Category: Local Government

We have a guest column this evening from an “Uber cool” friend of the SDWC – Sioux Falls City Councilor Christine Erickson!

Christine was kind enough to take the time to give us some background on the recent decision of the City Council to approve ordinances to allow companies such as UBER to start doing business in our state’s largest city

She’s out of town in another state tonight – and had the opportunity to use UBER for herself for the first time. She reported it was “Super easy and convenient”- PP

Opening doors for opportunity and consumer choice
Christine Erickson, Sioux Falls City Council

In South Dakota, we recognize the importance of a free marketplace that rewards hard work, creates jobs and opportunities and incentivizes innovation in all industries. Due this enviable business climate, businesses large and small can flourish without penalty from government.

In November, the Sioux Falls City Council approved reforms to the existing Vehicle for Hire Ordinance allowing Transportation Networking Companies (TNCs) to operate on city streets. A TNC, such as Uber or Lyft, utilize an innovative business model that uses a software application, which is typically a smart phone app, to connect passengers to a TNC driver. This driver uses his or her personal vehicle, and drives whenever he or she would like to make extra money. More than 150 cities in the U.S. have either Lyft, Uber or both. In our region, this includes the cities of Ames, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Des Moines, Fargo, Lincoln, Madison, WI, Minneapolis, Omaha and St. Paul.

Opponents to the reform measure argued that Uber, Lyft and/or other TNCs have an unfair advantage, and would drive local taxicabs and others out of business. As a small business owner, I understand the sacrifice, long hours and financial risk that goes into running a business. I also recognize that businesses must continually innovate and adapt to the needs of consumers in order to successfully compete against competition.

I am reminded by a recent talk with my three boys, who saw their first phone booth. I found myself having my first, ‘when I was a kid’ conversation about the not so distant past with no cellphones. Today, cellular phones have removed the vast majority of phone booths, and reduced the number of landlines in the U.S. According to the CDC’s biannual National Health Interview Survey of 20,000 households, more than 90 percent of households had a landline phone in 2004. This number is now less than 60 percent in just ten years.

A free marketplace does not limit innovation and consumer choice to specific industries. The vehicle for hire reform measures embraces these free market principals, and challenges existing vehicle for hire businesses to innovate and compete for passengers. In South Dakota, we celebrate entrepreneurship and innovation. We recognize that government is not intended to protect outdated business models, but instead limit regulatory and tax obstacles that stifle a thriving free market.

Here’s a quiet little story out of the Pierre Capitol Journal that gets a little more interesting when you take notice who some of the players are:

Heezen, contacted later by the Capital Journal, said the amount that is delinquent as of Dec. 31, 2014, for work at Wakpa Sica is $76,405. In addition, scheduled payments totaling $38,202 could become delinquent in 2015, 2016 and 2017. The payment due this year alone is $12,734. If nothing is paid over the next three years, the total owed the city in principal alone will be $114,607.

The first and only payment made to the city for the road and utilities work at Wakpa Sica Reconciliation Place was in 2008.

Ward III Alderman Randy Seiler thinks the city ought to do what it can to get the money that it is owed for those improvements. Seiler, an attorney, made that point to the city council on Monday and explained his thought in more detail later to the Capital Journal.

“I think we need to look at our collection options,” Seiler said. “We need to look at legal ownership of the land, legal ownership of the assets, what assets are available. There’s a process through the court system.”

However, Seiler noted, if Wakpa Sica Reconciliation Place has been converted to trust land – that is, federal land that is held in trust for the tribes – then the process becomes more difficult.

And…

It is trust land, according to Scott Jones, who was one of the Lower Brule Tribe’s tribal outreach consultants who worked with the project as it was first being organized. Jones said a 12-acre site, by act of Congress, has been designated as trust land.

and…

The facility is described in those documents as intended to serve as a “tribal gathering place” to house the Sioux Nation Judicial Support Center and the Sioux National Economic Development Council. It’s also intended as a site to display and interpret tribal history, culture and art.

Read it here.

You may remember Fort Pierre City Councilman Randy Seiler, who is advocating for repossession of the property for non-payment of bills, because he also had a big job promotion recently.

Next week, he becomes the acting US Attorney:

First Assistant United States Attorney Randy Seiler will take over the leadership of the U.S. attorney’s office upon the departure of Brendan Johnson. Johnson on Wednesday announced he’ll leave his job as U.S. attorney March 11 to open an office in Sioux Falls for a large law firm.

and…

He is a member of the Fort Pierre city council.

Read that here.

Now, please note that I don’t know that I disagree with Seiler in the least. It’s just not every day that you see a US Attorney advocating that cities take back trust land because someone wasn’t able to pay their bills.

And it’s also somewhat ironic, as if memory serves, Wakpa Sica was meant in part to act as a bridge between tribal courts and regular courts – with the differences between the two and the difficulty in collecting on bad debts acting as a barrier to investment on reservations.

I’m guessing this one isn’t going to be resolved there.