City Council - Special Meeting

Can I direct a question to Chief Hedrick?

Would you give us some context on this item?

I'd like to go ahead and make the motion that we approve this application.

We're just going to get right into it. OK. I'd like to make a motion to reduce the council contingency fund down to $100,000, if I can get a second.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I support a decrease in our council contingency fund. I just would have liked to designate kind of where those funds would be allocated to and maybe looking at like a $200,000 range was my thought on that. completely supportive of decreasing that. I would like to motion that we allocate funding for 1FTE and code enforcement through the funds that were just removed from the council contingency. If I could get a second, please.

And just to speak to that, I've spent some time with our code enforcement manager overseer, John Olson. And I apologize, I probably just butchered your title. But I think implementing that or beefing up that department going to help us respond to not only existing issues but we can also be more proactive and we know that safe communities require that sometimes enforcement efforts be led by the city and so I know that there's a plan in place for that fourth officer just with the the growth in the community and that would allow us to have one officer in each quadrant of the city so for code enfo

If I may direct a question to Director Ainslie, would you like a dollar amount tied with these things if we have an estimate? OK.

in the flesh mr evans there we go thank you um i agree that we need another fte in that particular department but i think just allocating it without specifying what improvements we see to come from that fte is a bit misguided because i know we're going to be unhappy if we just give money and then at the end of next year we're still having the same amount of problems we have with cars parking and front of houses and other things that seem to diminish the quality of life and people's impression of rapid city when they visit so i think if we do this we're definitely going to have to have a discus

uh thank you um i would like to make a motion and then if i could get a second to retain the floor and that motion would be to have the city take the cpi increase authorized by the state in our property taxes okay we have a motion by kevin maher to accept the cpi from prop for property tax with a second by armstrong the floor is yours counselor maher Yeah, I believe that Daniel told us it was about $780,000 we would leave on the table if we don't take that CPI increase. And that means that next year, our mill levy's gonna be lower and we're not gonna get the money. And if you go back 10, 20 ye

Well, good. We've got more money now. So I'd like to make a motion to add an FTE to community development. What would that cost us, Daniel? They haven't had a new employee in 20 years. We are moving to finance director Ainsley. I would say just a planner.

Well that will be my motion since I don't believe they've had a new FTE in 20 years. Armstrong, I seconded that motion.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Very supportive of this. I think it's great that we have an incredible comprehensive plan and a little more power on that team. I think we can deploy some of those tactics. I did ask HR to get an analysis on what this would cost. And at the higher end, it came in closer to $123,000 all in. So I would maybe move it closer to that, if I may.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to make a motion. Mayor, Chairman, whatever. I'd like to make a motion to reduce the mayor's office employment budget by $200,000. We just added two other people. And if I can get a second, I'll explain my reasoning.

i have a motion by mr stroman to reduce the mayor's office budget by 200 000 with a second by mr roberts the floor is yours mr stroman thank you um i've been approached by several people um either on the council or constituents actually even as recently as today they're saying you know why are you paying these people so much money to you know we don't know what they do It looks like they take pictures and they go to photo ops. I look at our chief of staff salary right around $132,000. That's more than the lieutenant governor of South Dakota makes, which is $129,000 about. The governor of South

WE THROW NUMBERS WRONG QUITE A BIT. HOW DO WE COME TO THE NUMBER FOR CHIEF OF STAFF WAGES AND PAY WHEN WE HIRE SOMEBODY LIKE THAT AND WE PUBLISH THAT?

I think it's crazy this town hasn't had a chief of staff or an executive assistant, whatever we call that. You look at any other major corporation that's a $300 million corporation, And to have their CEO manage everybody by themselves, and oh, by the way, you're expected to be at every community event, kiss all the babies, cut all the ribbons, and not have somebody there to support that person is crazy. So I'm in a huge support of the chief of staff person and in opposition to this and to take human beings with the stroke of the pen tonight without any fair warning or what we do next or where

Yes, in response to my colleague, Mr. Biberdorf, we're not a business, we're a municipality, and we have to be very responsible with taxpayer dollars. I think what we're doing up here tonight, we're taking very seriously. Historically, our mayor's office has run quite well with three people, four people, And just to keep adding on to that and doubling it and putting taxpayer dollars towards that is just something that we are just taking under consideration. But again, we're not a business. We're a municipality, and that's how we have to make our decisions. Thank you.

