All right, good evening.

Welcome to special city council meeting Monday, July 20th, 2026.

We will begin with a roll call and determination of quorum.

Lehman.

Maher.

Roberts.

Here.

Stroman.

Here.

Armstrong.

Here.

See, Chris.

Here.

Beaverdorf.

Timang.

Here.

Evans.

Meyer.

Here.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

We'll now proceed with the Pledge of Allegiance.

If you are willing and able, please stand.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic.

One nation.

Indivisible with liberty and next we will move to adoption of the agenda.

I have a first and a second.

All in favor?

Second, we will move on to general public comment.

I have no general public comment, so we will open and close that and then move on to non-public hearing items one through two.

Number one is the 2027 Mayor's budget presentation by the Honorable Mayor Solomon.

Good evening, Council.

And looking at why we do these budget addresses, they're actually uh set by state statute.

And that's what this is to you, a proposed city budget for your consideration.

Um we have here is a slideshow.

This slideshow is also found in the budget book.

If you hopefully each of you have a budget book, uh you'll also receive the raw data in a spreadsheet as well.

So we've tried to make sure that we have the most open, transparent numbers you could possibly have in any budget by giving you every piece of data that we have available, but also trying to put it together in a format that helps tell the story of where we are at in Rapid City.

This will also be available on our city website uh for residents to download and view this budget book and see what you are looking at as you evaluate the budget for 2027.

Now, as a reminder, this is just the beginning of the budget process.

I kick it off with the address, and as we started last year with the tradition of having the each department come and share their department overviews and their budget with you, and that way you can do a deep dive uh not only into the numbers but also into the priorities that set those numbers and ask questions regarding the departments.

I think last year we found it, although it's very time uh intensive, it we've all found it very worthwhile, and I have a great deal of appreciation and respect uh for the leaders that you have right here in the city government.

Uh they are tremendous dedicated public servants, and uh so I won't go terribly deep into each of their departments tonight because they will have those opportunities to do that later, but all the information of course is available in your book.

So with that, we will move on.

I think there we go.

So a couple of things I want to I want to highlight before we get into the meet is Rapid City has some great things going for us.

Uh you know, we have these best love lists uh that come out each year, and there's all sorts.

I want to be number one on all of them.

It's hard to do that, but when you're talking about an entire country and the variety of lists that we are placed upon, these are really impressive.

There's three here that I highlighted on the presentation.

There's more in the budget book.

Uh, but for one, for the you know, 24, 25, 26, we were we were in the top 100 places to live in the United States.

We all know that.

We choose to live here.

I can't imagine anybody choosing to live here who didn't want to live here.

Uh I think the only ones of us that are stuck here are those in the military.

Otherwise, we all make a choice on where to live, and we all choose to live in Rapid City.

Uh the other two I thought were really great, and shows the outstanding dedication of our city leadership and our staff.

Number 30, best performing small state small city by Milken Institute, and the number 30 best run cities in the United States by Wallet Hub.

Uh, we're very proud of these.

Obviously, we always know there's room for improvement.

We always know there's room for improvement.

I'll be the first one to admit that.

But I would tell you that we're chasing excellence in Rapid City and very grateful for the city staff and leadership who make that possible, as well as the common council who facilitate this.

I think we should all be proud of that, acknowledge that, and build upon that as we move forward.

And it doesn't happen by accident.

But here's the deal I want to say.

Rapid City is undeniable.

There is no doubt about it.

Great things are happening in Rapid City.

Last year in my presentation, I performed a SWOT analysis for Rapid City, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

If you want to see those, I encourage you to go to last year's budget.

It's on available online and look at last year's presentation.

Many of those are similar, although from year to year, you might have some things change out.

I'm not going to use that same format tonight, but I want to acknowledge that, of course, we have challenges.

But I am very proud of the work that you see in Rapid City.

It is undeniable.

The wisest that ever lived among us said you can tell a tree by its fruit.

And the fruit of Rapid City is strong, and I want to share a few things with you.

So we have a lot happening here.

We have a boom happening in Rapid City.

We see that in our building permits.

We see it in these this last year when we finally announced a brand new hospital coming to town.

We see that with the numerous new businesses that are starting up and the expansion of the existing businesses that are already here.

We see that with the airport numbers.

We also know $2 billion of construction projects happened at Ellsworth Air Force Base, and we know the base will double in population over the next 15 years.

Of course, we didn't do that, but it tells you there's an indication the Ellsworth, uh the Air Force does not invest in a community that's not invested in their airmen.

And so we are very, very proud of that.

And of course, we've seen all sorts of great developments, new grocery stores, new shopping options.

Many of you have planned that, been deeply involved in that.

Other health care options as well, new businesses.

Everybody's excited about Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, Panda Express, all of those sort of things.

What we know is people are investing here.

People don't invest here out of charity, they invest here because it's a great market, because it's a hot market, and that's what Rapid City is.

And so it is undeniable.

You cannot deny the success of Rapid City.

We have a lot of great things going for us.

Yes, there are challenges, but let's be proud of what we have to work with.

And we know another thing that's undeniable is our sales tax revenue.

