2024 – Page 38 – South DaCola (2024)

District 9 Republicans, RUN as fast as you can away from Kristi (Stewart) Golden

You know, when you work with someone and it is a very bad experience, you always wonder years later if and when they run for office if you can say something.

I’m talking.

Kristi (Stewart) Golden is the daughter of Gordon Stewart, one of the founders of the Stewart Hairstyling school and salons, the brother of Randy Stewart and she is married to Bill Golden, an assistant city attorney with the city of Sioux Falls, a job he quietly(?) received after leaving Lincoln County as an assistant state’s attorney.

Kristi probably conveniently left that out of her press releases, because like most privileged Republicans they don’t like the working stiffs of this state knowing they want to ‘serve’ in the legislature to enrich their lives further. Her husband is probably already locked and loaded on several state pension programs and as a former staffer of a senator, I would guess Kristi has a little pension coming from the taxpayers.

Her husband, Bill, was private counsel to the Stewart family before moving into private practice and eventually bilking the taxpayers.

I went to work for Randy Stewart around 20 years ago or so. He’s the guy who has been screwing up childcare in Sioux Falls after trying to close his late parents daycares. Not sure if Kristi is also rolling a paycheck from those sales?

Kristi and Randy’s relationship is the normal sibling rivalry, and after parents passed, those relationships can get complicated.

I think I worked for Randy for less than a year before he fired me (he actually got his accountant* to do it with Bill) after I told Randy he was a very ‘unchristian’ business owner and I was shocked he was an ordained pastor.

But the clincher was when his sister who couldn’t handle her part-time job at a private Christian college her father has given millions to came to be the salesperson for our little sign shop.

I think my co-worker said to me when she was hired, ‘What does she know about the sign business?’ and I said, ‘Does it matter? She is Gordon’s daughter.’

If I could use one word to describe Larry Pressler’s former staffer, it would be this; ENTITLED!

If I were a voting Republican in District 9, I would send Kristi packing. Just another entitled trust baby in South Dakota that wants to funnel your tax dollars to their goofy causes and coffers.

Even if she was elected to the legislature, she would have NO CLUE what the normal South Dakotan goes thru each day, but her and her husband are sure reaping the benefits of our hard work.

We need a working person’s legislature, that get their teeth fixed locally (or not at all 🙁

*This accountant actually took over one of the daycares Randy sold.

VOTE JESKE!

This is a PAID political ad.

Sioux Falls City Councilors share ‘legal summary’ of Delbridge Animals’ fate

Would like to thank the several councilors who shared the legal summary with me, because as you know, I paid for it and have a right to see it, even if it is half-ass;

Councilors:

The Delbridge work group requested we summarize the testimony of James Moore and Andy Patterson from last Wednesday’s work group meeting. James approved the following summary on Friday. I will provide a summary of Andy Patterson’s testimony as soon as he confirms it is accurate.

Attorney James Moore from the Woods, Fuller, Schultz & Smith law firm presented his legal analysis of the impacts of the Delbridge family gifting agreement with City. Moore noted the gifting agreement from 1981 may have created certain restrictions on displaying the Brockhouse collection at the Delbridge Museum of Natural History, yet considerable flexibility remains for the City while honoring the donors’ intent in gifting the collection to the City. The law provides an exception to these restrictions where it has become impracticable for the City to continue displaying the Brockhouse collection and other taxidermy specimens in its current state at the Delbridge Museum of Natural History.

Moore stated several factors would favor the application of this exception. First, the current location for the display is inconsistent with the long-term plans for economic improvement of the Great Plains Zoo. Second, the presence of arsenic in the taxidermy mounts was not known in 1981, which poses a danger to Zoo staff and the public who may come in physical contact with the mounts as they are currently displayed. Third, the on-going costs to maintain the collection at its current location may not be desirable in light of the low number of visitors to the Delbridge Museum. Fourth, public attitudes may have changed regarding how the collection was obtained regarding the display of taxidermy mounts. Finally, the value of the collection when compared to the significant cost of preserving the collection may also favor applying the exception for impracticability.

Moore stated the City has several options for future handling of the collection while still honoring the Delbridge family’s gifting intent. The work group requested he provide additional guidance as options are identified and considered. Options discussed at this meeting included gifting the collection to a non profit entity in-state, or to an out-of-state non-profit entity after July 1, 2024. Another option could be to display the collection at another location in the City. Another option could be to return the collection to the Delbridge family, which Moore advised should only occur upon exhausting all other options.

Discussion also occurred that the Delbridge working group could make recommendations based on the individual specimen.

James’ full written opinion contains significant research and his mental impressions on all the factors he considered. His full written opinion and research are privileged attorney-client communication and protected work product. I will reiterate my offer for you to come read it at my office if f you want to review his opinion and research in full; however, we are not distributing a copy to anyone. James presenting a summary to the work group at a public meeting does not waive these privileges. Thank you.

Sioux Falls Lead City Attorney

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I’m not even an attorney, or pretend to be one, but everyone knows that a legal ‘opinion’ on a hypothetical is not some guarded litigation secret. Is the city being sued over the animals? If so, we have a right to know this. If not, the legal opinion should be released to the public either way.

We all know what’s cooking here, someone who knows someone will be contacted by someone with a plan to deliver something special to their home. Just make sure you wipe the arsenic snot from it’s nose every 1-18 years.

Property taxes are high in Sioux Falls. Duh.