yes i i support the position of chief of staff i agree with most everything that josh bieberdorf mentioned it is important there's so many things going on in the city we have so much growth we got so much going on it's important that the mayor if he can't be he can't be everywhere every day but to have a chief of staff that can go sit in for him at a meeting for a couple hours and come back and brief him on it it saves him time it keeps him more informed of what's going on in the city and with our partners in the city and some of the other organizations that we deal with such as you know the s

Thank you, Chair. I'll follow up to say that I don't think that all of the publicity is that important. I don't think that it's important for the mayor and the chief of staff and the marketing position, which I don't know why the city even has a marketing position, because as Councilwoman Armstrong says, we are a municipality. We are not a private business that's marketing anything. We have Visit Rapid City, we have Elevate, those types of things where I think if we were marketing the city, those would be the places to put our money. I don't think it's necessary to have a bunch of people go ta

Yeah, I would hope we're marketing our city when our biggest asset and revenue generator is sales tax. So whether we call this a municipality or a business, everybody wants to run your municipality like a business. That's the tagline always. Yet when you try to do it, then you hear pushback. So I sure hope that we take marketing of this town serious or why build a sports complex because nobody's going to come.

Once again, following my colleague. Here's an idea. We have 10 of us up here, right? How about we take pictures when we go to our ribbon cuttings? I was at the East Creek ribbon cutting groundbreaking the other day. I took pictures, sent it away. When we did a creek cleanup, we took pictures. We can all help our communication director out and do marketing. When we go to our events, we can just take pictures and send them in and do our part to help market. It saves us $200,000 in the long run. Just a thought. Thanks.

Thank you very much. And I will have to agree with with my two colleagues here about marketing. It's very interesting considering we pay one group over a million dollars a year to do marketing for us and then we pay other groups to do marketing for us. And I really don't think internally we really have to do that much. I think that we've got good entities outside that are doing that for us. I don't think that we have to do it inside of the mayor's office. I know that recently I was speaking to a couple of former mayors, and they were a little bit appalled at how many people are actually in tha

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thought I should chime in on this. First of all, I completely support the city having a marketing division. I think public image and impression to other communities and outside organizations and presenting ourself in a professional, coherent manner is really important for Rapid City. I think historically we've seen all the different divisions kind of do their own things. not have a centralized focus and effort in that area. And I think it's a disservice to us. It's a disservice to bringing in potential investors and things who might be looking at the community. And I wo

and i guess if i may uh direct that question to greg and then continue my thoughts if mr stroman wishes to answer he's chiming in so it looks like he does yeah i think that's immediately where it's directed we've had these two positions have been fairly recent and um you've been on the council a while i've been on the council a while we had a mayor that handled this without having an extra marketing person um without having a chief of staff and without having even spending nearly as much on his salary and i thought the city ran pretty well then i think that it's just excessive we continue to g

Well, thank you for that clarification. I think reducing the budget overall and having them kind of sort through where that makes the most sense, I guess, makes the most sense to me. I personally feel like having the chief of staff has been really beneficial for a number of things that I've worked on personally, including the Zadig management updates and just having somebody there to kind of keep us in track and in line. That position, I mean, I'm not, I don't know. I feel like that's an incredibly high paid position as are many of our city employee positions at this time. It seems to be infla

Mr. Evans. Thank you. This is causing me a great deal of inner conflict, because I personally pushed for chief of staff or deputy mayor position for many years. I do think it's valuable. At the same time, I do think the budget explosion we have over the last few years has been a bit ridiculous. And I've mentioned numerous times that I believe our salaries are not only competitive, they seem to be near the top of the mark in all regional cities, and when you combine it with the benefits, it's a great gig. I mean, if you look at the school district, the teachers seem to get by with salaries that

Thank you. I'd like to point out that, I don't know, maybe Daniel can answer this question, but I believe the proposed budget by the mayor was about nine and a half, I think it was nine and a half percent below last year's budget, 26 budget compared to next year, so a reduction in the overall budget. but if you look at the mayor's office the mayor's office has a 25 reduction in the request for 2027 over what was budgeted in 2026. so to take another 200 000 out of that you'd only be given uh the mayor 690 000 to to run the the mayor's office and that would be a reduction of Well, gosh almost al

Thank you. I'll just say, I know that Director Ainslie took the company line there. But I mean, we don't need to have someone for $132,000 to plan a birthday bash. We have many capable people to do this. We have Visit Rapid City. That's where we should put the money for that. They're the experts for that. We have directors that are well-paid and very competent and doing an excellent job. I don't think she needs to get in there or the chief of staff needs to get in there and try to mediate conflict between them. That's what the mayor's elected to do. He's supposed to be running the city. And I

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to offer a substitute motion that we decrease the mayor's office budget by $100,000 at the discretion of the mayor's office. And I think just taking personal shots at individuals, it's kind of crossed the line at this point. I'd just like to keep this at a higher level. Thank you.