Like we've seen those numbers month over month.

Now we've headed into several years of really strong sales tax performance.

That's by design.

We want to make sure that we are the regional hub for people to do all of their shopping, get all of their health care, their education options, entertainment, you name it, right here in Rapid City.

In addition, we get 3.93 million visitors each year.

That's a big deal.

As much as we are grateful for our tourism, and we are, we continue to lean into that.

The number one industry in South Dakota is still the one that impacts us the most, and that is agriculture.

How agriculture goes, so goes Rapid City.

Because if we are a regional hub, pretty much for a five-state region.

That means all the farmers are ranchers and people uh living that life all around us.

Rapid City is where they go as the central hub of the Mountain West region.

We are also the hub for health care.

We've seen expanding health care options in Rapid City.

We see Monument Health expanding, even opening up a new children's hospital.

We see the Ronald McDonald Hospital, by the way, that's or uh Ronald McDonald services that are coming to Rapid City.

That's going to be incredible.

We all know about the Sanford Medical Campus that are coming here, they're investing in a big way.

Exceptional health care is bringing in urgent care and emergency services.

That's great.

Oyate Health, what a tremendous assess it is to our community.

That's right here in Rapid City.

The VA has invested right here in Rapid City, not to mention all the great clinics and physicians and caregivers that offer services all throughout Rapid City, including elderly care, hospice care, you name it.

We are on the map, no doubt about it.

So we are a regional health care hub as well.

Education is strong here, especially post-secondary education.

We are so proud, and how blessed we are to have South Dakota Mines, Western Dakota Tech, Black Hill State University, right here in our community.

Most communities would love to just have one of those.

We get three.

That's incredible.

And it tells us that we are we are developing a workforce.

We are developing the next generation that will take over for us.

It is really a tremendous time.

And it is one of our best assets.

So you can tell a tree by its fruit.

Great things are happening in Rapid City.

It is undeniable, and I'm very proud of the efforts of our community and of course the people who support them.

And I'm very proud of the efforts of our community, and of course, the people who support them.

The government does not create growth.

We facilitate things.

It is the people, the businesses that actually invest in Rapid City and make it grow.

And we're very grateful for them.

We want this to continue to be a great place to raise a family, grow a business, and of course, enjoy life.

So this year, what I'd like to do is I'd like to take 10 highlights from that budget book.

There's a lot of information in there to digest.

I'm certain you will all read it and you're probably perusing through it as I talk.

But I thought to help us out a little bit, there are 10 highlights.

This isn't necessarily the most important items on everything.

Some things you already know, so I will uh leave those for you to review later.

But I do want to just mention top 10 things.

Think of the David Letterman list, top 10 things to highlight in the budget book.

How about that?

So we'll start with the first one.

We have a responsible overall budget.

The overall budget that includes general fund and enterprise funds for 2027.

The proposal is, as you see before you 312 million, 332,582.

That is a difference of nearly 25 million dollars from last year.

That is a 7.

I believe 4% decrease from the previous year.

This is the second year in a row.

We have decreased the budget from the previous year overall.

And what accounts for that, you'll see we're doing a lot of remarkable things.

What accounts for that is obviously responsible budgeting.

We've been able to hold the line on our budgeting, but obviously we've also had uh some reductions in our capital expenses as well that make up that difference, um, particularly at the airport, water reclamation, and others.

So I want to make sure I point that out.

That's a big deal.

Number two, we are going to we are offering the largest investment in roads in rapid city history.

You've never seen this much investment in roads in rapid city history.

I've heard it from council members, so you've been heard, we've heard it from community members.

I hear it from my own parents.

Hey, invest in our roads and not just the new roads.

So uh this past year I got together with our team.

I want to uh say thank you especially to Mike Tice, Daniel Ainsley, Jesse Reeb, other members of public works.

Uh, as we as I said, how would we accomplish investing more in our roads and infrastructure for next year?

So, what we put together here is a plan that can take up the next two years uh to do, and this is significant, and it also represents some changes uh that you will see.

The first thing you see up there is 450,000 for a proactive road crew.

Uh, one of the one of our shifts in philosophy is in the past, and this is this is good, I understand this, this is good stewardship.

You don't generally replace a road until what's underneath the road needs replacement.

That's usually water lines, sewer lines, things like that.

And that's when you replace the road.

And when you put a new road in, uh, you will do your best to extend the life of that with mill and overlay, chip seals, those sorts of things.

Uh, because so much of Rapid City was built, you know, post-flood, a lot of efforts that happened then, we're seeing aging infrastructure.

And so you haven't seen mill and overlay throughout the city, meaning we're taking care of existing roads.

Maybe they're aging roads because we say, well, listen, they're gonna be replaced in the next five or ten years, we don't want to touch it, so we're gonna let it crumble even more.

The the issue is that compounds over time, and those roads only get worse.

And some of them are right in front of elementary schools, and some of some of them are right in front of areas that could be redeveloped, be great starter homes for young families and things like that.

I see Councillor Secret shaking her head because she's talked to me about mill and overlay quite a bit.

And uh, Counselor Secrets, you've been heard.

