SF City Council not necessarily in agreement with mayor on stay at home order. With good reason. Not everything is done by e-mail.

@SoDakCampaigns

It sounds like there are members of the Sioux Falls City Council who are not in agreement with Mayor Paul Tenhaken that you can issue a strict (and potentially troublesome) stay at home order to keep people shut in for the next three weeks:

As confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the Sioux Falls area hit nearly 1,000 this week, TenHaken formally called for new restrictions that would make it a crime for people in Sioux Falls to move about the city for reasons deemed non-essential.

and..

Among councilors, the conversation centered on what Greg Neitzert and Christine Erickson said is contradicting language in the proposal. The ordinance draft submitted for consideration says non-essential workers are not to go to work, while later a section specifically says businesses are encouraged to remain open.

and..

TenHaken said the reason that language is included is to urge businesses to find alternative means to provide goods and services without operating out of a brick-and-mortar facility.

But that explanation didn’t sway councilors.

“If you don’t have customers, and you don’t have employees, you don’t have business. Period,” Erickson said.

Read the entire story here.

And Christine Erickson is extremely correct.

I look at myself. I work out of the house. I have suppliers in Sioux Falls that work in massive buildings, so social distancing isn’t just easy, it’s the norm.  I work and order remotely, but there can come times where I have to pick up product.  If it becomes a crime for those businesses to operate, or for me to back a truck up and load boxes as I pick them up, I’ll get my supplies elsewhere, and drive through Sioux Falls.  Which means my revenue goes elsewhere, and those businesses are deprived of the income.

Frankly, when Mayor TenHaken says that they’re urging “alternative means to provide goods and services without operating out of a brick-and-mortar facility,” I’m left shaking my head because there are some goods that ONLY come out of a brick and mortar facility.  It’s not like people are going to use things like a printing press in their #@% garage.

And if you can’t get product in Sioux Falls, I know I’ll just go elsewhere.

I might not be as harsh on the Mayor as my guest columnist on the topic, but Paul needs to realize that not everything can be done electronically via e-mail, and someone has to do the work. Maybe that’s not the intent of the ordinance, but if that’s the case, they’d better get much more specific, fast.

It’s not much use turning cities into police states and going overboard as you claim to be protecting society if you destroy it in the process.

75 thoughts on “SF City Council not necessarily in agreement with mayor on stay at home order. With good reason. Not everything is done by e-mail.”

  1. Yes, there is a difference of opinion at the city council level in Sioux Falls, Brookings, Aberdeen, Watertown, etc., over how to best proceed. The unfortunate thing, however, is that the public now believes that COVID19 is not a big deal anymore because the Governor doesn’t think its a big deal anymore. The comments consistently raised at all city council meetings has been: “If this was a big deal, the Governor would issue a stay at home order, but because she hasn’t, why should we?” Very unfortunate messaging.

    1. I think the Governor considers it with great gravity, but she also realizes that while you might want everyone to stay at home, someone still has to make the donuts.

      2. Really? Donuts are considered essential?

        She could have issued a variation of shelter in place / stay at home orders with varying degrees of people who should stay at home, including those in high risk categories.

        Meanwhile we got a day of prayer to sustain the soul, however it doesn’t actually stop the spread of COVID-19 like isolating from other people as much as possible.

  2. A real stay at home order means you are in lockdown, you leave for nothing for a period of time. No need to have a fake stay at home order that does nothing because people need to leave to buy things etc, which requires employees to be present so people will be out working and interacting anyway.

    Outside of Smithfield, our state is absolutely a success story and why a stay at home order statewide isn’t needed and won’t be effective. Mayor Paul knows the rules in his city. They should have been proactive and had a first reading several weeks ago so it would only take them a week to implement when something hits (if they felt it was needed). He did a poor job trying to force the governor instead of trying to take action in his own city.

    Smithfield did a terrible job providing PPE, TERRIBLE and they should be held accountable. Call Jacks Links or other plants, they took drastic steps to protect staff. Paul needs to act like a leader, not a child left with no options. Why didn’t SF get on Smithfield to check on their PPE and mitigation plan?

    1. I completely agree. Trump should have done more on the Federal level as well. The Feds should have had massive amounts of PPE warehoused along with more medical devices at the ready. Huge failure. As with Smithfield the Feds should have checked on the individual States PPE supplies and mitigation plans. Instead of acting like a leader Trump is acting like a child, per the usual.

      1. So you are a nanny-stater? What about the states taking responsibility for themselves? Not-So-Super-Mario declined the purchase of ventilators, so is it Trump’s fault (even though he wasn’t President at the time) that the offer was rejected?

