City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the City Council meeting for Tuesday, September 8th, 2026. We will begin with a roll call and determination of quorum.

Thank you. Next, we'll have an invocation by Pastor Ron McLaughlin, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. If you are able and willing, would you please rise?

of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thanks, everyone. Next, I'll entertain a motion to adopt the agenda. Got a motion by Biberdorf with a second by Meyer to adopt the agenda. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Next, we have a special presentation regarding Constitution Week. So if you're here for that, would you meet me right over here at the podium, please?

Pleasure to be joined by Cindy from the Daughters of the American Revolution with us here tonight. And they have put a request in for Constitution Week. This is something we do every year and proud to do it again this year. So we'll go ahead and read the proclamation. Whereas September 17th, 2026 marks the 239th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention. And whereas it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary and to the patriotic celebrations with which

Well, that was nice. Next, we'll move on to general public comment, a time for members of the public to discuss or express concerns to the council on any issue not on the agenda. Action will not be taken at the meeting on any issue not on the agenda except by placement on the agenda by unanimous vote of the council members present. And I have a speaker request form here from William Wagner. Mr. Wagner, you have three minutes, as you know.

Thank you. That will conclude general public comment, and we will now move on to appointed personal privilege by Councillor Stroman. Mr. Stroman. Let me get you in the queue here so people can hear you.

There you go. Thank you, Mayor. I'll try to be brief. Yesterday was Labor Day, and as I was resting at home, I thought about the tradespeople and the laborers and the workers who built this country. And I don't know that we actually recognize them as much as we should. But to all those people, I just want to give a big thank you to those people who do the hard work and the heavy lifting. And the other thing that I did yesterday was watch a lot of 9-11 footage, and the 25th commemoration of that is coming up Friday, I think it is. And there's so many people in our society, including my own chil

Mr. Stroman, very well said. As a reminder, what's interesting is you'll see my note here on 9-11. We will have a 9-11 ceremony on Friday morning at 8 a.m. at the base of M Hill. The fire department's actually leading the ceremony for the 25th anniversary here in Rapid City, so our very own folks are leading that ceremony we also will have public safety folks and the council and of course the entire community are invited to take part in that as we remember that solemn occasion and as very well described by Mr. Stroman thank you again Mr. Stroman. So that will move us on to non-public hearing i

OK. All right. We will do the approval of items 2 through 47, with the exception of 30. The motion is by Meyer, with a second by Seacrest. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 30, authorize Mayor and Finance Director to sign First Amendment to Facilities Management Agreement with Sports Facilities Management, LLC. Councillor Sechrist, you pulled this item, ma'am.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If I may direct a question to Director Ainslie, please. Absolutely. I'm director Ainsley. Would you be able to just give us a quick overview of this? this amendment and the reason for this and also just maybe your Encouragement in that I guess this seems like a big amendment to now we're we're taking away our owners representative from my understanding and having the the management facility organization provide that service. So I was just hoping we could get a little bit of clarification on this and the thought process behind that, if I may.

Yes, I think so. And my interest in pulling this is just making sure that the city's interests are being protected as we go through this process and just understanding that sometimes having a seat at the table. And it sounds as though we will through a combination of our own engineer team and then also through the sports facility management LLC. So thank you very much for that explanation.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to support this. And I appreciate the explanation, Daniel. But I also appreciate Councilman Sechrist raising the questions, and also Dr. Tamang at the Legal and Finance Committee meeting. Because it is, I think, a substantial change from what we had going into this. And it's important that we be fiscally responsible with this endeavor. And I think that we are doing that. I guess I was just a little caught off guard that we would be changing things, adding to their contract a month after their contract was entered into, and that we'd be paying them even before the bu

Thank you. Next up, Councillor Armstrong.

