Rapid City SD – Rapid City’s Legal & Finance Committee meets at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, in Council Chambers at the City Hall Administration Center, 300 Sixth Street. Sixteen items are on the agenda: 10 on the consent calendar and six that get their own discussion.
The committee is chaired by Greg Strommen. Members are Lance Lehmann, Kevin Maher, Stephen Tamang and John B. Roberts.
The headliners: a resolution that would move general public comment at City Council meetings from the front of the agenda to the end, the second reading of a $6.1 million budget change, and a resolution starting the process to lease six city-owned downtown properties to OneHeart for a transitional housing campus.
How to follow along
Consent items are voted on together in one motion unless a committee member pulls one for separate discussion. The public gets a comment period before the consent vote and another before the non-consent items. General public comment, for topics not on the agenda, comes near the start of this meeting.
Committee votes are recommendations. Items move on to the full City Council.
Consent Items (1–10)
1) Approve minutes for Oct. 14, 2026
At the Oct. 14 meeting, the committee advanced the first reading of Ordinance No. 6754 (item 14 below), recommended a 2027 ambulance contract with Summerset, and upheld a contested tree-trimming abatement at a reduced $600. It also raised the city’s match for the Community Chili Cook-Off fundraiser from the requested $5,000 to up to $10,000 from the Council Contingency Fund.
2) LF102826-01 – Acknowledge August 2026 Sales Tax Report
Rapid City’s total sales tax collections through August came to about $62.5 million, up 5.8%, or roughly $3.4 million, over the same point in 2025.
The city’s 2% general sales tax is split three ways, and each piece grew about 6%:
- General Fund (50%): about $29.1 million through August
- Capital Improvement (CIP, 29%): about $16.8 million
- Vision Fund (21%): about $12.2 million
The separate BBB tax (the “bed, board and booze” tax) grew more slowly, up 2.9% to about $4.4 million. The September through December columns read $0 because those months haven’t been reported yet.
3) LF102826-08 – Accept $7.125 million National Scenic Byways grant for Skyline Drive
This federal grant would pay for a large share of rebuilding Skyline Drive, the ridgetop road built as a Works Progress Administration project in 1935.
The packet includes the grant application, filed by the South Dakota Department of Transportation as the official applicant. The state would pass the money through to the city, which would do the work. The planned work, in three phases from Dinosaur Park north to Quincy Street and south to Tower Road, includes:
- New pavement, wider lanes and shoulders, and better sight lines
- New guardrails and turnouts
- Reconstruction of the WPA-era stone walls; the application says about 800 of the 1,200 feet of wall have seen slope movement or failure
- Trailhead parking, interpretive signs and a replica historic gate at the north entrance
What it costs the city: The application asked for $7,308,696 in federal money. The city committed $6,607,888 from its CIP fund as a match, plus another $804,770 for water and sewer work the grant won’t cover. Total project cost is listed at about $14.7 million, with construction running into 2030.
Worth noting: The agenda puts the award at $7.125 million, about $184,000 less than the application requested. The packet doesn’t say whether the city will cover that gap or trim the scope.
Attorney’s Office
4) LF102826-07 – Resolution No. 2026-083, intent to lease properties to OneHeart
This resolution starts the legal process for the city to lease six city-owned properties to OneHeart, a South Dakota nonprofit. The properties are at 121 and 217 Kansas City Street; 124, 216 and 218 Quincy Street; and 716 Second Street.
The resolution says the purpose is a “transformation campus” offering transitional housing and social and vocational support services to people who qualify.
What happens next: A public hearing is set for Nov. 16 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall. After the hearing, the council may approve a lease “upon the terms and conditions as it shall determine.” State law (SDCL 9-12-5.2) requires the resolution of intent and published notice before a city can lease its property.
What’s not in the packet: The lease itself. There’s no rent figure, lease length or list of who would qualify. Those details would come with the council’s final resolution after the hearing.
Community Development
5) 26TP030 – Agreement with SDDOT for transportation planning, $709,687
This is the annual agreement that funds the Rapid City Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s work under its 2027 Unified Planning Work Program, the region’s transportation planning plan for the year.
