Two men are vying for the top position in the city of Sioux Falls. Incumbent Mike Huether and Greg Jamison both want to serve as Sioux Falls mayor. Election day is Tuesday April 8th.
Mike Huether has served as mayor of Sioux Falls for the last four years. Greg Jamison has been a city council member since 2008. Both claim their experience benefits Sioux Falls. Each man says he knows the best direction for the city and that he represents what people in Sioux Falls want.
Let’s start with money: Jamison says he’s a fiscal conservative.
"And because of our great sales tax growth, we have a lot of extra money coming in. Well, what should you do with that money? Should we just grow government? Well, I don’t think so. We should budget for what we need, and if we’ve collected more than we need we should return it to the property owners of our city and pay down debt," Jamison says.
While Jamison feels he’s the only fiscally conservative candidate in the race, Mayor Mike Huether says he, too, fits that definition.
"I realize the value of being prudent and living within your means. But, at the same time, I also realize the value of investing and making your quality of life better," Huether says. "And that’s what we do very, very well here in Sioux Falls, South Dakota is we know how to balance progress with prudence."
Huether says the city encountered major endeavors during his term, and he credits city workers and people who live in Sioux Falls for enduring the challenges.
"A year ago, we have the most unprecedented emergency in the city’s history – the April ice storm. And we tackled that with extreme vigor together, and, my goodness, now you can’t even remember that we went through it," Huether says. "We’ve built a new events center, a topic that we’ve been talking about in this town for 15-20 years, and now it’s going to be open in September on time, within budget, great jobs created."
"The events center’s going to be very exciting for all of Sioux Falls and even a good part of South Dakota. There’s a lot of people who want to come here for a concert, and this new events center with 12,000 seats are going to provide opportunities for us to have concerts here that we never had before," Jamison says.
Both Greg Jamison and Mike Huether agree that a state-of-the-art, shiny events center is an advantage for the city. But the candidates diverge when it comes to another significant business and construction project: a southside Walmart. Jamison says he’s glad the option is in front of voters.
"They had proposed other Walmarts on different parts of town, and they received major objections to the neighbors. And they said, okay, let’s go find a different place," Jamison says. "In this new approach, the mayor decided he needs to be the offense coordinator for Walmart. He needed to be the one who said, ‘This is how we’re going to do it, and this is where we’re going to put it, and it’s too bad if you don’t like it.’ Well what kind of tone is that from our elected officials?"
Jamison was the sole city council vote against zoning for the southside Walmart. He says he wants to see better buffering between homes and commercial property. Huether says he supports the effort citizens made to put the Walmart decision on the ballot. He says the move shows they care about the community and are involved in local government.
"What we’ll know is on Apirl 8th, we’ll ultimately know that even though the planning commission voted unanimously to move it forward and the city council almost voted unanimously to move it forward, we’ll find out if the people of Sioux Falls want to move it forward and then we’ll go on. And guess what: this topic will come up again. It’ll come up again in two years. It’ll come up again in four years. It’ll come up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and it’ll come up again in Yankton, Watertown, Brookings, and Rapid City – again. That’s how government works," Huether says.
Huether’s opposition stresses that government should work for its citizens, and Greg Jamison says he brings that mindset to the office.
"Over the last four years, I’ve seen that attention being addressed to one individual’s ego. And on the city council I’ve watched it up close and I say, well, it shouldn’t be like that. We can do better. So Greg Jamison is going to work to put the people of Sioux Falls first. That’s his number one objective," Jamison says.
That goal is one Mike Huether also preaches, though he says he won’t hide his business background or his enthusiasm for the job.
"I’m one of the most competitive people that you’ll probably ever meet. People see it; it’s a blessing, and it’s a curse. But you have to understand: I just to reach higher for the people that I serve. I want to take this city, and I want to capture even more opportunity, so that’s the fun," Huether says.
Huether and Jamison do differ in style and perspective, but they also agree that a leader is elected by the people for the people. But that can be true for just one candidate for Mayor of Sioux Falls on election day.
Follow this link to Mike Huether's campaign website.
Visit Greg Jamison's campaign website at this link.