Thank you. I just want to dovetail off of Councilman Stroman's comments. I, too, was caught off guard. I thought, oh, gosh, here we go. Amendments straight out the gate. But what sold me, and I would be remiss in not saying, by eliminating the need for an outside representative, this arrangement will save the city $659,000 compared to the previous standard agreements. So I wanted to make sure that all the taxpayers out there knew that and commend you for doing this. So thank you. I yield.

Thanks, everyone, for the questions, and thank you, Director Ainslie, for that detailed explanation. Otherwise, I look for a motion to approve. I guess a motion.

I didn't have to tell you how to vote, but...

Motion to approve by Meyer with a second by Sechrist. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. That takes us to the end of the consent items. Before we move on to non-consent items, I do have another note of personal privilege. This meeting is the final meeting for Parks and Recreation Director Jeff Beigler. Many, many years of service, Jeff. We're so grateful for everything that you've done. I wanted to take this moment in the middle of our meeting. to thank you for your leadership, for your steady hand, and for just being an overall great guy and advocate for our parks. We're better b

Thank you. I just want to clarify this is for the police station and want to defer to Chief Hedrick if there's any comments he would like to make. If not.

Do you mind if we get an explanation from finance director first? Sure. All right, Director Ainsley.

Anything else? Did you want to get Chief Hedrick in this? Chief, did you want to chime in?

Okay. Well, I had the opportunity to take a tour of the facility. Hopefully, I know all of the other council members were invited. So I want to thank... Scott sits and Amanda Lee for giving me an in-depth tour. I see their vision. I think it's smart I love that it is visible. It's in the heart of that area and that's a great way of taking an empty building and putting it to good use and investing taxpayer diet dollars wisely Thank you.

Always good news to save money, isn't it? All right, Councilor Strumman.

Thank you, Mayor. And speaking of the neighborhood, I would just like to congratulate, well, Councilman Roberts isn't here, but Councilman Lehman. This is in their neighborhood, and they were integral in trying to get this established to meet the needs in their ward and in their neighborhoods. And I think that they should be commended for that.

I yield. Thank you. Yes, sir. Great teamwork all the way around. So we have the motion on the floor to approve. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 49, first reading of ordinance number 6748 regarding fiscal year 2027 appropriation ordinance. This item was continued from the previous special council meeting. Councilor Beberdorf.

Yeah, if I could get a motion to restore the $100,000 that was cut from the mayor's budget and hold the floor for discussion.

Okay, we got a motion by Beberdorf and who was the second by?

Maher, all right, the floor is yours, sir. Yeah, and I didn't get this email. It wasn't on my email this afternoon, but I just saw this in front of me now. The 2027 proposed budget for the mayor office is the lowest that it's been in five years, eight, 90, 61. I just think it's important a city our size to have a chief of staff, kind of have the second charge per se. The amount of work that the mayor office has gotten done in the term has been impressive. This chief of staff position wasn't part of this administration. It was budgeted before this administration took over office. So they simply

Before we get to you, Councillor Maher, a point of clarification from either the finance office or the city attorneys, but with this approval, I imagine there might be various amendments, so do I just keep track of the amendments, or do we vote for each of these line items as we go, and then an overall approval? I just want to make sure that we handle this appropriately before we continue any discussion. So, go to City Attorney Cushman.

Thank you. I just wanted clarification so I didn't get us confused. Okay. Councilor Maher, I accidentally bumped you out of the queue. I apologize for that. The floor is yours.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to also say that I think the chief of staff position is critical to the city. I know what is accomplished in that department, and I really appreciate the support of all the department directors who signed a letter supporting that chief of staff for the city, and I want the council to accept that recommendation from all the directors in the city and support reinstating the funding. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. Thank you, Jason, for the additional clarification that you sent this to us today. I still am a little, I'm questioning the organizational structure because what HR gave me as our org chart, it has four different positions reporting directly to your chief of staff. So I don't know if I'm reading that right, or maybe it's changed, it's labeled June, so maybe some changes have happened.

