Special Council Rundown: DOJ Grants and Heated Budget Debates

Rapid City SD- The special council meeting opened with a major infrastructure approval. As the first item of business, the council authorized the Mayor and Finance Director to sign the Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) agreements between the City of Rapid City and Scull Construction for the new sports complex.

Chief Hedrick & DOJ Model Cities Initiative

Following the sports complex approval, the floor was given to Chief Hedrick to discuss the DOJ Model Cities Initiative.

Hedrick addressed the council directly regarding the scope and uncertainty of the application process.

“So we learned about this grant and don’t have every single… we won’t get all of the details and all of the strings attached to it, unless we are actually awarded—that’s when we will get all of that information,” Hedrick stated. “But it is quite a large grant and we learned about it and we thought it would be worth putting our name in the hat.”

Hedrick elaborated on the collaborative requirements and the specific local focus of the initiative, which requires signatures from multiple county offices.

“We have penciled out what it could potentially look like for us, and it does require that we partner with not only the county, specifically the state’s attorney office, the sheriff’s office, and it does require signatures from multiple offices from the county along with us.

We’re working those details currently as we speak,” Hedrick explained. “And we sort of penciled out potentially what it could look like for Rapid City, focusing on not only things we’re currently working on—bolstering our programming in violent crime and firearm investigation, bolstering some of our quality of life and mobile medic programming revolving around homeless and housing support. Bolstering some of the prosecution, supervision, coordination around those that program specific to firearm and gun violence. Very detailed programming specifically to our parolee task force unit that we’ve been working on.”

Hedrick noted that further information was attached to the online agenda but reassured the council that applying was not a final commitment.

“If we are awarded this grant we would come back to with you all the details, we would have our attorneys take a hard look at it and make sure that we’re not signing ourselves up for something we don’t like,” Hedrick said.

“Before we accepted anything, you all would get a very hard look at all that before we accepted anything.”

Major Budget Cuts and Reductions

Moving into the formal 2027 budget discussions, the council made several decisive cuts:

• Council Contingency: Alderwoman Laura Armstrong made a motion, seconded by Roberts, to reduce the city council contingency fund from $850,000 to $100,000. Seachris was a “no” vote on the reduction.
• The Mayor’s Office: Tension surfaced during discussions surrounding the Mayor’s Office budget.
• Strommen introduced a motion to reduce the office by $200,000, aimed specifically at the chief of staff and marketing roles, which was seconded by Roberts.
• During the debate, frustration over leadership structures was voiced, with one official stating, “I don’t think that he should have a proxy in there. He should take the leadership role and do it.” Armstrong added to the sentiment, reminding the room, “We are not a business. We are a municipality.”
• Ultimately, Seachris offered a substitute motion to reduce the Mayor’s Office by $100,000 instead. Seconded by Evans, the substitute motion passed 6-4.
• Fourth of July / America 251: Armstrong asked Ainslie directly what the budget was. Ainslie admitted that the $500,000 printed in the budget book was incorrect, noting that the Mayor had actually wanted $250,000. Armstrong then moved to cut the allocation entirely down to $100,000. Seconded by Strommen, the deep cut passed 8-2.

FTEs, Approvals, and Additions

While some budgets were slashed, the council also passed several motions to fund specific positions and community needs:

• Code Enforcement: Seachris made a motion to fund one full-time equivalent (FTE) position for code enforcement, utilizing $93,443 from the funds just removed from the council contingency. Seconded by Roberts, the motion passed.
• Community Development: Roberts made a motion, seconded by Armstrong, to add an FTE planner to Community Development, which passed.
• Senior Centers: Strommen moved to raise funding for two senior centers, Canyon Lake and Minneluzahan, by $50,000 each. Seconded by Roberts, the motion passed.
• Rapid Transit: Driver compensation increases for Rapid Transit passed, totaling $182,523.
• Parks Department: Ainslie noted four new FTEs for the Parks Department at a cost of $124,969, which will be utilized by the Monument for specific events, alongside a $50,000 inter-department transfer from the Monument to Parks.
• Other Approvals: A state-authorized Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase passed 7-3 following a motion by Maher.
• Emergency planning was also fully funded by a passed motion.

Final Discussions and Ordinance 6748

Closing out the meeting, the council addressed Ordinance 6748 regarding the FY2027 Appropriation Ordinance.

Roberts questioned the procedure, asking, “Don’t we have an obligation to post it?”, referring to the newly modified budget. Armstrong moved for a continuance to the September 8 City Council Meeting which passed.