South DaCola 2016 year in review (Part II)

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Well let’s get a second helping;

• Water and Sewer rates are raised again, and again, and again.

• Stormland TV does several stories throughout the year about the late school start date, but fails to show any evidence that the late date has any ill affects on the students. I guess the new super has been known to tell people recently, “It doesn’t matter when school starts, we will work with any date.” And that’s coming from the top dog.

• The mayor continues to ignore the violent crime increase in town, eventually blaming mental illness without offering a plan.

• The city of Sioux Falls goes through two diversity directors within a couple of months. Still no word if a permanent person has been picked yet.

• The mayor gets out of taking the stand in an important hearing by getting an ’emergency’ colonoscopy. Yeah, I know, several jokes there.

• While mayor Mike has no problem cutting people off after 5 minutes, he goes on over a 9 minute rant at the Minnehaha County Commission meeting during public input about saving his Lake Home’s swamp.

• Mike gets mad at the media for asking him if he controls the thermostat at Carnegie, but has NEVER answered the question to this day.

• Cameraman Bruce and I get press access to Sanders, Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton rallies yet the city still refuses to treat us like press.

• Touchmark at All Saints finally gets approval from the city council to build their expansion (and it is quite beautiful) now hopefully the tears will stop flowing down Phillips Avenue.

• The Terrace Park Neighborhood association is successful in stopping the destruction of paver stones, the city turns around and punishing them by putting off improvements for several years.

• While city hall celebrates the $27 million dollar RR relocation project it still does nothing to stop rail traffic through DT, in fact it will make it more frequent.

• The Lacey Neighborhood successfully fights the first bout with city hall over a development. They break with tradition by testifying on the topic before a first reading to council.

• We lose the battle with stopping the $25 million dollar city administration building allowing ONE PERSON to decide on borrowing the money.

• Andra Day rocks JazzFest.

• Detroit Lewis celebrates 25 years in this fine city, August 2016.

• I predict back in August that Huether may switch to independent.

• The F-35 Lemon Noise machine doesn’t pick Sioux Falls as a base option, and we can all hear a little better.

• After councilor Stehly gets gaveled by Council chair Rolfing, she comes back stronger then ever.

• City of Sioux Falls Health Department, REMSA and Paramedics Plus decide to implement a secret strategy for ambulance service. We still have no idea what it is.

• After millions of state and city taxdollars are dedicated to foundation park, the proposed developments pull out with NO signed purchase agreements.

• The Jesus Plows return while the city makes a maternity clothing store paint over carictures of pregnant women. Nobody can see the plows anyway since they have been sitting in a parking lot so far this winter.

• Like a cheap whore, the city parks department sells Spellerberg Park signage to a cable company setting precendent.

• Trump wins the Electoral College becoming the 45th president of the United States and the bott0m falls out of the SD Democratic Party, then they pat themselves on the back.

• The Indoor Aquatic Center opens with a package of lies and low attendance numbers.

• The city’s only daily paper has huge shakeups. Hopefully they recover.

• A sleepy DT neighborhood tries to stop a modest church sign, until the council approves it.

• The wind haters continue to win in Lincoln County, but it may go to a public vote.

• The city council decides to visit a local watering hole for some fish bowl drinks. One councilor that did not attend was embarrassed she wasn’t invited.

Posted in: Sioux Falls

What’s up with this?

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I saw the signs going up yesterday, and took this picture today (5oth & Western). Just curious, is Paramedics Plus training their own EMS, or is this on the job/continual training after going through formal schooling and training?

Does anyone know?

para-ems

Posted in: Paramedics Plus, Sioux Falls

Now Citylink is screwing up Minnehaha County’s meetings

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minn-meet

I reported a few months ago that the county spent around $40K for new video equipment (at the advice of the city’s media department, that record the meetings) and one of the meetings had no audio. So now Tuesday, the meeting is totally defunct. According to a county official there was a problem with a camera that resulted in malfunctioning the other cameras, but they thought the audio was fine. I guess that is defunct also now.