Federal money covers $709,687, or 81.95%. The local match of $156,313 comes from Rapid City; the memo’s columns for Box Elder, Pennington County and Meade County are blank. The city’s side totals $866,000. Most of it, $449,475, is for city staff time in Community Development and Public Works.
6) LF102826-04 – SDDOT Section 5307 transit matching funds, $37,258.83
The state will reimburse the city up to $37,258.83 toward the local share of its 2026 federal transit grant for Rapid Transit System.
7) LF102826-05 – Memorandum of Understanding with the SD Department of Health on vacation home inspections
Under state law, licensing and inspecting vacation homes is a South Dakota Department of Health job. This agreement would have Rapid City’s Community Development staff help DOH inspectors with the first round of vacation home license inspections.
According to the staff memo, city staff have spent several months learning DOH’s inspection process. The arrangement lasts no more than a year and expires automatically Sept. 1, 2027. The memo says both sides understand it’s temporary and that DOH “will have to address staffing needs for these inspections in the future.”
Background on the city’s vacation home rules:
Two Rulebooks, One House: Airbnb’s New Policy Meets Rapid City’s Vacation Home Ordinance
8) LF102826-09 – Advertise to buy eight replacement bus shelters, $108,320
Rapid Transit System wants to replace eight bus shelters that have reached their 10-year useful life. The replacements will be the same size or smaller.
The request says no other changes are planned at those stops, including sidewalks, concrete pads or utility work. Federal Transit Administration money covers 80% ($86,656), with the city paying 20% ($21,664). Estimated completion is March 1, 2027.
Human Resources
9) LF102826-10 – New Employee Discipline Policy
This replaces the discipline section of the city’s Employee Handbook with a standalone policy. Key changes from the current handbook:
- New step names. A “documented discussion” becomes the first step, followed by a written warning, suspension, demotion and termination. Probation and “suspension with pay” no longer appear as discipline steps.
- Suspensions are unpaid, commonly in one-, three- or five-day increments.
- New job abandonment rule. An employee who doesn’t show up or call in for two consecutive shifts is considered to have quit. The city can send that notice by text or email, followed by a mailed or hand-delivered letter.
- At-will language. The policy states employment is at-will and that it doesn’t guarantee any particular discipline step.
- The list of example conduct violations is gone. The current handbook lists offenses like dishonesty, theft and timesheet falsification; the new policy doesn’t.
For union employees, the union contract governs where it differs. The draft shows approval by the HR Director and City Attorney on Oct. 20, with council approval pending.
Fire Department
10) LF102826-03 – 2027 ambulance contract with Box Elder
Rapid City Fire Department would provide ambulance service to all of Box Elder’s city limits for calendar year 2027. The contract does not renew automatically, and either side can end it with 90 days’ notice. RCFD bills patients and their insurers directly.
What Box Elder provides: No cash payment is listed. Instead, Box Elder agrees to make “reasonable efforts” toward a strategic plan for ambulance service in parts of Pennington and Meade counties. That includes administering a state Rural Health Transformation grant for emergency medical services, approved Sept. 28, 2026. This is the second contract of its kind in two meetings; Summerset’s came through on Oct. 14.
Non-Consent Items (11–16)
11) Sidewalk Variance Review, by Roger Hall (presentation)
This presentation also went before Public Works.
12) LF102826-02 – Annual Review of Open Meeting Laws, by Carla Cushman (presentation)
State law (SDCL 1-25-13) requires every public body to review South Dakota’s open meetings laws once a year during a meeting and note it in the minutes. The city’s item summary says the presentation isn’t prompted by any violation or compliance concern.
What’s new this year: The Attorney General’s 2026 guide, effective July 1, includes a new law, SDCL 1-25-1.7. It requires agenda items to be described in enough detail to reasonably tell the public what will be considered. The guide also adds a section on what a motion to go into executive session must state.
A rule worth knowing: Under SDCL 1-27-1.16, printed materials handed to council members before a meeting must be posted online or available at City Hall at least 24 hours ahead, or as soon as council gets them if that’s later. A violation is a Class 2 misdemeanor.
