As Poops’ term is coming to end, many directors and managers are announcing their retirement or resignation. Directors are leaving from most of the major departments and several assistant directors and deputies are also leaving.
First, the obvious question? Why are so many leaving throughout the organization? It is not uncommon for directors to resign after a mayor ends their term, some are just brought in for the administration and don’t expect to stay afterwards, but this many directors and management leaving after a mayor leaves is a bit suspicious.
There has been a lot of gossip and rumors from various sources that the city got investigated for financial reasons. I have heard a whole host of reasons why, but nothing solid, so I’m VERY SKEPTICAL this occurred (besides an ARPA audit), but it makes you scratch your head a bit when pretty much Poops entire administrative team is leaving with him. Are they gonna leave the next mayor holding the bag? What will the books look like? Good question.
There is a positive in all these resignations, the next Mayor will be able to pick their team, but this will take several months and hundreds of interviews. I would encourage the next mayor to hire a national recruiter to find qualified employees instead of depending on our internal HR department. But this will still make the first year of the mayorship difficult for the next mayor because they won’t have a permanent team in place when they are sworn in.
So what do these directors know that we don’t? Not sure. This has been the most secretive administration in the history of our city. Huether tried to cover up stuff, but he was really bad at it, Poops turned it into an art form, and if there is one thing he has accomplished it has been a militant closed government.
I hope the next mayor is transparent with the public and tell us what kind of damage the current mayor incurred upon us, but with being ‘SD NICE’ they will likely just sweep it under the rug and not look back. While I agree we shouldn’t dwell on past indiscretions, we should be told what they were, so the public can make sure we never elect or hire folks like this again. History is important, and if we don’t learn from it, well, you know what happens.
All Directors should be replaced every time the mayor leaves office. they are appointed by the mayor, let the new mayor appoint all of his directors, keep the ones he wishes, replace those he chooses. My most humble opinion, Donald Trump is the only one that stands up for what he promises, says, and does. IF you want a complete overhaul of government, you cannot keep the same people in places of power. For a complete “restructure” of city government to occur, you need to allow ALL directors to leave every 4 to 8 years in order to maintain a constant changing of the guard from one administration to the next administration. And then, as Trump is doing, you do a complete 180% “re-organization” of the city offices, agencies throughout the city in order to shake things up, and change government, if the real intent is to rebuild the city into what you, or the people expect to see in the future. This is why we hold elections every 2 years, cause people are human, they change their minds on a day to day frequency. Since the Dave Munson administration – we have basically had the same people in charge in two departments for 10+ years – Mike Cooper had ran Planning and Zoning for nearly 15 years (2004-2019), Mark Cotter has operated the Public Works Department since 2006, and then in H.R – despite only being the Director since 2010, Bill O’ Toole had actively been a part of the department from 2002-present day, and had been the Assistant H.R Director since 2006. Then there is City Attorney David Pfiefle – he served 8 years under Huether, and another 3 years under TenHaken, and could actually get another 4 years under a new mayor. IF you want real change in our administrative system – you must stop electing or appointing the same people in office. Everyone is complaining how much city government does NOT change from year to year, but yet, the same people tend to be part of our “city beaucuracy” every year. IF this continues to be the case, you cannot complain tha the same group of people are being chosen to ‘chair’ all those commissions, committees, let alone a made up of the same non-profit organizations that partner with the city government. Do not worry if every director leaves every 4 years, this is 100% what we want to happen.