Rapid City committee approves alder pay change, supplemental budget for police precinct; tables proposal to move public comment

The Rapid City Legal and Finance Committee voted June 11 to approve a resolution adjusting annual pay for alderpersons and the mayor and to advance a supplemental appropriation package that includes a $1.8 million increase to the police budget for purchase of a North Rapid City precinct.

The actions matter because they change elected-official compensation going forward, move city budget dollars into ongoing projects and a property acquisition now, and set up a tax-increment financing (TIF) request to recoup some precinct costs.

The committee approved a resolution establishing annual pay of $21,582.50 for alderpersons (and an aligned adjustment for the mayor) effective July 1, 2025, and amended the resolution to tie future annual adjustments to the nonunion consumer price index for the Midwest region. Finance Director Daniel Ainsley said the Midwest CPI has increased 39.93% since the council’s last adjustment in 2011 and that the new figure reflects population and CPI changes; “the CPI... has increased 39.93%,” Ainsley said. The committee approved the change on an amended effective date of July 1, 2025.

Committee members also approved the introduction and passage of Ordinance No. 6,673, a 2025 supplemental appropriation. Finance Director Daniel Ainsley told the committee the supplemental moves previously budgeted, but unspent, 2024 project funds into 2025, shifts some funds into the city’s CIP streets program for LED streetlight conversion and increases the police budget by $1,800,000 to buy the North Rapid City precinct. Ainsley said the precinct purchase will be funded from undesignated general-fund cash in the near term and that the city will present a TIF request in July intended to repay some of those costs; final TIF increment amounts remain pending developer-provided calculations.

The committee received and approved several consent and…