Mayor-elect explains goals for Rapid City mayorship

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - As Rapid City continues to prepare to swear in the Mayor-elect Jason Salamun, we take a look at some of the different goals he plans to accomplish as Rapid City’s mayor.

On Wednesday, Salamun addressed some ongoing topics of conversation buzzing around the community, such as the possibility of bringing back a run-off election. He said the initial reason they got rid of a run-off was to save money at the cost of having someone who the community might not have wanted to support. In hopes of adding back the run-off election, Salamun said that this way the result would be much clearer as to who the public wants in the mayor’s chair or on the city council.

“We will work right away to restore the runoff elections to make sure whoever wins mayor or council in the future has 50% plus one,” explained Salamun.

Another topic that Salamun talked about was public safety, which was one of his main talking points during his campaign.

“We’ve got to make sure we’re fully staffed so that you can enforce the law. We’re going to have to dive into the budget and take a look at what that means because your money is going to go where your priorities are. It’s true in your home budget, it’s true in the city budget, and so that’s going to be reflected in that,” explained Salamun.

The budget will have to be fleshed out at later meetings to figure out the best way to tackle this issue.

“It’ll take work; it’ll take a great team, but I’m confident that we’ll get the job done, and I’m excited,” expressed Salamun.

The other topics that were talked about during the sitdown conversation with Salamun:

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