So, what we're doing is we're gonna put a crew together.

Part of our limitation is we don't have enough people to do that kind of work because they're busy doing all the other street work.

So we're putting a crew together that can do this kind of work, and you'll see three million dollars set aside for mill and overlay projects to rehabilitate roads before reconstruction is needed.

We don't want to always wait until the reconstruction is needed in order to make those roads smoother uh for the people who live there.

And so that'll be a big priority of ours in the next year if you approve this budget.

You'll also see new road construction.

Uh, many of this is stuff that you just recently passed, but of course, the real work begins as construction begins.

So East Anamosa Street and that whole area around it.

We've heard about that for a long time.

You, City Council, this city council right here, you made that happen recently.

Uh, and we appreciate that.

Healing way on the southwest corridor by Catron and uh Catron and Mount Rushmore Road.

You're going to see that extend as well as Promise Road in that area.

And of course, that area around Highway 79, Old Folsom Road where the Black Hills Industrial Center is, we know that we're getting a traffic light and there's work going on there because of a TIFF.

So that's where a lot of that new construction.

So one of the other philosophies that we have is that growth will pay for the growth.

That means existing CIP funds, we want to shift that to work on the roads that we already have rather than CIP funds paying for the new roads.

And that is something that we are working towards.

The next item that you see there, the 16.7 million dollars in road reconstruction.

These are roads that already exist.

This is out of our CIP funds.

So you're seeing more work on Wonderland Drive, Skyline Drive, which is such a gem up there, not just for the folks who live and work up there, but of course, our chair is dinosaur park is up there.

Robinsdale, Dakota subdivisions, we know, like in that Robinsdale area, they we are continually need to work on that area in South Rapid City.

Again, those are homes.

If if we take care of the roads there, I believe it'll have such a tremendous impact on the housing around it as well.

And I think it could you could see revitalization in these older neighborhoods as the roads in front of them have you know are taken care of.

And of course, uh, from the vision fund, you set aside 17 million dollars for the strategic growth fund that will also work for new road construction, and that's something I would like to talk to the council about this next year.

About uh well, where should that go?

We want something that's gonna pay back uh to the city.

I think commercial development would be good.

We've done a great job uh utilizing our resources in other ways, but you combine all this up over the next year or two, and it's a serious investment, and you get to approve it, and you get to say that you are a part of the largest investment in streets and roads in Rapid City history.

So we're presenting that to you tonight.

We've heard you on that, we've heard the citizens on that, and it's certainly uh something I want as well.

Uh, it's hard to pull all that together because if you don't know how the city makes its revenue, I know the council does, but as I talk to you, please know I'm talking to the residents who are viewing this as well.

The city collects two cents of every dollar spent in Rapid City.

The first penny goes to our general fund that pays for uh day-to-day operations, including our staffing.

The second penny in most communities goes to your capital improvements projects, your CIP fund in Rapid City.

We don't spend that full second penny on CIP, we split that up.

58% goes to our CIP, 42% of that second penny goes to vision funds.

And of course, we made changes to the vision funds where we uh said that it had to go to city assets from now on.

That's where we see a lot of our parks and quality of life projects, but also some other cool projects as well that you have set aside on this next round of vision funds.

So I think we've stewarded that well and found a mechanism that we can balance quality of life with the basic infrastructure that we need.

So the way we've set this up, I think is pretty tremendous.

Uh typically our whole CI CIP infrastructure, I think it's about 26 million a year.

So what you're seeing here is something really significant.

It's something we've worked very hard on to present.

And again, this is based on a lot of the feedback you've provided.

Um, so I thank you for that.

Thank you to the staff for for being flexible to shift that philosophy.

And it's not a bad philosophy to have to leave the road the way it is because you don't want to spend money uh when something's going to be replaced.

And of course, that's not going to happen if it's replaced in the next year or two.

But when you're talking about doing middle and overlay, uh keeping it smooth, and eventually it will be replaced, and hopefully every street in the city will be replaced at some point.

But we want to extend the life of our streets as well.

And and also when we invest in a street, we're going to continue to overlay those because we want them to last longer.

So I appreciate our team for that.

Number three, no property tax increase in this budget.

I am not recommending a CPI increase for 2027.

Primarily to keep things affordable for our homeowners because we all know property taxes are just too high.

Two, our sales tax revenue is so strong.

And when we say that we've been intentional about sales tax revenue, it is so that we can relieve the pressure off of our property taxes.

Rapid City enjoys one of the lowest municipal mill levy rates in the state.

And that is due to responsible stewardship, even long before I was ever on the council or as mayor, and long before you, but also including us, uh, we've been a part of that story.

Uh, this year, because of our strong sales tax, this in 2026 that we're seeing, and what we project for 2027, uh, which is a three percent sales tax uh increase year over year.

I mean, right now we're sitting, I think 6.2 percent, so that's pretty conservative for us.

But I think by doing that, um we can help affordability, and I hear that a lot.

How do we help affordability?

One of the ways you can do that is by limiting the property taxes.

And the other option that is available this year uh to Pennington County to help property tax owners or property taxpayers, is uh a half cent sales tax.

