Remarks by Greg Strommen
24 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 1
Thank you, Chair. Recently, we learned once again for I think the 24th out of the last 25 years that Rapid City has the best tasting water in the state. If you grew up where Councilman Maher and I grew up, you would really appreciate the water in Rapid City. And I just want to commend our water department, the stewards that they are of this very precious resource that we have. It's getting to be in short supply during some of these drought years. And they're just taking care of things for us. And we owe them a lot. So thank you. Very nice, sir.
Thank you, Chair. I'm going to be in support of the substitute motion. And for a lot of the reasons that Councilman Tamang stated at the Legal and Finance Committee meeting, I'm not comfortable with this being a resolution. I don't think it has enough defined terms. I think if we pass this motion and then we'll receive back from staff something that we find a lot more acceptable for this purpose. I'm in support of the motion.
I just wanted to make a correction. It's not really O'Hare Stadium. It's O'Hara. Since we had the president and the AD here, I thought we should. make that correction?
Thank you, Chair. I was looking through the Community Development Department's findings that was presented to the Planning Commission said staff has reviewed the major amendment to a plan development overlay pursuant to Rapid City Municipal Code and the goals policies and objectives of the adopted comprehensive plan and finds the following One, multifamily dwellings including a triplex are a permitted use in the medium density residential district and is generally in harmony with residential development in the surrounding area. Number two, the proposed triplex promotes infill development in…
Thank you, Mayor. Can I direct the questions to the city attorney?
So Carla, I've got a few questions. Is this a contingent or hourly rate agreement, and is there a limit? My second question is, what are the reasonable expectations of collections? And my third is, can we collect anything with the bankruptcy court because there's automatic stay?
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.
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…
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
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 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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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, 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…
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?