Jen Holsen worked in city government so long she forgot the smell of bullshit

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While I appreciate Jen’s opinion’s on some topics, I often chuckle when she writes a post about her sudden surprise when a politician is saying one thing and doing another, especially Smiling Mike;

I joined the Build It Downtown Group because I believed in what this passionate and highly committed group of business people wanted to do – engage the Mayor in considering alternative sites for an event center. Consider, not demand. Talk, discuss and give input to the mayor and his staff as they work through the process. Work with them on this project. It is a noble cause spearheaded by noble people who have the best interests of the city at heart. These people are taxpayers, citizens of Sioux Falls and voters. This group has worked hard to gather data, meet with architects, engineers, city planners, developers and the public. They have studied this issue extensively and reviewed dozens of cities’ successes with their own events centers. They deserve to be heard, not ignored.

Why is it that this group is being ignored and even demonized?

There are a lot of groups in SF that deserve to be heard. What makes BID special? Because Hildy runs the group, or because you are a part of it? This should come as no surprise, the mayor has chosen the Arena site from the beginning and all data will point in that direction.

What I don’t get is why the Mayor and members of his staff choose to ignore the Build It Downtown group’s repeated requests to meet and discuss their ideas.

What is Not to Get? The fact that he is king and will run his court the way he chooses? Munson did it for 8 years, and you never heard a peep. I’m not defending Mike, I’m just saying, isn’t it a little late to bitch about the mayoral dictatorship we have had for years? Where was your blog and voice during the Munson years . . . oh . . . that’s right, you were collecting a paycheck from the city and worked at the pleasure of the mayor, so you bitched quietly in a corner by the water cooler.

The mayor promised to seek public input before decisions were made. He has chosen to ignore or even listen to voters who want to give input or their opinions regarding this important project. He is failing to keep his promises. He is failing the voting public.

And all of this is a shocker? I have said all along, if Dr. Staggers were mayor right now, this would be a very open process, in fact, you can probably guarantee he would not be involved at all. The EC debate belongs in the private sector, not the public sector. To quote a frequent commenter on the Argue Endorser’s forums, “If it is such a crackerjack idea, why isn’t the private sector putting their money up? (paraphrasing)”

Build it Downtown’s original FACEBOOK post on the topic:

Steven C. HildebrandFebruary 17, 2011 at 6:24pm

Subject: Seems the Mayor and his staff won’t answer any questions.

Whether the questions come from city council members, the press or from Build it Downtown, the mayor and his staff refuse to answer questions directly about possible locations for the events center and about the process to make decisions.

We’ve been trying to get a meeting with his staff to discuss possible downtown locations. They first refused to meet with us, now they just ignore our requests. We’ve asked for public record information and they’ve refused to provide it.

Seems that in the next few days the mayor will announce which downtown location will be studied. He’s making this decision without public input, without discussing this with the city council (who he will ask to refer this issue to the voters), without discussing it with stakeholders and without meeting with Build it Downtown.

Our group has worked hard to gather data, meet with architects, engineers, city planners, developers and the public. We’ve studied this issue extensively and reviewed dozens of cities’s successes with their own events centers.

Yet the mayor and his staff ignore us and want us to go away. Seems like a poor way to serve the public. Maybe he’s forgotten that we are voters and taxpayers who pay his salary. Maybe he’s forgotten about his promise to be the most transparent mayor in Sioux Falls history. Maybe he’s forgotten about his promise to seek public input before all the decisions were made.

This mayor, like any mayor should be accountable to you and me. We are here to help him build a successful events center. We have the best interests of Sioux Falls at heart.

I hope you will express your concerns with the mayor. You can email him at mhuether@siouxfalls.org. He needs to hear from us.

Thank you.

Steve Hildebrand, Co-founder, Build it Downtown

Posted in: Event Center, Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls’ NEW Finance director

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(Image: KELO-TV screenshot)

I’ll have to admit, I don’t know much about this dude:

Tracy Turbak served as Watertowns’ finance officer for the past 17 years. He’s expected to start his new job in Sioux Falls next month and says this is an exciting time because the economy is turning around.

If any of my South DaCola foot soldiers from the Watertown area can fill us in, that would be great. He seems to have a lot of experience as a finance director in a major SD city, so that is good.

I find Huether’s choice ironic though, considering he railed on Staggers during the campaign for being in the public system too long, then Mike turns around and picks a 17 year veteran of the public system.

Hmmmmm?