And the deal with the half cent sales tax at the county level is to do that, they are required by state statutes to relieve property taxes by that same amount.

So it is it's an offset.

And talking to Pennington County, I believe uh they are in the process of doing that.

I would support that effort in order to relieve pressure off property taxpayers.

The thing about the sales tax is our visitors help pay the sales tax, so it's not just our residents.

We're already paying sales tax, and our visitors get to help do that as well.

Uh I do think uh there should eventually be carve outs at the state uh for people of low income, especially for groceries and and baby items and necessities like that on the sales tax.

I think those are worth discussion in the future.

That's not something we can do at the city level, so it's just us sharing our opinion today.

But I do think those are things to look at as we see that shift, perhaps around the state.

But in our neck of the woods, uh, that's my recommendation to you.

So, of course, uh, we have taken the CPI uh in other years, and other years we haven't.

It just goes year to year, and it depends on what our projections are and what our needs are.

I'm happy to report, I believe, uh, that we do not need to do that at all.

And in fact, a really pressure off of our property taxpayers this year.

Number four, prioritizing public safety.

I don't think it's any secret uh public safety is a top priority uh for me and our administration.

Uh you can see that with our investments.

Uh, of course, with the Northside Police Precinct, we have 3.2 million going in to that with a variety of funds helping to pay for that.

Thanks to the council for your efforts on that.

That'll be on Knowwood Drive.

Takes more than just buying the building.

There's a lot of things that have to happen.

And while we're doing the precinct model, just to remind everybody, right now, our headquarters is at the public safety building, which is shared with Pennington County.

We appreciate that relationship.

We'll continue to have that relationship.

But as they're out of space, what do you do as your city grows?

Well, one of the strategic things we've done is we we've said let's decentralize some of those efforts west of town, as well as what you see right here north of town, and what you will see uh by the next item at 9 million dollars east of town with 9 million dollars uh through the TIFF funds to complete Fire Station 9, which will have a component that is dedicated to the police department as well, uh some library services, and if just to remind you, we also have a park going there.

It's gonna be really tremendous on the east side of our city.

Uh, that will continue to be effort because of that.

We have to hire a whole bunch of new firefighters and ambulance personnel.

And so we've invested in that.

We've applied for grants, of course, to help us uh with kind of an on-ramp onto that.

Uh, but you're seeing the investment there initially.

Uh, we hope to relieve that pressure with grants, but that's what we're looking at right now to bring on 15 new firefighters, six new ambulance personnel uh throughout 27.

They may not all be hired at the same time.

We might distribute that throughout the year.

That's one way that you help save uh money throughout the year.

You don't hire it all in January, but you distribute it throughout the year.

That's how you make your dollars go.

And of course, there's a lot of training and effort going into that.

As a reminder, this last year we invested in adding 12 new police officers to the police department.

Thank you for your support on that.

The police department will share greater update during their presentation.

Uh but I can tell you the chief uh has his eye on the ball.

Uh they're actually shifting some resources within their existing budget right now to add more investigators to investigate the serious increase in crime that we see uh with sexual crimes, especially among children.

When I was first elected, one of the first things I did was we boosted the crimes against children unit, particularly sexually sexual crimes against children's unit.

Uh, they're gonna do more of that, but we also see sexual assaults of all kinds.

It's unacceptable, it's evil.

I will say it again, I've said it a million times.

If you intend to hurt children in Rapid City, we will come after you.

If you harm children, this is the worst place for you to be.

I want you to be afraid.

I want you to go away.

I want you to stop, not harm anybody else, and I want to make sure that we have the personnel needed to do that.

It's evil, wicked, and wrong.

And we look at the data and statistics, it is heartbreaking.

And so the the chief will probably go into that more in his, but I'm telling you that that's a good investment.

Um we have patrols, we've seen uptick in patrols, and of course, we are committed to enforcing even you know minor things like traffic violations, because they help help break away from more significant things that we see throughout our community.

In many areas with public safety, we're making great progress, but we're a growing community.

We cannot we cannot take our eye off the ball.

Just because things look okay today doesn't mean they're that way forever.

If you stop investing in public safety, you will quickly find yourself at a deficit, just like we were a few years ago, 35 police officers short around that number.

Now we're close to fully staffed thanks to the leadership of our chief and our common council.

I also want to say the quality of life unit and park rangers have a big part to play in that.

Not a I mean, I'm frequently told how appreciative people are that they get to enjoy the parks uh and make sure that people are okay.

Uh Dr.

Tamang and I have talked a great deal about community health workers.

I've agreed that we'll have our quality of life unit and park rangers cross-trained uh and get certified as community health workers as well, so that they know know how to properly uh are properly equipped to deal with some of the situations that they deal with when making sure that our public spaces are safe for everyone in Rapid City.

So I appreciate that.

Um we'll continue doing our downtown police presence.

Probably the number one thing I might hear about from downtown business owners is keep that going.

They love seeing a uniformed officer downtown.

I think we all do.

Uh, it has been tremendous.

I think it's been a great deterrent.

