We are competing with Phoenix and Chicago? (Phoenix and Chicago are now laughing)

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The Mayor’s Golden Boy

Okay, sometimes I must resist posting when Mayor Good Folks says ridiculous things, like when he referred to testing snowgates as ‘Creating a Monster’ (Inside Stormland TV), but this latest quote while defending growth and development city expenditures is a bit over the top;

Sioux Falls’ main competitors no longer are Fargo and Sioux City, Iowa, but metro areas such as Phoenix and Chicago, Huether said.

Okay, I’ll play along on industry and jobs. But you also have to factor in world class music clubs and museums. And while Chicago shares our horrible weather extremes, I would much rather be in Phoenix right now.

Councilor Greg Jamison said he supports the efforts of organizations such as the Sioux Falls Development Foundation and the Chamber, but he’s not sure about the city’s new efforts.

“I’m just concerned that we might be creating another layer that’s not necessary. (The organizations) have been doing a pretty great job throughout the years,” he said.

This is about CONTROL for Mike, it’s not about whether these other orgs have been doing a good job or not, and for the most part they have. Sioux Falls is definately not stagnant. Could growth be better? Sure. But it takes more then a mayor with a big mouth and big hair to change that. It takes progressive thinking, something the business community is short on, unless they can make a buck.

Unlike the organizations, the city can rezone a property or refund sales tax as an incentive, Smith said. But he wants more incentives on the table in order to compete with states and cities offering such things as cash.

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. While I am all for easing zoning and property tax discount incentives, handing over taxpayers money to a private entity in the form of cold hard cash is a slippery slope, and I hope Megan ‘Patron’ Luther was misquoting you. If not, we need to be very weary of these intentions.

BOSOM BUDDIES

What is a strange twist on this article is the political relationship between Huether and Smith. I hope you can handle all the back slapping and boot licking;

“I just think that he (Smith) was unbelievably qualified. He’s very passionate, and he’s such an informed guy,” Huether said.

Apparently not qualified enough to finish out his councilor term, but qualified enough to pick the pockets of taxpayers in a Huether administration;

Smith, who has known Huether and his wife causally for a decade, contributed to Huether’s campaign and volunteered “bad advice from time to time and he was smart not to listen,” Smith joked.

Like when you ran to Stormland TV news like a little school boy about Staggers’ fake junket trips? That wasn’t bad advice, it was just plain ruthless.

Posted in: Darrin Smith, Mayor Hubris, Mayor Subprime Mike Huether, Mike Huether, Sioux Falls ⋅ Tagged:

Hey, Ellis! I thought pissing off Mayor Huether was my job?!

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I couldn’t agree more with Ellis’ column this week more. The Events Center vote will fail, because those who care about fiscal responsibility and low taxes will always show up to the polls;

Voters in the Staggers Brigade do not look kindly on big, expensive government projects that hold the promise of future government subsidies. They want their city government to provide good, basic services rather than circuses.

You also forgot to mention monkey crappers. I think we want more then good basic services. I also believe in funding social issues, such as the homeless. I also think parks should be funded and maintained.

Passing the idea will be hard enough, even if it appears on a general-election ballot.

While I agree, passing it will be tough, I also think the best chance is this Spring, special election, by itself. Pull that bandaid off already and stop throwing taxpayer money in a burn barrel on different ‘options’. Tell us how you will pay for it, and let us vote.

SF City government; so predictable.

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

Imagine that, now that the election is over the Dems are found not guilty

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I saw this as a political football from the beginning. Funny how no one found a (Extreme Right Wing Conservative) Republican Attorney General, who was running for office, was playing politics with the food for votes fiasco;

“I think this was a clearly partisan charge from the beginning. The Republicans know you can make a charge five or six weeks before election day and the investigation is going to take several months. They can make a charge, make it seem like fact regardless of the fact that no laws were broken. They pretend that it was and use that allegation to scare voters.”

Nesselhuf said there is history of these kinds of “bogus charges,” and it probably will be seen again in elections.

While I don’t agree with the food exchange, I doubt a donut, a hot dog or a bowl of chili is going to convince people to vote for a certain candidate. In fact that assumption is freaking absurd and as Michael Jackson would say, “Ignorant.”

Lucas Lentsch, executive director of the state Republican Party, said he expects the Legislature to weigh in when next year’s session begins.

“Vote-buying or food-for-votes will more than likely be a policy discussion of the 2011 South Dakota state Legislature,” Lentsch said Tuesday. “I fully anticipated that there would be an investigation of some sort, the attorney general and U.S. attorney have rendered their decisions, I just expect it to continue to evolve and be a policy discussion.”

It seems Lucas just can’t let it go. While I agree there should be some legislative intervention, Lucas seems to think there should be an investigation. I guess it wasn’t good enough that his party beat the living daylights out of the Dems, he seems hellbent on punishing them even more. Bring it on, your party was participating in the practice also, and that is why the charges were probably dropped.

“My goal is to make sure that the integrity of our elections is not jeopardized by any activities of different groups or individuals for that matter,” Gant said. “We’re going to look at the language, we’re going to look at reports from the attorney general and the U.S. attorney and I want to do everything I can to provide the legislature with information on how we can best ensure that we have fair and legal elections.”

This coming from a guy who created a fake issue during the election about the Feds taking over state elections. This was clearly about sticking it to the Dems right before an election. Maybe there should be laws enacted that prevent political parties from creating controversies about the opposite party right before an election. I’m sure that would make Kermit Staggers very happy.

Posted in: Ethics, SD, SD Attorney General

Open meetings commission advises reprimand of SF Ethics Board

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KSFY Screenshot

This of course after the City Attorney advised the same in his testimony today in front of the commission. The city of course blamed Shawn Tornow for bad counsel to the Board and claimed the Board acted in good faith from his counsel. Of course it’s easy to blame a former city employee who is ‘no longer employed by the city’.

Staggers wanted individual reprimands of each board member AND the dates of the private meetings. He got neither request.

UPDATE:

ARGUS LEADER

KELO & KELO Part II

KSFY

Here is a detailed PDF of Kermit’s testimony and city correspondence;

staggersethics


Posted in: Ethics, Sioux Falls, Staggers

I have no regrets voting for Thomas Marking, especially after reading this article

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Marking points out the obvious;

“I think that was probably the third-best choice,” Marking said this week of the winner, Kristi Noem.

And he adds;

Marking said he will not run for national office again unless the rules change and there is public financing of campaigns. Having $10,000 to compete with millions just isn’t worthwhile, he said.

“Not until the rules change and there’s a chance for a fair fight,” Marking said. “There’s no point. It means a lot of good people who could be representing us in D.C. don’t bother running.”

I have often said public financing of campaigns would level the playing field. Nowadays, it is who has the biggest checkbook. Noem spent twice as much as Steffy, she won. Huether spent almost 3x more then Staggers, he won. The proof is in the pudding. Publicly finance elections, and the rich and powerful will quit running, and we will get REAL candidates.

Posted in: Election 2008