Here is all the shananigans, including the Gavel happy mayor
I would like to commend councilors Costello, Staggers, Beninga and Anderson for standing up against the special interests of this town.
Jamison said Friday that the request for a review was a waste of time if Ehrisman didn’t feel the councilors had conflicts.”That’s kind of a funny tactic,” Jamison said. “The idea that down the road that I may have to step out on a vote? That’s 100 percent going to happen. I’ve done it in the past, and other councilors have done it in the past.”
I did not realize that Jamison didn’t get paid to sit on the City Council. How honorable.
Kermit corrects his ridiculous statement though:
Councilor Kermit Staggers, who will vote against the measures, said the results of the review reinforce the council’s ethical guidelines. “It’s helping draw the lines a little better for us,” Staggers said.
“It will create jobs” – SF Developer
Is this the standard argument for raising taxes? Dumb. I have lived in SF for 17 years, since when building roads and housing developments in cornfields ‘Created jobs?’ Sorry, there is a big difference between creating jobs, and creating careers.
Want people to live and work in Sioux Falls? Want to create economic development? Stop building new roads and start building ecomonmic development centered around green energy development.
Enough.
BTW, the best parts of this article are at the end. Costello’s quote is priceless;
For Staggers, the vote on the second penny is part of a broader topic that he hopes is an issue in 2010. The city has been on a “spending spree for several years,” he said.
“We’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out in future elections,” he said. “It’s difficult to say. But in 2010, that will probably be an issue.”
Staggers, who also opposes the fee increases, concedes that developers might not support candidates who voted against the package.
“I think there could be some kind of impact,” he said. “But at the same time, would a candidate have received their support in the first place? In many cases, no.”
Costello has met with developers to explain his position and show them the city’s budget.
Developers have been told the tax increase will be dedicated to new roads, but Costello says it’s a “shell game. It’s false security.” That’s because there’s nothing stopping a mayor or council from diverting the money to something else.
American citizens have a constitutional right to free speech. The First Amendment guarantees that right, and no state, municipal or parliamentary procedure rules, ordinances or charters trump the U.S. Constitution. It is the highest law of the land, and only the U.S. Supreme Court can rule otherwise.
I want to commend many city staffers and a few councilors for promoting transparency in government, especially City Clerk Debra Owen and Councilor Kermit Staggers. This city is fortunate to have them working for us.
Sioux Falls Mayor Dave Munson, however, is testing the Constitution and specifically the First Amendment by citing bogus parliamentary procedure at recent City Council meetings.
Any citizen in Sioux Falls or even in the metropolitan area is allowed to address the council on any topic before the start of regular business at a council meeting. Munson asks citizens to adhere to a five-minute rule for that testimony, but this is merely a courteous rule – not a constitutional one. Yet Munson has timed me and several other citizens to the second and cut us off exactly at the five-minute mark whether we are done testifying or not. He even has used a plain clothes police officer to intimidate citizens. In fact, the last time I spoke, the officer followed me to my chair and hovered over me briefly.
The use of intimidation to end testimony is a possible violation of the First Amendment and should not be tolerated. As long as a citizen does not threaten elected officials or use inflammatory language, officials must allow the person to finish his or her grievances whether they agree or not.
I’m sure Munson’s actions against free speech stem from his bloated capital improvement plan budget that is 14 percent higher than last year’s and his unbridled drive to increase retail taxes during a slowing economy. Many citizens have voiced their concerns about the amount of pork for special interests contained in the budget and the need for a tax cut – not an increase.
This lame duck mayor is trying to squelch criticism before the larger citizenry catches wind of his budgetary abuses and the Sept. 8 vote on the retail tax increase. One citizen even pointed out the capital improvement plan budget hearings were mysteriously not rebroadcast on CityLink.
Last I checked, Mr. Mayor, Sioux Falls still falls under the rule of the Constitution. Please stop censoring your critics at public meetings. It just makes you appear thin-skinned and arrogant.
If you can’t take a little criticism from the people who pay your salary, you need to resign.
Munson keeps pushing for a retail tax increase. Originally it was for keeping up with infrastructure repairs on our roads (we are an estimated 80 million behind) but some some new information has come out about what the money is really going to be spent on.
H/T to Stehly and Staggers