SIOUIX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) -- Tuesday's Sioux Falls City Council public input session nearly became an episode of the recently revived Gong Show, with Mayor Mike cutting off two speakers.
The first came from input regular Steven Seeno, a veteran suffering from PTSD and other medical conditions, who was once again explaining to the Council that he would like help getting his needed care. He went on to demand an investigation, "I want the police to act on it, I want to see some arrests. I want to see some prosecutions. Someone stole $300,000, put it in a phony account at First Premier Bank, that was supposed to be for my benefit but I did not benefit. It was for the purpose of causing my harm and death." Mayor Huether then told Seeno his time was up after just under 3 minutes
Seeno has long claimed to be black-listed by the VA, saying because he has different beliefs the Hospital has been withholding care and treating him differently. In a recent input session he went so far as to call out the council, saying if I die this weekend my blood is on your hands.
The next to receive the Mayor's gong was public activist Bruce Danielson, who was cut off after just under two minutes when he implied that carelessness by the city had something to do with the collapse of the Copper Lounge building in December of 2016. Danielson began his comments by blasting the city over it's just announced public-private partnership to build a new 13 story parking ramp, hotel, and retail office space. He compared it to a scam game, referencing the 1973 Robert Redford film The Sting.
"Construction Manger at Risk seems to be the game, secrecy is the process, transparency is gone. In 2014 the entire ramp was going to cost $9 million, now it's over $20 million, just so we can brag about a 13 story building to make Sioux Falls modern." Danielson went on to add "First we watch buildings fall down because our building department doesn't seem to care that there is problems," at which point Mayor Huether instructed him to step down.
Danielson and Huether then argued for a few moments before Danieson backed down. Hueter apologized to the council and called Danielson's comments out of line and uncalled for. Some of Danielson's supporters chirped up in support of him, saying the activist should get his allotted five minutes.
The vitriol did end there, Scott Erishman ended his input by saying "a lot of us come up here and talk every week, we don't come up here to entertain you, we come up here to inform you." That comment was a reference to another comment made by Huether during a previous public input session, when in between speakers the Mayor asked "would anyone else like to entertain the council?"
Tuesday's input wasn't all bad, resident Grant Witwam made his way to the podium to thank the city for being active with the street sweepers. "I want to thank everyone involved with that choice," he said, listing off the benefits of keeping the streets and gutters clean before the snow begins to fly.