May I direct a question to our finance director? What is the budget amount for the 2027 4th of July holiday? Director Ainslie.

I'd like to make a motion to reduce that to $100,000, if I can get a second. Second.

To reduce the budget for the 2027 4th of July birthday party from $500,000 to $100,000, which I believe has been historic prior to this year.

Yeah, I would speak in opposition to that. There's very few things in this council where somebody calls you and gives you an attaboy and gives you more than one attaboy. And I wasn't here for the celebration. I was family reunion for us. Lots of attaboys for the work that was done for the celebration. and just got the email today about the economic impact. Again, we're selling Rapid City, we're selling tourism, we're selling the dollars that come to this town. This is such a small investment into this community. And something we talked about, polarization, this side, that side, left, right, wh

I agree with Mr. Beaverdorf on this I was actually downtown for all of these events I participated in some of them in groups that I'm in I've lived in this town for a long time since 1961 and there are these rare moments when you feel total positivity and a feeling of well-being and community spirit. And during those four days, that is maybe the most positive feeling I've had in this community since back in the days of the Dakota Day celebration where we bring in 15,000 BAM kids from all over the country. had a big celebration. I felt we were on the right track. I do believe that it's an inves

Councilor Roberts. Thank you very much. So I'm going to support this reduction. And the reason I'm going to is I think that having this 4th of July celebration is a great thing. I think that we've got you know, a lot more time than we had when we planned the 250. So we can start planning the 251, which is going to be nowhere as big as the 250 because it's the 251. But I think that we can also, in this time, we can raise money from the private sector to offset some of that money or all of that money if they want to have it that big. Historically, we've only spent $50,000 a year on fireworks in

And I have a question for Mr. Ainslie. I think you pointed out that the budget is 250. Of that, we're not actually budgeting $250,000 ourselves, are we? Is that our money or is that the total amount that they raised?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to support the $100,000 contribution towards the America 250 birthday bash and 251 birthday bash. I think, just as Mr. Evans commented, it was incredibly positive and well received. This is an opportunity for the community to host an annual tradition beyond our normal fireworks display. And I do think that the America 250 was a really unique celebration, having 250 years and also Rapid City's 150th anniversary. So I felt like that was appropriate. I also feel like reducing that a bit is appropriate. With that said, due consideration to the beautification efforts

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I feel like with the reduction, the loss would probably be the drone show. I don't want to make that statement on behalf of everybody, but that's probably my guess is no drone show. And so I think there still could be a great festival at $100,000. And maybe next year we really miss the drone show, which I thought was great. But $100,000 feels like enough to do something cool. Just wanted to point out that the large expense last year really was the drone show. Thank you.

but I thought Daniel said it was actually supposed to be 250,000. So are you?

And that was sort of my bit of confusion as well. I've seen the matching funds coming from the city, and I agree that 100,000, we can do a lot with that. We don't raise money, so that changes the way I'm gonna vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair. I'd like to increase the funding for the Canyon Lake Activity Center and the Meneluzahan Senior Center to $50,000 each. If I can get a second. Second.

Well, we could fund it from any number of the savings that we've made already. I mean, we've cut down the council contingency fund. We've cut down $100 from the mayor's office. We've cut down, I mean, I'd just say undesignated cash then.

I feel like these two senior centers, if you want to call them that, or activity centers, I think they provide a vital service to our community and especially service to people who don't have many other options. um it's a chance for a community to be built it's a place for people to gather it's a place for veterans it's a place to socialize and i think we've been stuck at 20 000 or 16 000 or something like that for years and that just doesn't go very far these days and i feel like we owe it to to our senior citizens that need a place to meet and so they don't have to live alone and they don't

I'm in total agreement with what Mr. Stroman says. I go down to these places a lot, maybe because I'm the oldest person up here. But what goes on in particular at the Men of Luz are things that are vital to the community. I mean, what has been happening over the last few months at that place is truly amazing. And the amount of people they're servicing in ways that nobody else seems to manage to figure out, to me, is amazing. So I believe that, again, like Mr. Stroman says, these are places that need to be funded because they provide services that nobody else seems to care about providing. And

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is we are looking at some driver compensation increases for our rapid transit system. And based on some preliminary numbers, I just want to get that into the budget for next year. And so I just want to make a motion to fund the rapid transit driver compensation by $182,523.