I find it ironic that the meeting that had ‘technical problems’ was the one where the commission approved the contract with Fitch to do consulting for ambulance service and the President of Med-Star came to testify against it.

Where is that audio . . . maybe REMSA filed it with Paramedics Plus call performance reports.

Posted in: County Commission, Minnehaha County, Sioux Falls

Is a board member of REMSA telling the Sioux Falls city council to get in line?

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An interesting letter from a ‘volunteer’ board member;

Like other REMSA members, I serve on a volunteer basis with oversight by the City Council.

First off, while there are volunteer members of the REMSA board, Dr. Luther, SF Health Director Jill Franken and REMSA director Julie Charbonneau are all paid (by taxpayers–county and city), just like the City Council.

EMS systems across the nation take a variety of forms. Some communities operate EMS as a purely governmental function. In those communities, paramedics and EMTs are employees of the city or state.

Other communities employ private companies to perform EMS on a contractual basis. The City of Sioux Falls honors the strong conservative ideology prevalent in the community by engaging with private EMS providers.

I would argue that having a private ambulance provider isn’t always in the best interest of the public. If we are already paying several advisory positions on the board and paying for the fire department to be back up, it may be wise for the city to have a public ambulance service. Not only would it keep costs down for the consumer, it would have more oversight and would actually either make the city money or offset the costs. The city of LA for example has public ambulance service.

In determining the parameters of the contract, it engaged the services of Fitch and Associates, one of the nation’s most respected EMS consulting firms.

If you do some creative googling, you will also see that Fitch and Associates had some conflicts of interest with Paramedics Plus, something that was brought up in the vetting process but was quickly swept under the rug. To say the process was fair is a bit far fetched.

The contract awarded was for exclusive rights to perform EMS within the City of Sioux Falls. The need for an exclusive contract is due to the economic realities of the industry.

I understand the profit margin reality of this, but there is another side. SAFETY OF THE CONSUMER! If a catastrophe happens in Sioux Falls that requires several EMS to assist, where will that come from? A question REMSA and PP have yet to answer. There needs to be a backup plan, not secret experimental agreements and procedures.

As a member of the voting public, I believe the City Council has a responsibility to be a strong contractual partner with Paramedics Plus, to support the system as accredited segments of EMS, and assure the public of their commitment to the provision of emergency services in our community.

As I said above, how can a city council be a strong partner and support a contract when they are left in the dark of how this company operates? Kind of hard to ‘shame’ the council on decisions they make when they are provided NO transparency from REMSA or PP. As I have said, if the operating plans are too complicated for the public to understand, at least provide the details to our elected officials in closed executive session (well within the law) so they can at least make an educated assessment of the situation and the procedures. Otherwise it’s like little Johnny asking the teacher why the Earth orbits the Sun and the teacher responds, “Because”.

Posted in: SF City Council, Sioux Falls

Minnehaha County Commissioner Jeff Barth asks for an explanation from REMSA

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2009 Ford E-Series Super Duty Ambulance Prep Package. (03/03/09)

Recently Jeff told me that the secretive nature of REMSA and there ‘experiment’ with Paramedics Plus is one of the top transparency issues in our community right now. I would agree. He expressed that concern at Tuesday’s county meeting (FF: 1:06). He asked REMSA to come and explain to the commission what the plan is. Chair Heiberger felt it wasn’t the county’s concern, Barth disagreed. Cindy also went on to say that their are rumors being spread, Barth responded that is why they need to come and explain what is going on.

Jay Masur of Med Star also spoke at public input at the city council meeting essentially asking for the same thing.

I agree, the lack of transparency is troubling on this issue. This isn’t about bent up siding or stalling tactics of a petition drive, this has to do with people’s health and lives, the public deserves to know. As Masur also pointed out, many members of REMSA are paid by the county and city tax payers including Doctor Luther who hides more then works, and city health director Jill Franken, who hasn’t given a straight answer since we chose Paramedics plus.

It’s time the county commission and the city council demands answers, even if it is in executive session. Our elected officials, if not the public, deserves to know what this ‘complicated’ plan is.

Posted in: County Commission, Minnehaha County, SF City Council, Sioux Falls