Never discount deterrence.

That's why we have safety specialists, that's why you have park rangers, that's why you have police officers.

Why cops drive around?

You know this because when you see a cop car and you're speeding, you might tap your brakes.

That's called deterrence.

Well, that happens at all levels.

And and we want to keep that.

I would rather people not get hurt in the first place.

And that's what we have here.

We'll continue to public uh prioritize public safety uh to make sure that we're addressing the needs of our community.

Number five, enhancing our quality of life.

Uh, that's one of the great things we love about Rapid City.

We all love the the green space, the parks, just the natural beauty that we have here, but we also have great things to do, fun, recreation, productive outlets for our youth, all the way to our seniors.

Uh, these are tremendous.

Of course, you know that we have 66 million dollars secured for the indoor sports facility.

Uh, that's a huge thing.

And uh, you've already I got a letter to you in the budget book.

We talked about this, we'll talk about it at our main council meeting today.

Uh I believe this is such a win for our community in so many ways.

For one, it's great for the for the people who live here with the youth that have productive outlets, uh, all the way to seniors who have a place to walk every single day indoors.

That's tremendous.

It will have a serious uh visitor impact as we have regional and national events that will come here because of the sports complex, especially thanks to the partnerships uh that we have.

So we have 66 million dollars secured, hope to get more funding.

We're we have a goal of 76 million that we'd like to get through sponsorships and hopefully decrease bids.

That will really help us achieve our goals.

But we're right there.

I'm so proud of that, and that has been a total team effort.

Uh, thank you for your support on that.

And we've also se uh more investment with parks uh through various channels, and but that's homestead that we talked about before.

No wood, uh, that I know uh all of us have been grateful for, but especially counselor Roberts and Lehman have been uh very big on that.

Uh we are looking at uh uh Robinsdale.

That's going to be that's it's still that park's so big, there's so many aspects to improve on that.

We're grateful to do great things there.

Uh I'm also recommending an investment in Main Street Square.

Main Street Square is 15 years old, and they are doing they are such a hub for our community.

If you have not been down there recently, they are hopping on all cylinders.

It has been incredible.

And I've been out there many times for events recently.

It's been tremendous.

So they need to do a lot of things.

Uh the turf needs to be replaced.

They need to replace the ice, even more.

The concrete underneath it uh needs to be addressed.

We have some drainage issues, some leveling issues.

We need to redo that.

Uh, there are some issues with the stage and AV requirements.

They'd like to make some improvements there.

So I'm recommending as a start $500,000 uh out of CIP for 2027 and a follow-up next year in 2028 of another 500,000 dollars to help them go through phase one and phase two of the project.

It's a gem in our community.

If we don't invest in it, uh it will you know deteriorate over time.

We don't want that right in the heart of our city.

It is a tremendous asset.

They do collect a bid fee, but that helps pay for the ongoing maintenance, which is a lot of maintenance just to keep that up, as well as the programming and resources that are needed to keep that thing going.

And I'm gonna take my phone out to make sure I stay on time.

All right.

Oh, my grandma texted that she's praying for me tonight.

Well, that's nice, grandma.

Thank you.

Um you didn't like that, but she says hi.

Uh so she must be watching.

So, and it's my mom's birthday.

I should say hi to mom.

Happy birthday to mom.

So, anyways, Main Street Square, 500,000 for them.

Uh that's what I'm recommending.

We also have uh many other investments, including Johnson Ranch Park, a brand new park.

Thank you, Councillor Evans and Councillor C.

Chris, for speaking up for those folks.

Canyon Lake, due to the vision fund, we have major restoration, seven million dollar project going on at Kidney Lake Park.

Uh, Vicky Powers Park and many sports fields and spaces.

Uh, we have a lot of projects happening right now.

Our folks are busy, and we're very grateful for it.

I also want to just encourage, put this plug in here that as we have new neighborhoods in our community.

I would encourage us to do everything we can uh to ensure that they also have neighborhood parks.

Every new neighborhood should have a neighborhood park.

Brings the community together, it's great for kids.

I think it's just a great idea.

And if that's something that we could work towards, uh, I think that would be tremendous.

Encourage us to keep doing that.

Let's talk about the American birthday bash.

I hope you made it out for America's 250 celebration right here in Rapid City.

I want to say a big thank you to the citizens, the staff, visit Rapid Cities, the sponsors, everybody who helped make that happen.

Folks, if you were not there, you missed out.

It was the most special time you could imagine.

The community spirit was so strong.

And I heard it time and time again.

Are you going to do this next year?

And it's a lot of work.

We went through July 5th, July 1st through the 5th.

We had activities going on.

July 1st with the Air Force Academy Band, it ended on the 5th with the Freedom 5K run.

And of course, between that, we had everything from the fireworks show and municipal band to a parade and drone show, live music, food vendors, a bash from Memorial Park down to Main Street Square, very few public safety incidents, and a strong sense of community.

We are so divided now.

Even all of us, we don't agree on a lot of things.

I have to tell you, people from all walks of life came together in this community like I've never seen in my time.

At this time, when we're so divided, so many people participated.