Okay, but more importantly, remember I'm only back here for 63 days. And in that time, and especially within these last couple of weeks, I have seen how reliant you are on this position in order to fulfill your duties. And I want to support you and our mayor. So I guess we'll change our mind and take a vote on it. But we want to be able to make sure that you can do your jobs. And if you feel that you need this chief of staff in order to fulfill what you were elected to do, that's what we need to do for the benefit of the community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have had the opportunity to connect with the mayor's office staff. And actually, they had followed up with me on some comments that I had made at another meeting. was given a breakdown of the mayor's office positions and the delineation of duties for each of the positions in the mayor's office. And I think it helped open my perspective or change my perspective on this in the original motion that we shared and just understanding the workflow and the balance of job duties in the mayor's office. just want to say we have an amazing professional team that have done a great j

Well, I also am going to support this change. As I've reiterated many times over the past six or seven years, I first proposed this position the first year I was on the council. And I do think it's important. But we also need to keep in mind that we need to have the duties of this position spelled out. And I think that is part of the council's responsibility when we appropriate funds to say, this is what's going to be happening and what that position is going to be used for. Now, I've seen over the past six or seven years, every once in a while, when the council does something that is controve

Thank you. I want to thank the council for your words tonight. I appreciate the spirit in which it's done. I know these are heated discussions and I get just as tough at times as anybody else. I will say this, this position is beyond me. I won't be mayor forever. It's meant to be of service to Rapid City for all future administrations. So we've added this position, which is very common in cities our size and larger. We have a growing complex city. We have a lot going on. Anything that happens in this city is because of a great team, not just in the mayor's office, but all the directors report

Thank you. Last week I sent a email to the council about some potential budget considerations. I'm assuming all of you received that. Head nod would be great. Okay, great. I would like for the council to consider and look at this. and make some well for example we can go line by line if you want the fire department is looking for future scba replacement we don't have a firm number but it's anywhere from 800 000 to a million dollars for 2028 so these are things let me clarify that we could consider for the 2027 budget, or at least have on the radar for 2028. Is there anybody that would like to

Councillor Stroman's looking to chime in.

I wasn't going to make a motion. Thank you, Mayor. I wasn't going to make a motion, but I did want to chime in. I think that Councilwoman Armstrong's suggestions are well taken, and I think that, especially in the backdrop of the 25th anniversary of 9-11, if we could provide better protective equipment for our first responders or for our firemen that, you know, God forbid they have to walk into a burning building and try to bring people out of there, um they should have the type of equipment that allows them to do that without fear of you know singeing their lungs or whatever it is that happen

We have Fire Chief looking to chime in. Fire Chief Culberson.

And I think that goes to show the forward thinking of our directors. Obviously, if it's requested, obviously this council would have given it. So sometimes in these discussions, when the directors are thinking ahead, they're planting seeds for years even beyond that at times. And I know we all agree that we'd make sure that your folks had everything they need to do their job safely. Councillor Secrets.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If I may direct a question, again, to our finance director, Daniel Ainslie. Sure. Daniel, do we have a line item that just would reflect the amount that included all of our initial changes, just where we were at with any positives that remained in that balance? I saw in our on our attached agenda item with our current budget, it doesn't have any undesignated reserves listed on there. So I didn't know if you could clarify that for us.

so if we could reduce the use of our undesignated cash that would set us up in a better position in the future absolutely thank you very much for that explanation that makes a lot of sense now that you state that um i had just in my mind had thought that rather than um absorbing this into undesignated cash which it sounds like we're just kind of paying that back at this point but rather than absorbing i would like to see this go to the cip for consideration of use in our capital improvements plan um or i mean in our our two million dollars of deferred maintenance for our park system um our str

Great. And to give other people some insight to what I did is I reached out to the directors just to see if we were missing anything, to get things on the radar for either 2027 or 2028. And these are not in any particular order other than the fire department. Human Resources was asking for approximately 22,000 in additional funding. for some professional services. It looks like 3938 and 18500 for training and education. I do think we have somebody from the human resources department here that can speak on that as well.