I'm not sure if you were chiming in for this one?

Yeah, I have a question for our HR director maybe. If you raise the CDL or the salaries for the bus drivers, does that impact other departments that also have employees that have CDLs?

yes I wondered if I couldn't open the attachment the request from journey on but I would like to make the motion that we increase the allocation to journey on because of I think it has something to do with their they have another van now and they need some additional staff which would give us more services from journey on so I don't know if anybody can explain exactly what that was but I would support the increase that was requested

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The matrix we were provided shows 115,000. And maybe Director Ainslie will confirm that. I think that's in the budget. Because it went from 360 to 460.

Well, since that's the case, I don't know if I can change my motion, but I withdraw my motion and do a new motion to say let's pass the $475,000 as requested in the mayor's budget. Thank you.

Included and there's some notes on that, but I'd be happy to provide more explanation of if you would like Councillor Armstrong questions for the finance director, please So go back to the four new FTEs Where will they go under the monument or parks? Because it'll be a fluid right and

I'll make that motion for $124,969 additionally for the four new FTEs for Parks and Recreation.

Thank you. May I ask a question of the finance director? Yes, sir. So Daniel, how would you envision this pulling someone from parks actually being implemented? And would you be charging interdepartmental charges to the Civic Center if you pull someone from parks? I mean, I don't know how the money's moving around and stuff like that. Can you tell me how this is going to work in practice?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just had a point of clarification, if I may direct a question to Director Ainslie as well. Thank you. Director Ainslie, I may have figured this out in the time I've been sitting in the queue, but in the budget book, we have four FTEs included that were recommended by the finance division. Can you clarify those were not included in our recommended budget? Is that why we're considering this right now?

Our parks team can use all the help they can get and the amazing work they do and can't speak highly enough about them. So thank you.

Councillor Evans. Thank you. And the bleeding heart up here just wants to point out to people that observe how we're funding four full FTEs for less than we fund so many other single employees. Not that we're hiring four brain surgeons, but I just do want to point out that there's a major problem with our culture right now. I mean, these people also need to pay for their kids. They need to pay for their families. They need to pay for a lot of things as well. And just want to point out to people how they need to really be observing how the money gets spent in this society right now. Because you

I think he just answered my question about what professional service is, because I feel that our staff always does a professional service. So thank you for clarifying that, I yield.

Mr. Roberts. I'll just make a motion to approve this.

Thank you. Councillor Roberts. I'm going to make a motion to approve that. And I just want to hold the floor for one second, if I can get a second.

And then I want to ask the finance director a question. So all three of these are being funded from undesignated cash, because we never put that into any of them. So that was just my question. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President. So I have a question for Daniel Ainslie, and that is have you been keeping track of the changes we've made tonight so we know what they are before we vote on this? Thank you.

Thank you very much. I just got a quick question for the city attorney. So my question is, with these changes, can we vote on the first reading tonight? Because one of the changes is adding a tax to it.

My big concern is because we're making these changes to it and we're not giving the public the opportunity to, so don't we have an obligation to post this?

I'd like to make a motion to move that to the next council meeting, which I believe is September 8th due to the Labor Day holiday, if my colleagues will accept.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess before we conclude this meeting, we didn't talk about any of those savings that we've identified in the undesignated cash. I'd just like to put this in everyone's mind to consider for additional funds to our infrastructure, just that that is such a significant need. And I think every single one of us through this last campaign season heard that overwhelmingly from our constituents that our road conditions are are so deteriorated in so many areas and i know we've allocated some additional funds this year and next year but could we fund another million dollars towar

I just want to kind of latch on to what Ms. Sechrest just said because I just got back from a week in Cleveland and Columbus where the freeze-thaw cycle is as bad as ours or worse. And I'm going to tell you, people need to drive in those cities for a while to find out that our roads are pretty darn good. because i have never ridden on roads in rapid city like i rode on for a week in the city of cleveland it's kind of incredible how spoiled we get so just be aware as bad as it gets and you may think the grass is greener it might be actually wilted on the other side of the fence so let's not be