Posted in: Sioux Falls ⋅ Tagged:

Seems someone in local government has been listening to Detroit Lewis

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As I said back in December, we can remodel the Arena and make it a better useable facility without building a new events center. And it seems I am not the only one who thinks so;

As the city of Sioux Falls continues developing its plan for a new events center and a future public vote, Jamison is working on an alternate plan in case voters balk at the idea. He thinks residents might support a downtown convention center, a recreation center at the current convention center, and a remodeled Arena.

While I don’t agree entirely with Greg’s plan, I will say we agree on remodeling the Arena, and I am not the only one. Greg and I had a very lengthy phone conversation on the topic several months ago, so this isn’t something he cooked up overnight from the advice of a knee-jerking blogger. During the phone convo Greg assured me that him and I are not the only ones who think this is a good idea. While I do agree that building a new Convention Center downtown is a great idea (maybe next to Cherapa) I would ‘tweak’ his rec center idea just a bit.

But Jamison said he’s heard from residents who want an indoor pool and from private sports clubs wanting more space. He thinks there is support for his approach, which would be a private-public partnership where both the city and private sports clubs invest in the convention center to transform it into a recreation center.

I agree, there should be private partnership, BUT I think the only public involvement is gifting the Convention Center to the private groups and let them remodel it, own it, run it and subsidize it on their own. I would even go farther and let them be exempt from property taxes and allow them to use the city owned parking lot at no charge. I think it is time the city finally pulled that bandaid off and stop holding the hands of special interest club sports that want handouts from the city.

This quote from Greg also stood out in the story;

“I believe during these economic conditions, it is better to remodel the Arena than to build a brand new events center,” he said.

That was actually the focus of the convo we had. Greg actually confessed to me that it is the job of the city to take care of infrastructure and city services first in this economic downturn. He pretty much said this exact same quote to me. Some used to be hard on Staggers for saying things like this, and accused him of not being ‘visionary.’ I think anyone who uses taxpayer’s money wisely to provide better services to citizens is truly a visionary. I think when we have people suggesting we use fruitcake to fill potholes, we have to question how city funds are being used.

But these two statements in the Stormland TV News version of this story shows just how out of touch Councilor Jim Entenman and Mayor Huether are;

“I agree with Greg, we are short a lot of those facilities in our city. There’s no doubt about it. However, the previous two task forces have identified a need for an events center too,” city council member Jim Entenman said.

Notice what Jim said, “task forces identified a need.” Not the citizens. This still hasn’t been brought to a vote. And I have often asked, “What are they afraid of?” Failure? Not according to Huether;

Mayor Mike Huether says the city needs to stay focused on an events center. Huether told KELOLAND News, “Effective leadership will keep us focused on the goal at hand, and that’s building a new events center.”

Effective leadership would have been developing a funding solution for a proposed EC first, and put it to a vote. If approved, move forward with location and design. The events center planning is like a merry-go-round that won’t let the citizens on for the ride. Real leaders listen to the public. They don’t ramrod their ideas down citizen’s throats, that’s not leadership, that’s fascism.

Posted in: Event Center, Gregg Jamison, Jim Entenman, Mayor Hubris, Mayor Subprime Mike Huether, Mike Huether, Sioux Falls

Double Take

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I gotta good laugh today. I guess (and someone tell me if I am wrong) there is a sign at the Sioux Falls airport at the luggage terminal welcoming people. The sign has a picture of Mayor Huether on it.

Someone told me today that someone pulled a Banksy and covered the picture of Huether with an image of Staggers, and it took a couple of days for someone to catch it.

Not sure if any of this is true, but if it is 1) it wasn’t me and 2) It’s really funny.

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

Top Story of 2010 in SD? Mayor Huether’s nomination.

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“Cap’tan, I can’t spend much more money, I hope this will be enough to destroy the Staggers’ campaign”

Sure, there were a few other things.

Smoking Ban (we saw this coming a mile away in the polls).

Herseth getting beat. Big whoop. I predicted early on that Noem’s ravishing good looks would win the Republican nomination, and she had a good chance of beating Steffy, and when the money poured in, I knew it was over for Steffy.

Food for votes. A political football created by the pack of wolves called the SD GOP who can’t stand to lose.

Huether beating Staggers was a surprise to me. Even though I predicted that Kermit and Mike would be in the runoff. I thought that Kermit would squeak it out. Mike’s hiring of one of the best campaign strategists, performing a smear campaign in the underground, employing get out the vote experts and spending 3x more then Kermit sealed the deal for Mike an amazing come out of nowhere victory.

I think the biggest surprise was that Sioux Falls voters trusted a mastermind marketing strategist of one of the most predatory credit card companies in the nation to run their city. We will see how this turns out. Maybe it will be the top story of 2011.

Posted in: Mayor Hubris, Mayor Subprime Mike Huether, Mike Huether ⋅ Tagged: