The interview posted above is from SDPB's daily public affairs show, In the Moment with Lori Walsh.
The mayor of the state's largest city says rapid growth requires strategic investments.
Mayor Paul TenHaken’s capital program proposal calls for highway and street funding to increase by nearly $50 million over the next five years. That’s a 20% increase over the previous capital plan.
The proposal also creates a “renewed emphasis” on kids and families. TenHaken says cultural and recreation investments support wellness and public safety.
“Investing in the youth and the families is going to be very important for a variety of reasons," TenHaken says. "One — as our future workforce. Two — to make sure we’re giving kids proper outlets and proper channels by which to find activities and things that resonate with them and keep them out of trouble. So investing in skate parks investing in our park system, investing in different assets that give people across all economic classes the ability to have a good life in Sioux Falls is really important to me.”
The mayor’s plan includes an expansion of the city’s recreation trail system and the construction of a state-of-the-art skate park.
Mayor TenHaken will present his proposed capital program to the Sioux Falls City Council and the public during a special meeting July 21st. You can read the full proposal here.
The following transcript has been autogenerated and edited for clarity.
Lori Walsh:
How much, how fast, is Sioux Falls growing and how fast does your response have to be?
Paul TenHaken:
Well, the rate of growth right now is the fastest it's ever been in the history of the city. And what I mean by that is the percentage of people that move to Sioux Falls in the last year is higher than it's ever been historically. We had about 7,000 people move here last year. So that's 7,000 more people flushing toilets and driving on roads and using libraries and needing housing. And so our capital plan that we're rolling out is really a bread-and-butter plan with a lot of dollars dedicated to roads and infrastructure, a lot towards our wastewater work that we have to keep doing, water expansion. In fact, I think about 60 to 65% of the total budget this year is either on water, streets, or public safety.
Paul TenHaken:
And so those are the big things you have to keep focusing on as you grow and in a climate where we have six and a half percent sales tax and no state income tax and we have limited fund base by which to support that. So a lot of growth happening in Sioux Falls. So how we're spending that needs to be very smart right now to make sure we're anticipating that growth continuing, because I think it's going to.
Lori Walsh:
Interestingly enough, as you say that and the percentages bear out to what you said — the largest increase is the city street system. And yet you have this huge focus on parks, pools, the Greenway trail system, renewed focus or "renewed emphasis" on kids and families. Why is that important to you?
Paul TenHaken:
Kids and families are important to me for a lot of reasons. One is I'm a 44-year-old dad. I have three kids, 16, 13, and nine. I see the cultural and socioeconomic changes that have happened in this community in the last 20 years. And investing in the youth and the families that are coming up in Sioux falls is going to be very important for a variety of reasons. One, as our future workforce, two, to make sure we're giving kids proper outlets and proper channels by which to find activities and things that resonate with them, keep them out of trouble. So investing in skate parks, investing in our park system, investing in different assets that give people across all economic classes the ability to have a good life in Sioux Falls is really important to me. You know, we have 1.9% unemployment as we sit here today.
Paul TenHaken:
So what are the things we're doing as a city to make sure that people want to stay living here? I mean, it's hard enough to get people to move here, but the low hanging fruit is keeping people here who are already here. And so they expect you to be investing in quality of life amenities to make sure that the community remains livable. That's a very important part of the strategy of this office is making sure kids and families are taken care of because if they are, the rest of the community will follow by default.
Lori Walsh:
Is that a legacy project for you? A legacy theme? Do you think 20 years from now, people will think back to what mayor Paul TenHanken did and say families?
Paul TenHaken:
It's a great question. I would love that if that would happen. You know, I hope it's not that I expanded the wastewater plant by $250 million, even though we're doing that, it's a critical thing, but my hope would be that they look back and say that Mayor TenHanken's administration was really focused on people and the broadest breadth and depth of the community possible and making sure that every family, every kid in Sioux Falls has an equal opportunity to be successful and live their best life. And that's a bold thing to say, and that's very hard to live out, but it doesn't mean you don't try to do that.
Lori Walsh:
If you didn't expand the waste water facility, you'd probably be remembered for that when it failed. Right?
Paul TenHaken:
Right. Yeah. Right.
Lori Walsh:
That would be the legacy.
Paul TenHaken:
Right. And that's the balance right now is balancing infrastructure things. And they aren't exciting, but they're very critical with some of the things the community wants as we come become more urban. And as we grow, they want skate parks and they want more bike trail access and they want a river Greenway downtown and they want some of those investments on the more urban side. But we have to balance those with the fact that we have over 85 square miles as a city that we're trying to take care of 3,300 lane miles of road. And so just some of that, those pieces that grow have to be balanced with some of the fun stuff, I guess I'll call it.
Lori Walsh:
You spoke Monday at Rotary and talked about being a better collaborator with rural South Dakota towns that are your neighbors. Not always what Sioux Falls is known for across the state and even in the region. Where has the city gone wrong? Where is the opportunity for growth?
Paul TenHaken:
I think when you're the largest city in the state and 25 to 30% of the state's sales tax come out of this MSA ... when you are the Yankees, you love the Yankees, but when you're playing the Yankees, you hate the Yankees. And what I mean by that is, in baseball terms, we're the biggest city where we provide the most revenue. And so we need to be sensitive to the fact that other communities may sometimes see us as a threat or say, hey, Sioux Falls has everything already. What about Pukwana? What about Huron? And what about Aberdeen? And my philosophy is those communities grow and are successful. Sioux Falls wins by default and vice-versa. When Sioux Falls is successful, that's more dollars in the state coffers to invest in the Aberdeen's and the Pukwanas and the Hurons.
Paul TenHaken:
And so specifically on our regional level with places like Tea and Crooks and Hartford and Brandon in this MSA, we're having a lot more conversations than we've ever had historically, where we meet monthly, as mayors, as MSA mayors, to talk about shared challenges that we have, what shared solutions can look like, whether that be someday regional park systems, regional EMS and fire response. And so we maybe can help answer calls in some of these smaller communities and it's just the logical direction we're headed. So to think that we shouldn't be having those conversations or not thinking about regionalization will be very shortsighted because it's happening.
Lori Walsh:
Let's talk public safety because as the community grows, crime will grow with it and there are increased challenges. You can have all the parks in the world, but if you can't go there after dark or after dinner, that park becomes a problem, not a playground. What are some of the proposals in the the capital improvement plan? There was a 4% — a 13.5 million request. It's a pretty small part of the overall request for public safety. Tell us a little bit about where that money will go in 2025 specifically. And then let's talk about whether that's enough.
Paul TenHaken:
Sure. Great question. And I think one of the non-negotiables that residents expect from their city government is they want to feel safe. They want to feel safe in their community. And when they are robbed from that and don't feel safe anymore, you have big problems and you see in cities where people maybe don't feel as safe as they used to feel. That keeps me up at night. How do we make sure that as we grow at this pace, that the safety and the culture of our community doesn't change? And to do that, you have to invest in personnel. We have four new officers in this operating budget, again, this year we add officers as our population grows. And on the capitol side, we have investments that we have to look at in terms of a report-to-work location, expanding that around the city, some infrastructure work within the existing buildings that we have for officers, but a lot of your police budget is personnel and it's people and it's investing in those officers.
Paul TenHaken:
And it's ensuring that they're paid and compensated properly. I will tell you, even in the four years I've been in office, getting officers or people who want to get into law enforcement is becoming increasingly challenging. And one of the things that we can do is make sure they're paid fairly, make sure the community supports them and that they know they're appreciated. Make sure they have the right resources at their disposal, the right cars, the right equipment, the right locker rooms. And so is it enough? I don't know. Crime is growing because the community is growing. Everything's growing. Our water usage is growing. You know, our number of our streets are growing and crime grows with that. Is it growing at a rate that's bigger than our per capita growth? No. And so that's encouraging to me, but it also is something that I'm laser focused on ensuring that as we grow and we have additional crime, that it stays at the same level of growth and doesn't outpace that population growth.
Lori Walsh:
Part of those community relations are training and accountability. And you talked Monday about how important it is to support police officers and to give them an environment where they feel like they have the tools to do their jobs, but also holding them accountable. Tell people what sorts of steps you take as a mayor to reassure that there is accountability of the police force for good behavior, for ethical behavior, for the latest training techniques, how closely involved are you in that?
Paul TenHaken:
Great question. And I'll share a couple of examples. You know, one of the most recent being some officers that we had relocate here from one of the largest police departments in the country, and one officer had years of experience in that department and didn't meet our training standards. And so they had to go through some additional training because they weren't up to par with what we expect in Sioux Falls. The example being a low light shooting drill — they had never done low light shooting drills when it's dark. And we expect you to have that level of training so that you can properly handle situations in the dark. And so we have a very high bar for training and what we expect of our officers, but then we hold them accountable. And even in the last year, we've had some officers that have fallen down, not literally, but in their responsibility and the expectations of what we expect from a Sioux Falls police officer.
Paul TenHaken:
And I think the rapid nature by which we dealt with those officers, how we discipline them and those who are no longer with our department should hopefully give the community some reassurance that, hey, we want you to support our cops, but if they screw up, we're going to be the first ones to hold them accountable. And we've shown that in the last year with some challenges that we've had.
Lori Walsh:
How frank are your conversations with the chief (Sioux Falls Police Chief Jonathan Thum) about those kinds of things so that he knows you have his back, but there's also the level of relationship where you can be a 100% open. What is your relationship like with the chief and how frank are you with each other?
Paul TenHaken:
You know, my relationship with the chief is really good. But also, he came into a time, he's been the chief for around a year. He came into a time when policing and the expectations of the community with policing are totally different from they were even three or four years ago. And he knows that and understands that. So people are fallible and we hire people to do jobs. So eventually there's going to be an intersection there where you're going to have a fallible person who's going to screw up. While we can't control everyone's action, we can control our response and how we respond to that and additional measures we put into place.
Paul TenHaken:
And hopefully that's been demonstrated, and I'm frank with the chief on that stuff. And he's frank with me too. I mean, there's no one who wants a better reputation for our department than Chief Jon Thum. And he has a very high bar for the members of his team. And so we got a good guy in that seat, but he's got a very hard job and a challenging job. But we have an incredible department. And I think part of that's because of his leadership too.
Lori Walsh:
I took a sidebar there. Back to the capitol plan.
Paul TenHaken:
(Public safety) is what I'm passionate about!
Lori Walsh:
The sustainability plan or the "climate action plan" for Sioux Falls was delayed to get more stakeholders around the table, as I understand it, before presenting the final plan. The capital plan of course, has to look out and keep moving forward. You're going to have to budget for infrastructure that is climate resilient and is ready to handle severe weather events, for example. And yet we still have to have some more negotiations on what a climate action plan for the city looks like. For you, as mayor, where is that intersection and how are you navigating all the different voices that might come and say, 'you need to do this.'
Paul TenHaken:
Yeah.
Lori Walsh:
We need to do this and it's urgent and you need to do it now and it needs to be your priority. And then you have to figure out a way to put a presentation forward that is going to pass.
Paul TenHaken:
Well, when you use terms like climate action or sustainability or resiliency in South Dakota, you get some kind of tepid responses. In some cases, some pushback. I was told I was buying into the Green New Deal and 'what are you trying to do Paul by pushing this climate stuff?' And basically, here's what we're doing. We need everything we do in the city of Sioux Falls to have this overarching layer, just like we have fiscal responsibilities laid over the top. Sustainability has to be laid over the top too. That doesn't mean mandating electric vehicles in our community by 2026 or mandating solar energy for all of our residential homes going forward. But it does mean, hey, here are some things we're doing as the city to allow our community to start evolving and looking at the climate differently. So a very specific example: We got 700 blocks of street work in this capital plan that we're proposing.
Paul TenHaken:
Well, we've been working with the soybean producers to use a slurry sealer and overlay technique to preserve that concrete and that black top so that it will last longer rather than using an oil-based preservent, we're using a soy based preserve. It's a very small thing, but it's good for the climate, it's good for our farmers, value added, preserves our road network. So there's small things like that we're going to keep doing more and more of. It's not some crazy big swinging EVs in a four-year plan, but those are the small things that we just do every day in the city on all kinds of levels that we're basically saying, we need the community to start thinking about those things as well. So I'm going to keep pushing that topic and the topic of climate action and resiliency, but also in a very pragmatic and practical fashion that the voters and the residents can anticipate and expect versus feeling like something's being forced or mandated onto them.
Lori Walsh:
Anything you need voters or citizens of Sioux Falls to understand about the capital plan that they might need to get behind support and be part of?
Paul TenHaken:
Well, I would say that the number one thing you hear about as a mayor in terms of a city is your road network, your roads, traffic flow, the quality of roads. We have the largest percentage of our dollars in this plan dedicated to roads and streets than we ever have historically. And so I've spent the last four years being a very road-focused mayor in terms of our budget. That's going to continue this year. It's never enough. People always feel there's more that can be done. But the continued support of the work we're doing on roads is always appreciated because it creates hiccups and challenges when you have the types of traffic we have in our community and have to close roads for six months out of the year because that's the only time we can do this work. But a very capital intensive plan around roads and streets and I hope the voters recognize and appreciate that.
Lori Walsh:
Any final thoughts?
Paul TenHaken:
You know, one important thing we didn't hit on Lori, right now we're not immune to the inflationary environment that's going on. And so this capital plan is having to do more with less. And what I mean by that, even though there're more dollars, it's costing us basically a flat 20% more to do anything. So when we're looking at contractor work, when we're looking at the equipment, the materials, we almost just have a flat 20% that we're putting over the top and cost escalations. And our sales taxes aren't growing by 20%. So that's a delta that we're having to make up with some projects we're having to delay and push off. So while everybody's experiencing that inflationary climate, Sioux Falls government's not immune to that either.
Lori Walsh:
Yeah. There are quite a few times in the plan where there's also an acknowledgement that timing might have to be adjusted based on the availability of supplies and contractors. We live in flexible times for sure.
Paul TenHaken:
A very specific example. We have a cold storage shed that we need for our parks equipment, all of our parks mowers and all the equipment sits outside year round through the winter and everything. And it's very hard on the equipment. In fact, it lessens the shelf life of that. That's been in the capital budget for the last two years, but the cost of building and materials, it's just not fiscally prudent to move forward with a project like that right now. So we're going to have to continue just dealing with the wear and tear of that equipment sitting outside until we get to a more stable bidding environment where it makes sense to do this.
Lori Walsh:
Paul TenHaken, thanks so much. We appreciate your time.
Paul TenHaken:
Thanks, Lori.
