Sioux Falls City Council Public input… in the absolutely worst way imaginable.

Chad McKenzie from over at KSOO Radio educated me on something I did not know this morning:

I believe we’ve reached the breaking point. I think it’s time the Sioux Falls City Council pull the plug on televising the public comment portion of its meetings. It was funny at first – but now has become nothing but insulting and embarrassing for EVERYONE.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, before each Sioux Falls City Council meeting there’s a time when the public is invited to step up to the microphone and offer input. But thanks to a small group of “bullies,” it’s gotten to where it’s embarrassing.

This past Monday night I tuned in only to see a video about to the recent train derailment in downtown Sioux Falls – complete with a re-creation using toy trains and ending with a photo of the Three Stooges doing some sort of Nazi salute.

Just weeks prior to that the City Council was forced to sit through a music video put together by one-time Mayoral candidate David Zokaites. Zokaites ended up falling short of getting the necessary signatures to get his name placed on the ballot.

Read the entire article here.

Wait.. What? The public plays videos for the councilors, and the city broadcasts/records it? I literally did a double take when I read that, and contacted a couple people involved in the process to verify the truthfulness of that statement.

Yes, they actually allow people to play vanity videos in addition to actual matters of public interest. Wow.

So, the candidate for mayor who didn’t get to be on the ballot because he spent his time making an awful video (as opposed to collecting signatures to get on the ballot) was able to force councilors to sit and watch his awful video.  How on earth did the Sioux Falls City Council come to that?

Greg Belfrage at KELO AM is also reporting on the Public Input portion of the Sioux Falls City Council meetings turning into a circus last night, where someone was yelling F* the police, and the Mayor is a SOB, etcetera.

It’s sounding like the public input portion of the meetings has become a free for all. And they’re going to have to address it sooner than later.

Most of my experience has been with legislative hearings which are conducted with far more decorum. Can you imagine Representative Larry Rhoden permitting some whack-a-doodle to play a music video in a legislative committee hearing because they felt like it? Me neither.

So why would the SF City Council permit it?  Kudos to them in allowing an open forum for public input in the first place. But there really should come a point where they have to draw a line just for the sake of getting things done on a timely basis.

How could they fix what seems to be a circus?

Anything more complicated than paper handouts should be eliminated or presented in a manner where councilpersons/interested parties can review them outside of the public input time to prevent the few from monopolizing the time meant for a variety of interests.

Barring that, McKenzie has an extremely valid point. The Sioux Falls City Council should pull the plug on televising the public comment portion of its meetings, and save it for the official business portion because that’s what they have a responsibility in preserving for posterity.

Some dude’s awful zombie video not included.