        If you like centralized government go to Russia or China where you might feel more coddled.

        1. Lol. I knew I could get someone to bite. Just replying to Anon at 12:06 who said the mayor should have checked on Smithfield’s PPE and mitigation plans. Would the mayor have been a nanny-stater then? Digging around in a private businesses affairs? What about businesses taking responsibility for themselves? You can’t have it both ways; saying the government (the mayor) should have done more and at the same time saying Noem’s hands-off approach is the right option.

          1. Government has their hands in everything. To say SD is open for business? Might want to drive down the mainstreets. Want to play tennis, nets taken down in many towns. How about hoops? Nope. Want to go to the gym? don’t think so. Yes, SD is a nanny state with a weak legislature.

      1. Who is leading people to believe the SD death rate from Covid is higher? Is someone out there publishing fake death rates?

        1. CFR is seldom, if ever mentioned, as the headlines focus on increasing case rates (which obviously continue to rise as more people are tested).

          1. we also have one of the lowest population densities of any state and in the 10 states with the lowest population. I think it’s more accurate to look at cases per capita and deaths per capita to compare apples to apples.

            1. Because of the differences in population densities and individual state demographics, I believe CFR is the most accurate way to determine how well any particular state is able to manage the outbreak of the population within its borders.

              1. either way – her response has been terribly inadequate. If not – i look forward to seeing your family about town.

                1. As you indicate are still traveling about town despite your concerns, the restrictions currently in place, have apparently proven adequate enough for you be comfortable enough to do what you consider essential.

    3. How about the department of heath or plant management or union boss. Aren’t unions suppose to protect their employees? I doubt they are union.

  3. If Smithfield is going to pay workers their wages for 2 weeks, that should have been contingent on those workers and their families staying home for the 2 weeks. If someone is tested positive, anyone who knowingly has been in contact with that person should have the common sense to do just that. Unfortunately it seems there is a lack of common sense on this issue. Such as the people who are going to the river fishing because they are laid off from Smithfield!!! Sorry people, the Mayor is trying to close the barn door after the horses are out.

  4. If anyone needs a list of Paul TenHaken being intentionally deceitful, I ask you first to go my column. However, when Mayor TenHaken says that they’re urging “alternative means to provide goods and services without operating out of a brick-and-mortar facility,” you need to realize two things:

    Paul TenHaken knows he has no authority to shut down a business without cause and the business owner exercising its rights to due process.

    So, to do what he wants and skirt the law and Constitution, he is trying to use police powers to deny the business access to its employees and its customers.

    TenHaken went to the Legislature asking for immunity under actions taken during this pandemic. The Legislature specifically denied TenHaken’s request. The City (and possible TenHaken) has no immunity from lawsuits and the financial consequences of damages from an unjust denial of Constitutional Rights and deprivation of their Constitutional Right to property.

    1. I have never done something like this before, but there is a protest tomorrow at 10:00 at City Hall to voice our desire to stop this ill advised stay at home order. I am strongly considering attending.

      1. I am strongly considering attending too. Since I don’t have a FB account there’s limited information I could find about the protest. If you know any details could you share them?

  5. When a toxin is accidentally released into the air from Smithfield (This has happen twice in the last twenty years, I believe) do the proper authorities wait two weeks to act, or do they immediately rope off the affected area?

    What’s the difference here?

  6. The first case testing positive at Smithfield was 2nd week of March or so….Mayor sat on that knowledge. He could have gone on over to that plant to watch all the mitigation (none) whistleblowers outed the problem and then the Mayor had to disclose. With Governor in the meantime more workers were being pulled off floor who were sick up to last Saturday where one if cleanup team was pulled out with 100 degrees temp. All the while contact tracing done appropriately from the beginning could have got a handle on this. Families were not mitigating and wives and kids of Smithfield employees were moving throughout the community for a very long time Now we have full community spread thanks to a Mayor who can think of no other way than to further restrict the city. Put stay at home order on Smithfield employees.

    1. We are not a nanny-state government. Smithfield is a private business and was rightly left alone to deal with this. Now all the worried, doomsday more government is needed people want more intervention in our daily lives. The city should just encourage social distancing and stay out of our lives and let the virus take its course through the state population. The strong will survive and our liberty will remain intact.

      2. And look at how well letting Smithfield alone to deal with it went. You are disconnected from reality.

      3. then may it be your fate to contract COVID-19 and we’ll just offer you hopes and prayers to see if the die are cast in your favor. Meanwhile some of us have relatives who have come into contact or work with spouses of smithfield employees. My relatives were told by their employers they were “fine” and the spouses didn’t pose a risk.