Finance Office
13) LF102826-06 – First reading of Ordinance No. 6758, moving Community Enrichment to Finance
Community Enrichment is the division that runs the city’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program and reviews funding requests for public service, economic development and affordable housing projects. This ordinance moves it out of Community Development and into the Finance Department, which already has a Grants Division.
Two things stand out:
- The move already happened. The ordinance says “the City has moved” the division. This vote updates the city code to match.
- TIF management is dropped. The old code listed “management of the tax increment financing program” among the division’s duties. The new section in Finance doesn’t. The ordinance doesn’t say where TIF management now sits.
14) LF101426-01 – Second reading of Ordinance No. 6754, Supplemental Appropriation No. 5, $6,131,686.58
The ordinance notes that every item is a carry-forward or open purchase order from 2025. The total splits into about $3.2 million in governmental funds and $2.9 million in enterprise funds like water and solid waste.
Among the larger lines are $1.22 million for CIP general fund vehicles and $577,388 for furniture and minor equipment charged to Tax Increment District 83 (Homestead).
Attorney’s Office
15) LF102826-11 – Resolution No. 2026-081, sewer backup cleanup assistance
When a city sewer line backs up into a home or building, the city offers a set payment toward cleanup, even though it generally isn’t legally liable unless it was negligent. Accepting the money requires signing a release of further claims for that incident.
What would change:
- The rate doubles from $4 to $8 per affected square foot, the first change since the policy began in 2019.
- Starting Jan. 1, 2027, the rate adjusts each year for inflation.
- The $8 rate applies to backups that happened anytime in 2026.
- Anyone who has been paid once and has another backup without an approved backflow prevention device would not get paid again.
By the numbers: Since 2019, the city has paid 85 claims totaling $201,120.15. Fifty-three of them, about $111,500, were in 2019 alone. There have been four claims so far in 2026.
Worth noting: The staff memo says the policy would “require” a backflow device. The resolution itself only “strongly encourages” one, but then denies future claims to anyone who didn’t install “the required” device.
Alderman Items
16) LF102826-12 – Resolution No. 2026-084, revising the order of business for City Council meetings
This would move general public comment at City Council meetings to near the end of the agenda. General public comment is the time residents can speak on any topic that isn’t on the agenda. It would come after consent items, non-consent items and public hearings, followed only by executive session, the bill list and adjournment.
Comment periods on specific agenda items would stay where they are, before the consent and non-consent votes.
The stated reason: The resolution says the change would “better accommodate the needs of the public in attendance at the meeting for a specific agenda item” and support the council’s work. It notes that state law (SDCL 1-25-1) requires a public comment period at every meeting but doesn’t say where on the agenda it goes.
Also in the resolution: It removes agenda slots for the Compass Committee and Sign Code Appeals, which the city says are no longer needed after ordinance changes. The council previously revised the order in 2012, 2015 and 2017.
What’s not in the packet: The item is listed as an alderman item, but the packet doesn’t name the council member who brought it. In practice, anyone who comes to speak on a topic not on the agenda would wait through the entire meeting to be heard.
Open Questions
- Will the city cover the roughly $184,000 difference between the Skyline Drive application and the $7.125 million award, or will the project scope shrink?
- What rent and lease length will the city propose for the OneHeart properties, and who will qualify for the transitional housing?
- Where does management of the city’s TIF program sit now that it’s dropped from Community Enrichment’s duties?
- What furniture and equipment is the $577,388 charged to Tax Increment District 83 paying for?
- Does Community Development staff time on state vacation home inspections cost Rapid City anything, and is the city reimbursed?
- Which council member brought the order-of-business change, and how will it affect residents who come to speak on topics not on the agenda?
Sources: City of Rapid City Legal & Finance Committee agenda for Oct. 28, 2026, and agenda packet materials LF102826-01 through LF102826-12 (including the August 2026 Sales Tax Report), LF101426-01 and 26TP030; approved minutes of the Oct. 14, 2026 Legal & Finance Committee meeting; South Dakota Attorney General’s Office open meetings guides (July 2025 and 2026 editions).
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