Is that what you're requesting? Does the council need some further clarification on that or some questions? The point of this exercise is basically to flush out anything that we might need to do. I believe it's really important that we fund our departments. $23,000 doesn't seem like it's a lot of money, and if it can give our staff some more training and education, I just think it's worth a discussion.

So Councillor Meyer is on, has the, are we, you have more comments? Councillor Meyer, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'll talk about one thing that's in the proposal, and maybe Director Dame, if you could give some insight. Something that is proposed is a potential principal project manager position. And these are Councillor Armstrong's words, so I can't take credit for this. But to give some insight, airport boards considering a principal project manager position to help with $100 million terminal expansion, and it sounds as if The money is already in the airport budget, which is an enterprise fund. And so I don't know if it's you need approval to increase wages or what that looks like

Director Patrick Dane from the Rapp City Regional Airport.

Thank you. Maybe this is a question for Daniel. Since it's in there, it's something they can absorb. I don't know do we need to approve or should I make a motion to create the position and what the proposed salary is or move dollars into their wages line. I don't know what the best way to do this is.

So can I just make a motion to approve $125,000 for personnel and let you guys do the math?

Because you started talking, we'll have to have that motion by somebody else. You can second it. All right, a motion by Maher for $125,000 added to the personnel line items distributed, I imagine. And a second by Meyer. The floor is still yours, ma'am.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I respect the airport executive director of the board and my colleagues here. It's just flying a little too ad hoc for me. I like to think about these things a little bit more. So I will be opposing tonight, not because I'm necessarily against it, but because I feel like this requires a further discussion. Thank you.

OK. So the motion on the floor is to increase the airport's budget by $125,000 for a project management position. Councillor Sechrist.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I guess I was just clarifying, is this, this is covered through the Enterprise Fund, so it's not technically gonna adjust our overall budget, or this does impact the overall budget? Okay.

A little bit, rates and charges of the airport. Somebody pays in the end, always.

And I know in the email explanation it did share that this was gonna be presented to the board next month, so is that something that the board can ultimately decide upon and then allocate those funds?

I can answer that real quick. I met with Director Dane today, but the board met and approved it, so the board approval at the airport has approved it.

I guess I'm just curious, I guess, why this wouldn't have been included already or why we're... Okay, and just as the budget was presented from the airport. Okay, well thank you.

I just want to direct a question to Director Dame and just clarify the motion. So will 125 suffice for a professional project manager who is going to be able to oversee the terminal project, the runway project and then I believe the parking project?

All right. Counselor Stroman, the floor is yours, sir.

Thank you, Mayor. I kind of take in the same position as Stephen. I don't necessarily oppose this, but I do kind of oppose the ad hoc, try to hammer this out on the dais type deal. And I have the same concerns that Councilwoman Armstrong has. This doesn't sound to me like a, a $109,000 job. I think we're asking this individual, if we hire this individual, to do a pretty, that's a big ask, that's a big job, and they're gonna have their hands full, and I don't know that we're gonna get the type of person that we need at that level and so i'd like to have some more time to consider that because i

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My first comment is I should have been a project manager. Is there, I mean, maybe Director Dane can nod or give me a thumbs up, but it's, I think, directionally nice to know for next year if they can hire staff. But if it's something they need now, My intent is this is a massive project, and I would like to see it done well. And whether we do it tonight or table it and come back to it, I think it's something we can make appropriations at any time. I think I just want to make sure. We get this airport staff, which it's an enterprise fund, and so I think it will be fine in

Thank you. Yeah, I look forward to approving this as a supplemental down the road after we get a chance to take a closer look. And I appreciate your effort, and I appreciate your bringing it to everyone's attention tonight. Thank you.

So, Councillor Lehman. The floor is yours, sir.

All right. The motion on the floor right now is an allocation of $125,000 to the airport for this position. There's been no substitute motion. The original motion maker, Councillor Meyer, is back in the queue.

