1st Amendment Catholics Sioux Falls
Sioux Falls Catholic Schools attack teacher’s 1st Amendment rights
l3wis March 2, 2022 11Comments
I will have to commend the local media who have decided to cover this very important story. But let’s make no mistake, while the story is partially about gay rights, equality, employee rights, religious freedom and quite honestly, reality, the bigger story is that this teacher’s 1st Amendment rights were spit on by her employer;
“It was very evident that everybody that I talked to at the school cared a lot about their students, regardless of their orientation,” Hickman said. “But it seemed that once I put something on my personal social media, that’s when it became a problem.”
Employee contracts aside and the Catholic’s church stance on hom*osexuality, this is about a bigger issue; the rights of an American citizen to express their view on any topic outside of work without being pressured by their employer to STFU!
Three months later, she says she was called into a meeting at O’Gorman and was asked to take the post down.
“I left that meeting stating I don’t feel comfortable doing anything about the post when I don’t understand why you’re asking me to do this,” Hickman said.
She then received a letter from Kyle Groos, President of the Bishop O’Gorman schools. It says Hickman’s post ‘promotes beliefs about lifestyle and sexuality that are inconsistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church.’
This is close to my heart, being politically involved as I am, many employers I have had struggled with my private political life. I had to remind them that my private life and my political beliefs were none of their business, and I must have been successful, because none of them terminated me because of it, some actually defended me, and I only quit one job because of it (lead usher at the Washington Pavilion).
NO EMPLOYER can fire an employee for their personal beliefs outside of work. It is a blatant violation of their 1st Amendment rights. And while Ukrainians fight for their sovereignty I am reminded that we live in an incredible FREE nation and no one can take that away from us. Bravo to Rachel Hickman for taking a stance. Our rights as free citizens should never be questioned or punished, that is called fascism, because last I checked we live in a free country and the SFCS should be ashamed and admonished, especially an institution that is educating young adults.
David ZoKaites Elections Media Patrick Starr SF City Council Sioux Falls
Sioux Falls Mayoral Candidate Zokaites gets cut off by Council Dictator Kiley
l3wis March 2, 2022 4Comments
Besides the fact that the city council folded like a wet paper bag when it came to poorly researched and negotiated employee retention bonuses (or was it about inflation? Proving the absurdity of city employee vote bribes? Or trying to humiliate Brekke, you know, the councilor they are unethically hosting fundraisers for her opponent) there was some other fireworks atlast night’s meeting.
During public input Mr. Science and All around Know-it-All Councilor Ricky Lee Kiley cut off David Zokaites because of his presentation about allowing Mayor Poops a Freebie 2-hour interview on KELO AM. Ironically, I saw the presentation before the meeting (posted below), and all David was going to say is that KELO and Poops did nothing wrong and it was permissible by the FCC. Yup, he was going to defend the Mayor, at least on the law, but NOT the ethics.
Kiley was within his rights to ask David to stop the presentation and David did the right thing by ending it. As a candidate for office you are NOT allowed to talk about that candidacy at the podium during public input, and that is where David crossed a line . . . kind of. I’m just curious why the council’s COS and City Clerk did not catch the violation when they pre-approved David’s PPT before the meeting?
Ironically, Poops violates ethical standards of running for office almost daily. From using insider information on concerts at the Denty, to tweeting candidate commercials while running a meeting, posting endorsem*nts (that are missing a PAID FOR STAMP) on his supposed personal FB page and using most media interviews to promote his candidacy while telling everyone he is not a politician (but plays one on TV).
While Kiley was right that David was in the wrong, I’m just wondering when Poops will start following the same campaign ethical standards? Not in our lifetime.
CITY OF SIOUX FALLS HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT HIRES A COUNSELING AGENCY THAT EMPLOYEES A CONVICTED FEDERAL CRIMINAL
The real fun stuff was at the beginning of the meeting when councilor Starr asked why the city is hiring Key Solutions whose director/counselor recently got charged with Federal crimes;
Tami Haug-Davis, 64, of Sioux Falls, was ordered to pay $15,000 restitution, serve one year of probation and serve 40 hours of community service for making a materially false statement regarding minutes of board meetings during a federal investigation of the Missouri Valley Crisis Center.