        If my relatives contract and die from COVID-19 that could be traced by through a smithfield employee – who should i address the wrongful death suit to? Care to post your name so I could add you to the party?

        Too bad God didn’t tell Kristi to trust some science on this issue –

        People shouldn’t be negatively affected based on the stupidity or naiveness of people living with Smithfield employees who have been tested positive or come into contact with positive people. But here we are –
        Doing nothing – is criminal.

      5. The city has been encouraging social distancing right from the beginning. Are you for all this federal money and supplies coming into SD? Are you getting back to business as usual?

      6. Screw those employees at Smithfield, and the old and vulnerable people that are highly susceptible to the virus. The strong will survive and our liberty will remain intact. Good attitude.

  7. I sent an e-mail to the at large members of the council and my district council member urging them to vote no on this proposal. If one looks at the numbers involved, it is obvious that further intrusive actions are not needed.
    Mayor Tenhaken is panicking instead of leading. He has already said he has to choose between our rights and our safety. There should be no choice here. Our rights trump the concern for safety. As adults we can figure out how to keep safe.

    2. You only have rights up until they affect the rights of others – your rights to be stupid are not unlimited – especially if you pose a public health risk.

      1. I guess you will be in favor of shutting everything down next fall when the next influenza outbreak hits. There are risks to everything in life. If you want to curl up in your cocoon and hide, more power to you. Just don’t get in the way of reasonable people.

      1. Are you OK with starvation? We have found that the actual mortality rate of this virus is in the neighborhood of .2c%. The common cold is a type of coronavirus. I suggest we let people accept the risks they are most comfortable with and let them live their lives. BTW, I was at Menard’s today. The parking lot was pretty full! Yet people were doing their best to stay away from each other.

  8. It’s not just Smithfield. It’s Wal Mart and Lewis and OReilly and gas stations and daycares and nursing homes and soon to be more and more and more. We’re just over 1,000 now, we’ll be at 50,000 before we know it. Remember, testing numbers are a week behind. I still think Noem will reverse course on this in less than a month and issue some orders with teeth.

    1. As more people get tested, the number of cases will obviously rise. The purpose of “flattening the curve” is to avoid overwhelming medical resources, but it won’t stop the ultimate spread of the disease. Those currently being tested are those that are either sick enough to be suspected cases, or those who are known to have been exposed to active cases, making them the most likely to test positive.

      The important data are the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) and number of current hospitalizations. Thus far, South Dakota has the lowest CFR in the nation at 0.53% (as of 4/14/2020) & has only had 55 total hospitalizations since the virus was first confirmed in the state. As more people have been tested, the CFR has declined and total hospitalizations are at roughly 5% of positive cases. Both numbers are likely to continue declining, as testing becomes more widespread.

      1. Whoops, I meant to say the CFR and PERCENTAGE of hospitalizations are likely to decline. Obviously, the total number of hospitalizations will rise, as total number of positive cases rise. (Need more coffee).

        1. Physical and social distancing and people staying home are the best options to flatten the curve.

          That is the point to “flatten the curve” to give scientists and hospitals as much time as possible to test people, give time for testing for vaccines and pharmaceuticals, and as to not overwhelm the hospitals in the state.

          It’s like the uninformed or ill-informed come here and post non-sense and it’s irresponsible.

          1. The stated point in “flattening the curve” was as a means to prevent overwhelming available medical resources.

            If any of the “side benefits” you mentioned should happen, that’s certainly beneficial, but not the point in “flattening the curve.

            It’s as if the uninformed or ill-informed come here to only to post irresponsible nonsense anonymously.

          2. You do realize “flattening the curve” does not mean people not catching the virus, right? It just means for it to be spread out over a longer time. This allows things like hospitals to not be overwhelmed. It turns out, the models that projected these overwhelming numbers were wrong. I believe I heard something about lowering the number of deaths AGAIN.

    2. It’s about 2 months to late. I do believe Tenhaken tied early on but he wasn’t granted the power to do it. It is much to late and the city is now infested with the virus. I don’t think your constitutional rights worked to well on this one.

  9. This is Smithsfield’s problem and personally I believe going forward if a business knowingly or negligently allows people to work without testing during public health emergencies they should be held accountable. Even if you are considered an “essential business” that should not mean you can carry on without taking drastic measures. I hope we learn from mistakes here and I don’t think it’s fair to criticize either the mayor or governor. We do care more about liberties more than most even in the face of pandemics but if 10 percent of the population doesn’t take responsibility resulting in community spread what do you do? Even if you think this is all over blown and we get something much worse when do you cross the line to allow the government to make everyone stay home? There is an argument for both sides and I think it’s a good litmus test for all of our elected officials to take in this upcoming election.

