a bike ride starting at Nick’s Gyros on 41st street and zig zag through the neighborhoods towards 14th and Minnesota. Some of the roads are in such bad shape there are weeds growing in the center cracks. They are so bad, you can tell they are not only in need of replacement, but full curb and gutter, sidewalks, drainage and probably pipe upgrades, that is why the city is scared the death of opening that can of worms. They are willing to let the central part of our community suffer (where they are building a brand new swimming pool) in the name of urban sprawl.

Erpenbach goes on to say that roads become an issue in the Spring because of potholes, but no one talks about it any other time. Huey. This coming from a councilor who hasn’t talked to a constituent since she was elected. People complain about our roads 24/7, 365 days out of the year. It’s not just during campaign season.

So how can we fix the really bad roads while maintaining our urban sprawl? I have suggested a 1-2 year moratorium on quality of life projects, (façade) maintenance on entertainment facilities, flat line the parks budget, subsidizing non-essential non-profits, etc. I bet we could easily squeeze out an extra $20-30 million dollars for streets (you know, the original intention of the CIP to begin with).

This would of course take planning and courage, something that is in short supply at city hall these days.

 

Posted in: Public Utilities, Public Works, Road Funding, SF City Council, Sioux Falls

A busy council agenda for Tuesday Night

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The council may want to consider one of these for the meeting

Forget about the upcoming municipal election for a brief moment, because the current city council has their work cut out for them Tuesday night. Hopefully they stock up on their Depends and shots of insulin, because it is going to be a long night.

In item #1, in the consent agenda, the council will be asked to appropriate $22K for Events Center Cooler Storage Addition Agreement for engineering services to Koch Hazard (this is only the expenditure for design, not construction). The building is only a year old, and we are already adding ‘little things’ to the facility that should have been in place. Makes you wonder how many other ‘little things’ were skipped to make it under budget? (cough, cough, shoddy siding, cough, cough). Expect this to be just one item of several over the next couple of years. Good thing we got that million dollar settlement for popcorn poppers, maybe they could install a few in the lobby of Carnegie Town Hall?

Now let’s skip all the way down to Item #60 (man, that’s a lot of beer licenses) Must have something to do with this past PBR weekend 🙂

Item #60 deals with FREE youth ridership on city buses. I don’t expect much of a debate and this passing with flying colors, though there may be some opposition from administration.

Item #61 deals with the proposed city administration building, I expect this to fail at least 5-3. It is obvious that this project requires more scrutiny by the next council.

Item #63 deals with the boulevard ordinance. I don’t expect much pushback from the council or public on this one, but you never know, those Kentucky Bluegrass defenders have been known to show up without warning.

Items #71-72, Platting fee increases. Not sure what kind of debate will occur, but expect some from the development community to rear their heads. This goes back to the ridiculous increase in the second penny from .92 to a full penny and the empty, empty, very empty promises of the development peeps to pay their fare share of arterial road development. Not sure if all the fees will pass as is or will need amending, but it is WAY overdue.

Item #75, appropriating left over monies to streets.

Item #76, 1st reading, deals with appropriating grants for affordable housing

Item #77, 1st reading, deals with cleaning up typos from our crack legal team

And that’s not all, it doesn’t end until item #85, in which the mayor will ask for adjournment then tell us how hard our city council and employees work because they had to sit through another long meeting (while collecting a paycheck).

You all come back now, Yah hear?

Posted in: SF City Council, Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Informational meeting, Parking Hikes, Cell Phone Ban, Platting fee disappearance, and calling a Spade a Spade.

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It seems the city council just can’t drop the cell phone ban (even though they already did). At the advice of our City Attorney Loophole David Fiddle-Faddle (who wasn’t present) he previously told council chair Anderson that the only thing the council could do is ask for an advisory vote, and if the majority voted in favor of the ban, it would go back to the council to approve the ordinance, which in turn is no different then what they were proposing to do anyway. I think it should be an initiative process and be citizen driven. Councilor Karsky seemed to be the only voice of reason on the council, pointing out that hands free or not, there is no difference in distraction. This is turning into a real cluster, and the one councilor who championed this to begin with was very quiet on the topic yesterday (Erpenbach, or as Mr. Ideals Anderson calls Michelle, ERF-EN-Bach.)

Anderson also pointed out during the monthly financial report that the platting fees and .08 tax collection for arterial roads had mysteriously disappeared from the reports. Probably they are tired of Anderson pointing out how much of a disastrous idea it was.

Councilor Jamison takes over as the school marm (since she was peepless) during the meeting and reminds director Kearney that the Indoor Pool is not being paid for with ‘cash’ but with paid back ‘borrowed money’ (levee repayment) and in the future he asked Don to refer to it that way. Don just mumbled a yes back to him.

But the shocker of the meeting was when a parking consultant arrived with all new parking fees, and mysteriously the director of parking, Q-Tip Smith, was not even in attendance to introduce them or answer questions.