OK. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm fine withdrawing the motion for now.

Oh, I'm sorry. I gave, oh, that's right. Boy, I keep giving her credit for your work.

Well, I think Kevin should withdraw his motion. I mean, it was really silly. I don't know why he did that to begin with.

But I'd maybe table this or whatever. Whatever the motion maker wants to do, I'll support there. All right.

Well, right now, the motion's still on the floor. We're going to go back to the original motion maker since I have Skipped him. I apologize. Would you like to make any changes to that motion?

I'll withdraw the motion. I support the position. And I'm okay with a little bit more time to figure out exactly the right dollar amount. Thank you.

Okay. All right. So is that okay with the seconder? All right, so the motion has been withdrawn. And so I don't believe that we have anything to vote on then, because we haven't taken an actual vote. So that is withdrawn. Now I'm going to go back to Councillor Layman since I cut him off before.

All right, the motion is to approve item 49 with the amendment as we talked about before with a second by Evans. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Motion carries with two nos from Stroman and Armstrong. All right. Moving on to item 50, a request by Advanced Design Engineering and Surveying Inc. for Black Hills Industrial Center, LLC, for a preliminary subdivision plan for proposed lots seven through nine of block three, lots eight through 12 of block five, lots one through six, and drainage lot of block six, and dedicated right-of-way of Black Hills Industrial Center, generally described as being located at Old Folsom Road. The recommendation is to approve with stipulations. Motion by Sechrist with a second by Maher to approve with stipu

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And just to start with, I approve this project moving forward with the stipulations as listed. I just wanted to make a note on this, the traffic congestion impacts happening right now on Diamond Ridge Boulevard. I've heard from a handful of constituents in the last couple of weeks alone with the increased construction happening at the Homestead Street area as well as Shepherd Hills area so on both sides of Diamond Ridge Boulevard as our as our connector Street right now since we don't have East Anamosa built out we are having heavy equipment up and down that road semi tru

Well, you're just in luck because Community Development Director Vicki Fischer is eagerly raising her hand. I saw that.

Thank you, Director Fischer. And I have definitely had that on the radar. But to tell people that they're going to be waiting years for this situation to be resolved is disheartening. And it's extremely hard living there in the moment. Is there any way we can restrict semis and heavy equipment from utilizing this road at the very least in the meantime? and I would hope that the city can be looking into what we can do right now. I know we're in design phase, according to, I believe, our director. Tice has updated, design phase is happening right now, and we are looking for a fall of 2020 constr

Director Fischer, did you have anything to say about that?

OK, Councillor Evans. I just want to comment that I was happy to hear Ms. Fisher mention the way we do things. And we're trying to move toward a new model. As you know, I've been harping about that for seven or eight years. And it's amazing to me when I visit Billings, for instance, how their arterials are built. you know miles out beyond where the development goes so they don't have that problem because we've had the you know the cart leading the horse for our entire existence as a city and we need to move away from that and to know that the fund is slowly being developed i think is a really

Well as a reminder that's what the strategic growth revolving fund is for and I look forward to planning that in the future. I'm still in need of a motion folks. Motion by Tamang with a second by Biberdorf to approve with stipulations. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. That takes us to public hearing items 52 through 63. We will open the public comment or public hearing for items 52 through 63. I do have some speaker request forms for item 63. First up, Tammy Hop.

Next up, Barbara Horton. Hello, Ms. Horton. Welcome.

It does go by fast, yes ma'am. We will now close the public hearing for items 52 through 63, and I'll entertain a motion to approve items 52 through 61, unless the council has an item to separate from the ballots. Motion by Lehman with a second by Sechrist to approve items 52 through 61. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. That takes us to the end of the consent public hearing calendar. And we will move on to non-consent public hearing items 62 and 63. Item 62, second reading of ordinance number 6738, an ordinance amending section 17.06 of the Rapp City Municipal Code. A request by Renn

All right, duly noted. All right, Councillor Armstrong.

