Two Major South Dakota Cities Get New Mayors

There’s nothing like a little upheaval to shake the foundations of City Hall. Mitchell and Rapid City exchanged old Mayors for new on Tuesday.

Former Rapid City police chief Steve Allender ousted two-term incumbent Sam Kooiker and challenger Jerry Toomey replaced Ken Tracy in Mitchell. Both cases saw a pretty significant divide.

Voters in Rapid City approved Allender by a 54-46 percent margin. Mitchell had a wider gap of 58-42 percent for Toomey.

In each instance, cities were a little uneasy with current trends. Kooiker had overseen a failed attempt to expand the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. Plus there have been questionable interactions between police and citizens that have been cause for concern. One example is from December of last year when an anti-police brutality march took place with one of the participants getting shot by police mere hours later.

Mitchell has had its own rough road recently though not involving police matters. Corn Palace woes most likely spelled doom for Tracy. The first domino fell as Former Director Mark Schilling resigned after it was revealed he used a gift card from Cabela’s inappropriately. More damage came when Steven Koch was named as Schilling’s successor, then rejected. Koch filed a lawsuit which was announced days before voters went to the poll. Toomey also vowed to rally against perceived wasteful spending regarding renovations at the Corn Palace.

Allender will begin his 2-year term as the city's full-time strong mayor on July 6. Toomey takes the reigns of Mitchell’s city government in July as well.