Smart move Darrin.

Just a few years back the parking department bragged about being an enterprise fund that made the city so much money they could afford to buy scooters for the meter maids and gents and re-brand the whole system (look for the gold ‘P’). But all of sudden fast forward to the city’s largest budget ever and the mayor trying to grab from every cookie jar possible to pay for unneeded TIF’s and parking ramps for private businesses. While they are proposing to decrease some monthly rates in the ramps (to better fill them) they are proposing a large increase in parking meters (side streets from 60 cents to 75, and main roads from 75 cents to $1 per hour). Besides the fact that I find these hikes questionable since the system makes so much money (I think this is a back door plan to help pay for bonds on a new ramp for a private business) I have often said if we want to increase traffic downtown and promote it’s growth, we should make all ramps free and only charge at meters on main arterials (like Phillips and Main).

It will be interesting to see how the council plays this one out, and if director Smith decides to show up to answer questions.

 

Posted in: SF City Council, Sioux Falls

MMM mentioned in his CIP address yesterday, we are a Boom Town

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yteMugRAc0[/youtube]

We are certainly in a Boom Town, if you are one of the ‘Specials’.

No mention of First Premier, marketing the worst, subprime CC in the nation;

A former executive who spent 15 years with Citibank

Oh, he gets around to it;

Then I went to Europe and then came back to South Dakota to work at Premier Bank with Denny Sanford. I quit in 2009 to pursue my dream to be in public service.

Bank? Nice little line, you worked for the card division, Pinnochio. Quit? More like you got caught pursuing public office . . . then . . . quit . . . ahem.

Looking at your unemployment numbers, with the exception of a brief spike in 2010 when the rate went up to 6 percent, it’s surprising that more people don’t move here.

They don’t move here, because of the low wages and under-employment. Most people have multiple jobs. I get so tired of Mike waving that 3.5% unemployment rate around like it is the only part of the story. We have low unemployment, because people have to work their asses off to make ends meet.

Oh and this is interesting;

This year, we will blow away the record for construction in a single year. We’re already 150 percent of where we were last year, and last year was the second-highest construction year in our city’s history.

WOW! Yet we are handing out TIF’s like candy and developers are contributing very little to platting fees to help pay for arterial roads. If we are in a ‘building boom’, which we are, why do we have to handout all these incentives? It seems the developers are having their cake and eating it too.

Fifty years ago, whoever the leaders were decided to put two private country clubs side by side in what is now the heart of our city. Now we have a challenge driving from the east side of town to the west side of town because of that decision.

Then fix it. I have said all along, you could put a road through there using ED, or even working with the Country Clubs. Either way, it is possible. If we took it, we could turn it into a wonderful state park with campsites available. How wonderful it would be to have campgrounds in the middle of our city? I have often said this project should have been pursued over an EC. It would definately have a greater economic impact on our city.

Here’s another thing: Our city council insists we have at least 25 percent of our operating expenses in a reserve fund every year. Right now we’re at about 36 percent. Name another town in America that is repairing streets, rebuilding infrastructure, tackling growth needs for a community, and adding to their city’s piggy bank. We have added to our city’s reserve every year for the last three years.

Nevermind most of that money in the reserves is BORROWED, and the city is $400 million in debt.

That was one of my dreams when I moved back here from San Antonio—I wanted to create a downtown where people would want to live.

I don’t give Munson much credit for anything, but the expansion of DT is because of him and Carol Pagones (sp?) not MMM. If Mike was so enthusiastic about growth DT, he would have finished the RR relocation project already and either built the EC downtown, or moved the CC downtown. He has done neither. He has successfully given TIF’s like candy to DT developers, and turned the $5 million River Greenway project into an over $15 million private landscaping project for private developers.

The spin in this article doesn’t surprise me. MMM only gives you the positive side of things, and I guess I am always the cynic. But folks, cynicism is reality. Bullshit is Bullshit.

Posted in: Mayor Hubris, Mayor Subprime Mike Huether, Mike Huether, Sioux Falls

From my email box • Todd Epp on Dr. Staggers as mayor

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“Yeah, like, I support Mike Huether for mayor, even though I can’t vote for him. Becuz, like, I think Sioux Falls is so great, I moved to Harrisburg.”

I sent out a mass email yesterday steering people towards the Argus Leader interview of Kermit, I tried to only include people in Sioux Falls, but apparently I included a couple of people who don’t live in Sioux Falls (Epp lives in Harrisburg). In expected ‘Todd Epp’ style he responded to my email and pulled his normal ‘reply all’ (Like the other people on my email list actually give a rat’s ass about his opinion).

But now that I think about it, I would love to respond to his email, in the best way I know possible, on South DaCola.

Scott:

Thanks for the Kermit Staggers info.

