Last month the Sioux Falls City Council approved raises for city employees, a pro-labor move that, coming less than two months before the April 12 municipal election, prompted Mayor Paul TenHaken’s opponents to complain of political timing and possibly vote-buying.
I allege no quid pro quo, but the labor union that represents Sioux Falls city workers, AFSCME Local 519, says Mayor TenHaken’s “desire to ensure that the employees of the city of Sioux Falls are paid appropriately” is one of the reasons the union is endorsing TenHaken for reëlection:
Challenger Taneeza Islam hasn’t issued a public statement yet on the city workers union’s endorsement of current management, but yesterday she focused her social media attention on making sure city employees and everyone else in Sioux Falls are appropriately housed:
You are right, they deserve a good salary and raises. This bonus was neither, just a one time payment. The Union got suckered last year by accepting a 1% COLA from the mayor knowing inflation was coming instead of negotiating better raises that would compound over their employment they took a Applebees gift card and then thanked the mayor for it by endorsing him. If I was part of that Union, I would be firing my reps.
I received an invite a few weeks ago to a fundraiser / meet n greet with Taneeza. I didn’t know much about her or her campaign, so i took a look at her website. Unfortunately, it didn’t have any actual information about her philosophy, goals, actual plans to do anything, etc. It had a lot of progressive buzzwords like equity and inclusion and change… but it would have been nice if she would have put some content on there. I even watched the videos she put together. didn’t learn a thing about what she would do if elected. I understand that I could have made a donation to her campaign and gone to meet her and asked her questions face-to-face… but do politicians expect people to do that as a way to understand what they are running for? I’m not exactly a fan of mayor paul… and david z seems like my kind of guy… but i want to give taneeza a chance. i hope she isn’t just running as “not a republican” because although that is a good label to wear, it isn’t very instructive.
Ryan – What are Ten Haken’s enumerated and detailed plans? Or is just an R all we need to know?
Richard – I know the same zero information about mayor paul as I know about candidate taneeza. People should not blindly vote for a party, but for real ideas. Do you disagree?
Roach-itarian housing? Ten Haaaaaaaken? No go. Vote Taneeza.
Sioux Falls needs to vote Democratic, then the Republican state will strip their rights away, but at least they will know that they are aligned with the country at large. Hopefully they won’t feel too bad about funding all those Republican rural areas, they do need help you know.