By Dave Baumeister
County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – In putting together a document for future commissioners, a draft was presented this week which outlines and clarifies basic plans for how the Minnehaha Commission will operate.
While this is just a draft document and has not yet been adopted, at first glance most of it just sets in writing the way the commission has always operated.
Commissioners said that something like this was good to have for new commissioners, and as of the first meeting of 2023, the Minnehaha County Commission will have at least two, and possibly three, new members, as Commissioners Cindy Heiberger and Jeff Barth are not running for re-election.
The only incumbent on the Nov. 8 ballot is Commissioner Gerald Beninga.
But in the draft “Rules of Procedure” document, two changes stand out that were referred in recent editorials in this newspaper.
One is that time for public comment will be moved to the end of the meetings, which is a change that allows for everyone who has something to say to say it, even if it is already an “agenda item,” as not all agenda items come with the opportunity for public comment.
That became an issue recently over comment on a proposed Summit Carbon Solutions CO2 pipeline that was not allowed.
A second change makes clear that “video presentations will not be allowed.” Again, at a recent meeting, a group of people who question how elections are conducted mainly used internet videos for five minutes each and made no real comments of any kind.
The new change would keep that from happening in the future.
As the previous editorial mentioned, and some commissioners echoed at the Sept. 20 meeting, public comment is time for the public to talk to commissioners about concerns, not to waste time showing things people can see elsewhere.
The one other change to public comments is to limit the time to three minutes for each person (down from the current five minutes) and cut the overall comment period to just 30 minutes.
Now, these and other items in the draft document will be looked at and discussed by the commission before they adopt it to govern their operating procedures.
The draft document can be found on the internet at https://www.minnehahacounty.org/commission/meetingInfo/meetingInfo.php as item No. 15 in the Sept. 20 meeting packet.
More affordable housing?
Even though everyone’s definition of “affordable housing” is different, commissioners were briefed by Dustin Powers with the city of Sioux Falls on plans to establish a Tax Increment Financing district for a housing development around Madison St. and Veteran’s Parkway in Sioux Falls.
The proposal now calls for 65 houses, 39 single family and 13 twin homes in that development.
Creating a TIF district still allows all property taxes to be collected, but it establishes that collected tax money will only be used on infrastructure development within the district.
Although the houses would all sell for around $300,000 commissioners did agree that by today’s standards, that would be considered “affordable housing” for a new home.
This item was only presented as a briefing to the commission, as it is a plan of the city of Sioux Falls. However, state law says that all affected taxing entities must be notified of such plans.
Next week, Tuesday, Sept. 27, at 9 a.m., the public hearing for the proposed 2023 county budget will take place in the third-floor commission meeting room at the Minnehaha County Administration Building at 6th and Minnesota in Sioux Falls.
