From Sturgis City Manager to mayor-led government as city council approves municipal election votes

STURGIS, S.D. (KEVN) - After a close three to four vote, the Sturgis City Council on Monday decided to begin moving towards a city government without a city manager, allowing the mayor to employ a city administrator later down the line.

Temporary resolution 2024-32, which was passed would act as a stopgap to prevent any unforeseen conflicts in the transition period in regards to the city’s form of government, allowing the new city council that will be appointed on May 6 to begin crafting the transition to a mayor-run city.

The resolution would replace the term “city manager” from city ordinances, resolutions, and policies with the term “mayor” as long as it would not conflict with the new duties of the role.

The hope for some city staff is that this resolution will eventually start the process of creating a city administrator office.

“Additionally, the council would still have to pass an ordinance to create the actual office itself; right now we have ordinances that created the city manager office. So the goal is to essentially change that ordinance to say, City Administrator,” explained City of Sturgis staff attorney Eric Miller.

However, some members of the council felt this resolution would only slow the city down because the current mayor of the city is only part-time and worries that city business would not get done fast enough due to that reason.

A councilman said he doesn’t fully disagree with the resolution, but better wording in the ordinance would’ve helped solve his issues with it.

“We’re not talking about a full-time mayor; we’re not talking about a person who’s going to be here all the time to manage and be available for all those administrative decisions that may need to be done. So, to me, taking a broad brush and just going from city manager to mayor is basically painting the picture of what you just described as having cogs in the wheel that’s going to slow things down,” explained the City of Sturgis Ward 2 council representative Aaron Jordan.

Along with the new temporary resolution that ends September 3, 2024, the City of Sturgis approved the votes from the April 9 municipal election, officially making the current Sturgis Mayor Angela Wilkerson the Chief Executive Officer of the city for the next 13 months.

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