That parade, over a hundred floats with all sorts of people with you know, celebrating their business or their causes or whatever the case may be.

That's America.

And it we really showed up and showed out.

And not only that, we think that we saw some great numbers that will be coming from Visit Rapid City in the coming weeks with regards to the impact economically.

One of the early indicators that we have, I think it's 9% increase in hotel stays.

And we also know they jacked up their prices, so the sales tax on that's even greater.

I think we have the opportunity to lean in to the visitors that come here for the Independence Day each and every year to visit the best of America right here in Rapid City, lean into that, have an evening parade that doesn't compete with our uh neighboring communities Fourth of July parades, but be our own thing, but also have this birthday bash.

It's like the pumpkin festival, but all patriotic, where we actually love America because we do in Rapid City.

I think it's a strong brand.

I think it's the beginning of a new tradition.

I'm recommending 250,000 allocation towards this next year as well.

Um it made me so proud, and I think once a year, getting the community like this in the summertime is a really big win.

Uh so let's capitalize that, lean into our strengths.

Again, it was special, and I see no reason why.

Now that we have the template on how to make it happen, it'll be uh much better with the lessons learned for future years.

And again, thanks to everybody who participated in that.

It was really incredible.

Next, the internal uh review initiative.

So uh one of the things we want to do this next year is make sure that uh every taxpayer dollar is spent responsibly and wisely and appropriately.

And we do that with great stewardship from our department heads and of course our accounting department and each uh each department's responsible for their budget to make sure that it's spent the right way.

We know finance department really helps, but we're gonna take uh some extra measures to really do some internal review.

So we've asked Tracy Davis, our assistant finance director, to be the lead reviewer for this initiative.

What she will do is kind of act like like what an auditor would do.

Should go into departments, look at things, ask questions, uh, give it scrutiny, and make sure that she, if you know her, she's a stickler.

Uh, she has a lot of integrity, and she'll do a great job.

And then have a process available as as we find things and how how we look at that, explain that, and if there's any appeals that have to happen to that.

We always we already do external audits, Rapid City is audited.

We will continue to do external audits.

This will only help our external audits, but it'll help make sure that we're reducing waste, doing things the right way.

That's an initiative we'd like to begin in 2027 with a little more focus in that area.

Next up, top 10 highlights the innovation district.

This is not something I invented.

This is something a lot of folks that are a part of, but I'm telling you that this will be a major focus in the next year as we have a tremendous opportunity, thanks to your forward thinking with the investment in the maintenance facility where our streets division currently sits near the South Dakota Mines campus.

We will look to relocate that as we work on our centralization efforts for uh uh for maintenance uh of all types, including fleet and other things.

Uh by doing that, we have the opportunity to take that that land and do something remarkable with it and ask the question what's the highest best use of that land.

I am going to bring forward uh to you in the near future an MOU that I would like to work with South Dakota Mines, Western Dakota Tech, and Elevate Rapid City to determine the best use.

There are some ideas that are floating out there, but an MOU it allows to have more productive discussions.

We aren't selling anything yet, but it allows us to have productive discussions that'll come back to the council eventually to work through what that looks like.

Of course, we'll we'll uh have council leadership as part of those discussions.

But that's what that area is on that map called the sandbox.

They call that the sandbox.

So if you want to know what that is, that's that's what it is.

Um, but I think we can do some things where we have a lot of harmony happening in our area because what's going on here is tremendous.

One of the great uh economic drivers of our community is national defense.

We have an incredible opportunity in that space, but also just auxiliary uh items and initiatives related to that that could be pretty significant as well.

So uh I don't want to dictate exactly what those items are today, but I want to be able to work with those entities so that we could work together to find the best use of that space that really leverages this area of town and brings a lot of different partners together.

Um so you'll see that in the near future.

But you already know that you already know some of this because you already had the forward thinking to relocate the maintenance facility.

So I'm trying to tell you this will be the next step in that.

Of course, we welcome any ideas and conversations related to that effort.

Next, we want to continue to be an employer of choice.

It is not easy working for the government.

Uh I think you get paid well, there's great benefits.

We want to continue to uh be paid competitively and have great benefits.

But public service is still public service, and you're serving your neighbors, but we want to make sure that we are a great place to work.

If we are a great place to work, we'll continue to attract and retain great talent.

I still think there's room for improvement here.

You know, we have nearly a thousand employees.

Uh so some areas are great, other areas that they could use some work.

Um, but we're continually striving to be an even better place to work.

Appreciate Amber Cornella and her leadership and human resources.

But to be quite frank, culture and being an employer of choice is not just HR, that's all of us, including you and I, including our bosses.

If our city is 86,000 people, that means we have 86,000 bosses.

So we got to be good bosses.

And I want to make sure that as we in our roles are stewarding this responsibility of leadership well, that it extends to our directors and throughout the departments, and that people feel appreciated and valued for the work that they do.

So we want to continue to do that, uh, be competitive again.

Like I said, one of the transitions we're uh looking to make this next year is to PTO.

Right now, we do separate vacation and sick days.

What PTO is is combining those.