    1. People’s liberties won out big time on this one. But now their is a price to pay. I will take common sense and justice for all over that other stuff.

  10. I thought it was interesting how the Mayor took to facebook to say: “Today, I shared my desire to have our council reconsider our Stay at home proposal.”

    I admit, I haven’t been keeping up with the drama of the Corona and all the press conferences of the mayor and governor. I was under the impression the Mayor introduced the ordinance and was wondering why he referred to it is “our…proposal.

    He goes on to say in the same post: “I have asked my council to consider what other strategies they would support now to get us more of a buffer at our peak.”

    What is it…”mine” or “ours”.

    Frankly, I’ve been disappointed in our mayor for, what I perceived, as using the press conferences to complain about the governor and the state legislature and fielding questions from other mayors by saying it wasn’t his job.

    There’s more to South Dakota than Sioux Falls. While I appreciate the mayor going to bat for me and my fellow citizens, we elected him to find solutions to all our problems.

    For the first time in years, I watched two city council meetings this week. I did NOT appreciate his tone and I believe it was the City Attorney’s tone toward a member of the Council. It was unprofessional and very petty. Grow up.

  11. Paul would have been a hero if he wouldn’t have listened to the Governor. He should have marched into Smithfield and gave them an ultimatum over 2 months ago when the virus was in it’s infant stage. Either you practice social distancing, provide ppe, take temperatures, make sure your employees quarantine for 14 days it they have been out of country or show signs if illness and then test before they are allowed to come back to work. If you don’t follow MY instructions, I am going to close you down. How hard is that? Do we want a nanny state? I don’t think so. Local control is best.

    1. Tara, do you realize as US Department of Homeland Security Essential Business, the Mayor and Governor had absolutely zero coercive power to do what you suggest. Zero. Nada.

      Second, with the temporary shutdown of this plant and several others around the country, suddenly our nation is facing a food supply problem. Unless these and the other plants are opened in weeks, bare shelves and higher meat prices will be begin to be evident in the stores. And, as dairies are now pouring milk down the drain, farrowed pigs will be killed as there is nowhere for them to go as the pork producers retain pigs that can’t to to the plant.

      It is easy to make broad proclamations but in the real world decisions are complex because the problems aren’t easy in times like this.

  12. Tara, do you realize as US Department of Homeland Security Essential Business, the Mayor and Governor had absolutely zero coercive power to do what you suggest. Zero. Nada……….Troy, that is an excuse, in a crisis or pandemic there is no time to pass the buck and go through all this bureaucratic bs. Civil disobedience was the thing to do. I would rather stay on front of the bus than take a back seat. We are way to nicey, nicey and have that “don’t piss off the party mentality”. Nothing wrong with being independent and putting people over policies. Just do the right thing.

    1. WTF are you talking about? If the Mayor or Governor do not have the power, what do you want them to do, break the law? This is not about parties it’s about Laws. We are a nation of Laws and if you don’t like them work to change them, you don’t just start doing what you want. As for this being a “Pandemic”, I am not so sure about that, this all smells to high heaven and the models have been so far off its unreal.

    1. Maybe THEY are the smart ones. Maybe those who want to continue destroying an economy, making children starve worldwide, moving up the number of suicides and staying home are the not very smart ones.

        1. “How about a protest? these these folks are not very smart” followed by a link to a story about people protesting. I don’t see how I misunderstood what you wrote. Maybe you misunderstood what you wanted to write.

  14. Tara, let me repeat: USDepartment of Homeland Security designates essential businesses in a declared national emergency. Smithfield operates under the exclusive jurisdiction of DHS.

    1. Troy, Tara is a professional pot-stirrer. Half of her posts never make any sense. Maybe she should join the rest of the Liberals over at Erishman’s blog. She can join the 5 or 6 Liberals that comment all day long on the same dumb ass articles.

      1. I know that. I also know how many people occasionally read but don’t post. Misinformation has been the currency of the day, especially on this subject.

      1. Not sure what the relevance of this is to whether or not the Governor or the Mayor had any authority to close this plant.

        But, it is a good memo with good information. Thank you for that.

    3. So what Troy, than why were they closed down if they are essential? This was a major cover-up and many people knew it. This would never happen if this Chinese company was a unionized.

    1. Its amazing to me that YOU have this much time to constantly post on this blog several times a day on several articles. Don’t you have some work to do or something more pressing, asking for a friend!.

      Let me just beat you to the punch on this before you attack me for my Anonymous post. I post Anonymous because there are too many whackos out there who use FB, Instagram, etc to track you down and start harassing you there

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