However, I think I can summarize Kermit’s positions on the various issues facing Sioux Falls thusly: No, I don’t like it, no, no, no, no, against, no, against, no, no, no, against, no, no, against, I don’t like it, no, no, against, and no.

It is pretty obvious that Todd did not bother to watch the interview, he would find out that Kermit is a very much a yes man, a guy who says, “Yes we can get it done if we work together to solve problems.” But since we are addressing ‘NO’s, let’s go there. I have often said, either Kermit is psychic or he has the pulse of the citizens. Here’s some facts about Kermit’s ‘NO’ votes;

• Kermit was against the Rec Center, voters agreed.

• Kermit was against the indoor pool, voters agreed.

• Kermit was against a tax increase to build arterial roads, that was supposed to be a 50/50 partnership. It turned out to be a gigantic boondoggle in which taxpayers have put in over 15x more then the developers.

• Kermit was against a 3rd penny sales tax to build an events center (ironically Huether, who Epp supports followed suit) and the legislature agreed.

Amazing how someone who votes NO all the time has a majority of voters agree with him. Heck, he even has his closest competitor agreeing with him.

Kermit’s a great pick if you think it is 1953 in Sioux Falls.  I’d rather see any of the other candidates win than Kermit.  At least they want to see the community move forward, not backward.  Sioux Falls needs a mayor who has ideas and wants to do things to improve the community, not just complain about spending money and being against anything that might make Sioux Falls more competitive and attractive to prospective, new, and longtime residents.

Todd obviously has spent too many days worshipping at the altar of Argus Publisher Beck, and reading the moronic comments on the Argus forum boards.

Kermit has proposed instituting a Hoover commission after he is elected (Bill Peterson suggested it too, but a day after Kermit proposed the idea, another candidate trying to ride the coattails of Dr. Staggers).

Kermit wants the city to move forward, but he knows you don’t have to do this by spending tax dollars. He has suggested;

• Deregulation to help clean up the older neighborhoods faster

• Revising the city ordinances and codes and taking out the unneeded ones

• Tax breaks and community development loans to small businesses to help with expansion

And Sioux Falls has an impact on the region and state that makes it vital that the community does well so the rest of South Dakota can do well too.  When Sioux Falls sneezes, the rest of the state gets a cold.

As a Harrisburg resident, however, I have no official say in the matter.  But also as a Harrisburg resident living in the shadow of the city, I do know I want Sioux Falls to be a place of job opportunities, good parks and recreational facilities, safe streets and neighborhoods, culture, and most importantly, a positive attitude.

You are right, you have no say in the matter, even though as a Sioux Falls taxpayer I subsidize your city through my taxes and water fees. Something Kermit wants to put an end to, and rightfully so.

We have that now and several of the other candidates, including my friend Mike Huether, will continue to foster such a Sioux Falls and improve on what other business, political, social, and cultural leaders have done in the past to enrich Sioux Falls.

This isn’t about Mike, but I knew you couldn’t resist mentioning him. You can yack away about Mike all you want, but Kermit has a proven record, Mike has ‘talk’.

For about ten years in the 1970s and 80s, I went to college, lived, and worked in Topeka, KS, a comparably sized community.  But because they had leaders like Kermit who basically were against everything, didn’t want to spend money, wouldn’t compromise, and only could see the problems with new ideas and not the opportunities, the community suffered.  It lost population.  It lost business.  More importantly, it lost it’s self-esteem and ability to bring people together to find solutions.  Topeka has only recently started to rebound because of leaders like Mike Huether (and some of the other candidates), who have had to change Topeka’s Kermit-like No/I’m Against Everything mindset.  As much as I enjoyed living in Topeka, a beautiful, historic city, I have enjoyed living in Sioux Falls even more because our community leaders in most every endeavor come up with solutions.  They also believe tomorrow will be better than today if we work hard, bring people together, see problems as opportunities.

This paragraph alone proves you know nothing about Kermit or watched the interview. Some things that Kermit wants to pursue in Sioux Falls if he becomes mayor are;

• Making the Pavilion more accessible and affordable to the public

• Securing a more private sponsorship of public art

• More transparency in government – you know, the little pest we call the First Amendment, that you know so much about, Todd 🙂

• And most importantly treating every citizen and their opinions with respect.

I commend you being involved so passionately in the political process.  But I find Kermit is a surprising choice for a young, creative person such as you who has made Sioux Falls your home.

That is why I support Kermit, because he is a passionate creative person who also has the intellect to succeed as mayor.

Kermit also has an amazing sense of humor, something I have never mentioned before. He is not a person to get ‘upset’ or ‘paranoid’ when he is attacked politically, in fact he often laughs and brushes it off. I haven’t had that experience with any of the other candidates running for mayor, in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of them carry a mirror around with them. Be careful not to break it. Kinda wonder if that is what happened at the beginning of the Munson administration?

Posted in: Kermit Staggers, Sioux Falls Mayor Race