Thank you, Mayor. Permission to ask the Community Development Director some questions? OK. Ms. Fisher. I want Ms. Horton's statement and concerns to be addressed. What is the likelihood of a house like this going into a place that has an HOA and how would the city handle something like this?

All right, with that we'll go to Community Development Director Vicki Fisher.

And hopefully that addressed Ms. Wharton's concerns. And thank you, Director Fischer. I yield.

Yes, I've really struggled with this ordinance because I believe in full disclosure, transparency to the neighborhood, to the people, and so I understand. I've met with city attorney. I've seen the lawsuits. We don't have any choice. We have to accommodate Oxford houses. because of ADA and FHA rules. If we don't, we will be sued. So I'm okay with the whole thing with Oxford Houses. My concern is it really bothers me that we're not willing to notify the neighbors. I don't know why we can't just tell them, hey, this is gonna be an Oxford House. Doesn't mean you can stop it, but at least you're n

Thank you, Mayor. Can I make a substitute motion? I'd like to make a motion to amend the proposed ordinance to include notification to neighbors and also a process that is similar to the CUP process rather than an administrative process to deal with these issues. And if I can get a second, I will retain the floor, please.

All right, we have a motion by Stroman with a second by Maher. Can I restate it just for clarity's sake? To include notification to neighbors and to develop at least a CUP-like process to the ordinance.

that's fair thank you sir um and i um and i appreciate the comprehensive analysis that kinsley from the city attorney's office has done i've read the materials that she's provided not the most exciting reading but appreciate it just just the same um i understand where she's coming from and the opinions that she's or the or the position she's taken that she believes that she would be uh... it saving the city from a potential litigation if uh... we did anything other than what this ordinances i do believe we do have to have an ordinance and we do have to have uh... something to uh... to address

Okay, and for clarity's sake, there was no other motion, I believe, so that's the only motion on the floor right now. All right, Councillor Evans.

Yeah, I'm a firm believer in artificial intelligence research. I think it digs deep. That's not to say I love data centers, but I did, you know, propose this with the ordinances that exist in surrounding cities and asked what would happen if somebody challenged the policies of Sioux Falls, of Casper, of Bismarck, of Harvard. And Sioux Falls passes, no lawsuits. Bismarck and Rapid City do not. And I'm gonna trust its research, because it has access to all the law books in the world. And so whenever you get into ADA law, it's a little bit complicated. And I don't think personally that this addit

We have our deputy city attorney, Kinsley Group.

Thank you. I commend Mr. Stroman trying to find some sort of compromise to address not only his concerns but Councillor Maher's concerns, Ms. Horton's concerns, and the other concerns that are being brought forward. My understanding when we had these meetings and through the discussions through the Disability Awareness Committee, we were going to do this by a case-by-case basis. So given Mr. Stroman's motion, can you elaborate on how this might help or hurt the city?

All right, with that, I'll go to Community Development Director Vicki Fisher.

Councilor Armstrong, the floor is still yours, ma'am.

One more quick question. You mentioned there's six Oxford houses in Rapid City. Are any of them in HOA developments?

Okay, so for clarification's sake, the motion on the floor is Councilor Strowman's motion, which included the amendment to include notification to neighbors and a development of a CEP-like process. That's the motion on the floor. No other motions are there. So with that, Heidi, would you go to a roll call vote?

Okay. Second. We've got a motion by Lehman with a second by Sechrist to approve item 63. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes with two noes from Maher and Stroman. All right, that takes us to the bill list. With that, we'll go to Finance Director Daniel Ainslie.

I didn't hear anybody. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries with one abstention from Meyer. Item 65.

Got a motion by Meyer with a second by Beaverdore. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Motion carries with one opposition from Councilor Stroman. Do we have a motion to adjourn? All right, we got a motion by Lehman with a second by Meyer to adjourn. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We're adjourned. Thanks everyone.