Uh that is uh smart on a lot of fronts, but it's also that's very employee friendly.

Um because a lot of people don't take sick days.

Some people use all of them, but some people use none of them, and I want to make sure that those dedicated workers get the appropriate time off as well.

So we're gonna continue to be a place that works to attract and retain high performing talent.

We have a lot of that in the city, that's not by accident either.

They choose to work here.

Uh we want to make sure that we're attracting even more.

And I want to say if you work for the city, thank you for your dedication.

Uh if you work for the city, you never have to wonder if you're making an impact.

No matter what your role is, you know that by working for your city, your community, where you've lived and raised your family, you're making a difference.

You never have to wonder if what you do matters because with the city it does.

Trust me, the council wouldn't fund you if your position didn't matter.

Uh, but they also uh want to make sure that you know you're enjoying this work and that you can continue to show up every day with the best attitude.

My expectation is we have this attitude and approach of how can I help?

That we're here to help, that we're here to serve the citizens of Rapid City, they don't serve us, we serve them, do the best we can.

We know sometimes decisions aren't popular, but we want to make sure that we're doing it courteously, responsively, and uh with integrity and excellence.

And so I appreciate those employees that are performing at a high level.

We continue to expect excellence from all of our staff.

Many of them do a great job.

And of course, if if they aren't performing well, they're probably not a good fit for Rapid City.

But if you want to come here, love your job, serve your community, use your gifts and talents to the best of your ability to actually make an impact, come work for the city, come stay with the city, and we want to reward you for your efforts.

We appreciate you.

Number 10, generational projects and initiatives.

We have a lot going on.

So these are just some of the big ticket items that we have on the table right now within the city.

We have an airport terminal expansion, which will add more gates and capacity to an airport that's already seeing sky-high numbers.

We have a maintenance facility that you've already decided on, but that's a tremendous one that a lot of people don't understand.

That that thing was needed to be replaced probably decades ago.

This council is the one that actually did it, though.

You didn't just talk about it, you did it.

Wastewater treatment facility.

We have a historic project underway that's been going on for several years.

We still have future phases of that project to make sure that our water reclamation, which is so critical for our community health and safety, uh, is really set for the future.

We have decisions to make and investments to make in a water treatment facility.

It could include the east side of town or the revamp and mountain view.

Uh but I have to give this shout out to the water department.

Last year, South Dakota says that we had the best water quality in the state.

That's also not by accident because of great work.

So big shout out to them.

Water continues to be important for all of us.

Uh we'll continue to look to how do we diversify our water supply.

We're very fortunate to have uh the wells that we have and the rights that we have.

We're looking at everything from the Missouri River to could we do another reservoir?

There's lots of options out there.

Um, and we also want to protect our water.

That's why pretty soon I'm gonna bring a data center regulations to you, and one of the big priorities in that is to protect our water.

Um data centers worth our water uh I think I think we all understand that.

So that'll be coming to you in August.

You already know that.

I've given you an update on that, but for the public, it's coming.

And we see next year the homestead fire police, little mini library out there, the parks out there, that homestead street project is one that we should all be really proud of because that really sent a signal about going east to Rapid City.

I think I believe someday Rapid City will extend all the way to Rapid City Regional Airport.

And by the way, this last year we took a big move on that with an annexation that got us almost there.

Um, and there'll be a lot of work to go.

A lot of that'll happen, you know, after my time in public service, but I believe we we paved the trail for that for the next generation to do something remarkable.

And doing this right here, I think is really tremendous.

The Northside Police Precinct and Sports Complex we already talked about, but some of these vision fund projects, Kenya Lake, the Bocchiba Court, uh, Vicky Powers Park, we have numerous ball fields like McKeague and Kenya Lake Little League and others, uh, the Ignite Soccer Program, we have the skate park that they're looking at.

So many great things out there, thanks to our vision fund, thanks to your approval of those items.

It really is tremendous because it's really about focusing on the essential services and quality of life for our community.

Next, I'm gonna talk to you a little about community investments.

So there's a top 10 highlights, but these are some items that you're that are of interest.

I know to many council members.

Uh community investments we have broken up into three categories.

We have public safety investments.

So you'll see there, everything from uh our really our partnership with the county on a bunch of that with the emergency planning dispatch, ignite, and search and rescue, as well as our partnership with the Humane Society.

Uh they've asked for more funding this year.

I believe this is a good deal for the city, a fair deal for the city.

Humane society does so much.

I don't think you realize how much they take off of our plates.

We appreciate them.

I didn't blink twice to say yes to this amount that they requested, so I gave them the full amount they requested and said I would bring that to you.

We have a contract with them as part of this.

Um we need to do what we can to help the humane society because without them, I think we would be in a world of hurt.

And so we thank the Humane Society.

I put that as a public safety investment.

Next is the crisis services investments.

And you'll see this broken up uh you say over two million dollars for this, but I'm uh recommending keeping much of our uh existing investments the same, as you see with uh Wavy and Life Ways, uh Care Campus, we're working with them, cornerstone co-response.

Journey on had a serious uh significant, I guess not serious, significant increase in requests from 360,000 to 475.