I guess if you report stuff 3 or 4 years after the fact, it doesn’t hurt as much?

A sampling of Sioux Falls-area residents responding to property tax valuation and resulting property taxes drew a consistent theme:

“Horrified,” one said.

“Severely risen,” another said.

“Absolutely robbery,” said another.

And finally: “At least I don’t feel all alone.”

You’re likely far from alone if your home’s assessed value has risen by double-digit percentages in recent years.

In Minnehaha County, the average increase in 2024 assessed valuations went up 9.1 percent compared with 2023. From 2022 to 2023, it went up 14.4 percent on average. The year before that, the increase was 18.4 percent.

Lincoln County recently saw a 8.7 percent average increase in valuation for 2024 versus 2023, following a 16 percent increase the prior year and a 14 percent increase from 2021 to 2022.

They F’ing railed me for 3 years, and I fought it, but no luck. I have owned my home 22 years this year, and in the first 17 my tax increases were either 0% or 1-2% and that changed because of this;

“We were playing catchup for many years, starting in 2016 to 2021, for sure,” said Karla Goossen, Lincoln County director of equalization. “So some folks saw a larger increase than the average and still this year as well.”

Government should NEVER play catchup! You work with the yearly coffers and budgets and everything starts anew next year. If you screwed up in the past, that’s on you, and you need to move forward with normal increases until you catchup. That may take 3-5 years, it may take 20, who cares?! If you think you were underfunded in years past, that is NOT the fault of the taxpayer, that is leadership issues, and why should WE pay for past mistakes?

Not to mention our city has over DOUBLE of what they need comfortably in reserves and fund play things to over $40-50 million dollars a year.

I am often amazed that our county, school district and city can even get out of bed in the morning let alone make decisions that affect not only our personal lives, but finances.

Catchup? WTF?! Maybe you should try to make my dead grandparents pay taxes on land they don’t own anymore? Yeah, sounds stupid, because it is.

UPDATE: Mayor TenHaken is good at one thing: LYING!

The Mayor’s Main Minion, the Count, decided he needed to back up Paul’s lies with more lies at the city council presser today. No minutes from the Brockhouse meeting, no legal documents, nothing, and it was illegally noticed. Alex tried to pass it off as an honest mistake. Maybe if PTH was just installed, but he has been at this for 6 years, he knows how to hide ‘excessive transparency’ from the public and it was INTENTIONAL. Why else would Alex have to show up and defend this, because they knew exactly what they were doing. Heck, Alex even admitted it in the presser. “I knew about the meeting . . . I suppose I could have informed people . . .” Yah think? This is why we all know it was intentional and all Alex is doing is covering up more of the mayor’s lies. You are lying Alex and so is the Mayor and his staff.

Thank God we are not talking about LIVING animals, because they would be dead by now with all the horsing around.

There was also some other interesting tidbits in the presser. When the councilors were asked why no one is interested in running, Selberg, at first said that we are a ‘strong mayor’ form of government and that policy should come from the mayor’s office.

WRONG!

If that is the case, why even have a council? This is why people are NOT running, they have no power to make effective change, and even if the dictator at 9th and Main let them form policy, there is NO transparency to effectively form that policy in the open.

Oh, and Alex blamed bloggers for why no one is running, which I find completely hilarious considering I am always actively recruiting candidates to the council and have helped 5 of them get elected. And that I am the only citizen who has a blog about the city. It is pretty obvious who you are talking about. So next time, why don’t you just say my name?

But towards the beginning, Marshall Selberg decided to brag about the League of Cities meeting he went to recently. Why on earth are taxpayers paying an outgoing councilor (June) to go to these meetings? What value is in that? ZERO! I have said for a long time that ALL councilor travel should be banned unless they are paying for it out of their own pocket. In the age of ZOOM there is absolutely NO reason to travel to talk about bus stops and bridge building.

Screenshot Keloland

While answering questions about being a closed government shlep, the mayor throws an evil smile when saying this;

“It’s not something that minutes are posted online, because it’s not an official city board or commission. So we’re trying to be as aboveboard as possible and all this including making the meetings open… We’re doing it out of excessive transparency and letting people know, what’s going on with the Delbridge. So we’re already going above and beyond what’s legally required.” said Mayor Paul TenHaken.

So how many lies were in this paragraph?

1. LIE #1, the meeting is made up of public officials, in a public building, open to the public, it would make it ‘official’. The Public Works quilt club that meets at Marge’s house on Wednesday nights, would be considered ‘non-official’ and would not have to post the meeting online. It is an official board of the city and should follow the proper rules of posting. LIE #1.
2. LIE #2, An open meeting exists once being properly noticed to the public. It was NOT properly noticed. LIE #2.
3. LIE #3, ‘We’re doing it out of excessive transparency’. DOG WHISTLE! I wondered why he made a snide face when he said this, because it is total BS and rhetoric; ‘Excessive sharing of information creates problems of information overload and can legitimize endless debate and second-guessing of senior executive decisions.’ Basically he is making fun of transparency because as the dictator of the city he feels his decisions should NOT be questioned. LIE #3.
4. LIE #4, ‘So we’re already going above and beyond what’s legally required.’ He is doing the exact opposite and pretending he is not. How can you say you are following the rules as a government entity, but then say you are not an official government entity? So which is it Poops? LIE #4.

I used to think that awful smell every night was coming from the Communist Packing Plant, but apparently it is coming from city hall and white church lane.