Our director of HR, Bill Dah’Toole said to the council last night, they got reassurance that she wouldn’t do bad things anymore. You know, like when we picked Lamont to complete the bunker ramp. Starr had made them aware in advance of her record, and instead trying to find another counseling agency, they chose to double-down on their very stupid decision, and 6 of the 8 councilors agreed . . . of course they would, because that is the true definition of absurdity. Starr and Brekke voted NO. Erickson of course phoned in her VOTE since she is in Pierre lobbying at her other job. Must be nice to double-dip and have a council gig as a side hustle. I can’t even remember the last time I have seen her in person at a council meeting?
LIGHTS OUT!
But my favorite part at the meeting last night was when someone leaned against the light switches and turned off the lights in the Chamber. I’m sure they were all thinking cyber attack.
Bunker Ramp Downtown Sioux Falls Media SF City Council Sioux Falls
Dakotanews has a peculiar view on Investigative Journalism
l3wis March 2, 2022 5Comments
I was a little puzzled by this storythey posted yesterday;
The I-Team has learned that the city of Sioux Falls has hired an outside attorney to represent the city in a lawsuit against the Village River Group.
I am assuming the I-Team means investigative team. Besides the fact that I posted about this onJanuary 18, it wasn’t some secret since it was on the public agenda at theJanuary 18 meeting in the consentagenda in which Councilor Starr pulled and asked the city finance director and city attorney where the money was coming from.
They both kind of fibbed a bit (the real story here).
Still wondering why it took supposed investigative journalists 6 weeks to figure something out that was posted on a public agenda?
Denny Sanford Donita Trump Noem Kristi Noem Mayor TenHaken Sioux Falls
Sioux Falls DSU Cybersecurity fails to get state funding . . . for now
l3wis March 2, 2022 2Comments
As I have said ten thousand times before, when you do things in the open you have more buy in from the public. Denny Sanford, Mayor TenHaken and Governor Noem decided to cook up a deal behind closed doors and it has bit them in the butt.
Denny said he would give $50 million as long as the state ($30 million) and the city pitched in ($10 million). That didn’t happen today.
Senate Bill 54to appropriate funds for the Dakota State University Cyber Program Expansion. House Appropriations cut the funding to $1 on a motion by Tina Mulally. After that, they begrudgingly passed it 8-1, with Taffy Howard the lone vote no.
I have heard rumors that Mayor Poops still plans on bringing the $10 million funding forward to the council next week. The hope is if the council passes it that will get the legislature to bring back the funding at the end of session.
MAYBE.
I have suggested that the council attach an amendment to the funding that they will only pitch in the $10 million IF the state changes their mind and decides to pitch in the $30 million. If the legislature fails to pass the funding before the end of session, the commitment would dissolve automatically.
Do I think this is a good project for Sioux Falls? YES. I just don’t see why we need to fund a private facility that will benefit Denny and his business partners. I also don’t believe the absolute BS that this will create 500, $100K a year jobs permanently in Sioux Falls. It may over a decade create that many jobs, but they will all not be in Sioux Falls.
I believe councilors must submit amendments by tomorrow before the agenda posts, I think they can also do it before 2nd reading. Hopefully at least 2 of them grow a brain and offer the amendment, or better yet, kill it all together.
Elections Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls
Mayor TenHaken Tweets campaign commercials while chairing the City Council meeting tonight
l3wis March 1, 2022 6Comments
As you can see while the council meeting is going on (7:24 PM) the mayor is tweeting campaign commercials on his twitter page. Not only is this during a city council meeting he is chairing it is during the discussion of employee bonuses.
WOW!
This reminds me a little of when councilor Knudson was watching the Olympics during a meeting, but what makes this even more egregious is it is the chair of the meeting during a discussion on bonuses for city employees.
I guess you could argue he can multi-task, a candidate for office should not be promoting his candidacy during an official meeting we are paying him to chair.
Can anyone say unethical?
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