Uh that includes the loss team that they have that uh a lot of work they do with aftercare for those who've lost a loved one, and if you've ever been in those situations, you know what that means.

Uh but Journey On has been an incredible partner.

You see those green shirts they wear, we call them the green team.

They're everywhere.

They they've they stepped up this last year when we had issues over at Wilson Park, said, Hey, we'll help out with that.

Uh they do it in other school areas as well.

They help out whenever we are trying to help with an encampment and get people to another place to live.

They find they help out with that too.

They do a lot.

I think for the value of 475,000, I was uh comfortable with that request from them, so that's the recommendation to you.

Cornersnell Rescue Mission just got an update from them.

They they are going to continue to provide emergency shelter.

They just did a cooling shelter this summer with this hundred degree heat.

They've informed me they will continue to do so with the winter.

Uh, that's part of my recommendation of that 200,000.

It's contingent on emergency shelter during those extreme conditions.

And the co-response that's case management uh for a lot of the work that we do with people uh who are living out on the streets or may otherwise need help.

Um we're gonna move on to the next one.

Community enrichment investments.

Uh most all of those uh received their full funding.

I did keep uh Kenya Lake Senior Center and Meneloza Hans Senior Center uh the same.

Uh I felt like we needed parity between both of those organizations.

They both do great work.

We appreciate them.

Uh but you'll see that the uh we have five of the uh Bill Evans and I think Pat Roseland talked to me a lot about the municipal band, the Ranger Band, the Choral Society, the Symphony, um, and those groups.

Uh, we're making sure that we're funding them at their request levels.

Uh but you won't see too much of a change, a little bit on the Black Hills Council of Local Governments.

Uh, that's changed as well as the journey and the DAW, um, the downtown bid and the sports commission is one that we did a an agreement uh just a few years ago that we would do $25,000 a year for three years.

We're honoring that commitment as well.

Getting to the end here.

This is gonna be an anomaly, but I want to explain it.

I've placed $820,000, $820,500 into your council contingency.

What I've heard from a couple of you are some initiatives that you want.

Um what I don't know is that there's agreement amongst the council on them.

So what I thought I would do is uh provide funding in this category that if you said, hey, we want $300,000 to do this, or we want to fund the other $500,000 for Main Street Square or whatever your initiative, beautification efforts, you name it, in the budget process this year.

Uh you have funds available there that you can do something, you know, that you want to do that you decide together that you want to do.

Uh that's usually we have 200,000, 250,000 in there.

We've parked other money in there too.

I did park this in here because I understand that there's a lot of priorities amongst the council that you might have initiatives that did not make it into my proposed budget, but is something you still want to do.

Um, I've heard everything from transportation.

Counselor Armstrong mentioned to me about sports complex and transportation, what's that look like?

I agree.

I think that was a great idea by her.

I think that's as we head to 2029.

I think we should plan for that.

There's a lot of things you can do, uh, but I thought I would do that to be helpful to you.

I was a council member once, and sometimes we're looking at what do we got to take from here to there to do these initiatives that we want.

And I thought I would help you out.

Uh, I remember what it was like to be a council member for six years and uh understanding that you have priorities, but also understanding you don't always agree on what those are, so that might help you with your items.

Yep.

So with that, I'll say this the future looks bright for Rapid City.

I believe this budget reflects uh a community that is fiscally responsible that invests in public safety and quality of life, that strengthens infrastructure and that prepares for our future because at the end of the day, this is all about the next generation.

And at the end of the day, all of us want to leave it better than we found it.

And this is my fourth uh budget presentation as mayor.

I can't even believe it.

Uh so I hope that you know when we're looking at leaving it better than we found it.

I hope you agree that this budget leads us that direction.

So I want to say thank you.

Thank you to the people of Rapid City, thank you to the Rapid City Common Council.

Thank you to the team members of the city of Rapid City who put a lot of work and effort into this.

Everybody from Daniel Ainsley, who's been tremendous, to the mayor's office staff, Brett, Daryl, Leah, Sky, Sarah, uh, and all of the directors.

Uh the directors had marching orders.

You guys did a great job staying within that.

They uh they really they really did.

And any positions that were at it had a ton of scrutiny.

They already went through a lot of scrutiny internally.

They're gonna go through more scrutiny with you, uh, but they're prepared and equipped to answer any question that you have.

So with that, that concludes the budget address for proposed budget 2027.

If you have any questions or comments, I don't know how much time we have, but I'm happy to.

Thank you, Mayor Solomon.

I uh I this is my first meeting.

I have nine minutes left, and I don't want to go late, but I'm happy to put people in.

Any questions from any of the council?

Mr.

Strowman.

I just mean for recess before the council meeting.

We have a motion for recess and a second from C Criss.

All in favor?

I have any opposed?

Yeah, I ask a question.

Is it appropriate just to do you just end this council meeting because it's a special one?

And you go to the next one.

Well, a recess would mean that we're coming back to this.

Okay.

If that was the intention.

If that was the intention.

Okay, so with that.

We have a motion and a second to adjourn.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

We are adjourned.

Oh no, I'm glad.