Mayor TenHaken on 2023: Public safety, managing growth, hinting at plans

There are a lot of ways to measure Sioux Falls’ growth in recent years, but consider this one:

“We’ve grown by the size of Mitchell in the last two years,” Mayor Paul TenHaken said.

While 2021 brought an estimated population increase of 7,000 people, “I think we’re going to be above that for 2022,” he continued.

“So the look back of 2022 has been growth, trying to manage growth.”

Inflation has made that more challenging. It costs 40 percent more for the salt needed to treat winter streets, for example.

And while sales tax has increased too, it’s not necessarily enough to keep up with the costs of adding 15,000 residents in two years — plus the streets, public safety services, parks and other infrastructure necessary to support them.

Still, business activity is something to celebrate in the city, TenHaken said.

“We were doing cartwheels hitting $1 billion (in building permits) last year, and now we’re at $1.9 billion. Through October, we were at $1.7 billion, and Omaha was at $950 million in the same period of time. So that is the same inflationary environment, same workforce challenge and almost twice the build-permit valuation.”

Looking ahead to 2023, the priority is public safety, TenHaken said.

“The perception is that crime is on the rise. The reality is our per capita numbers over the last year are pretty flat, but we are adding a lot of people, so there is more crime because there are more people,” he said. “It’s going to continue to be my top focus.”

There is, however, “a lot of partnership and collaboration with our public safety partners that we haven’t had historically, he added. The Sioux Falls police chief and Minnehaha County sheriff talk regularly with leaders in Rapid City and Pennington County as well as the governor’s office and the state Department of Corrections.

“Most of the crimes we’re seeing in Sioux Falls are being committed by people on parole or who are absconders,” TenHaken said. “Almost every violent crime you’re hearing about in the news is something that happened where he or she got out early and is not released to the county of origin. You commit a murder in Brown County, you’re in the penitentiary for 30 years, and you’re released to Minnehaha County even though your family and support are in Brown County. We require you to stay here as a condition of your release.”

There’s opportunity to look at alternative approaches as well as juvenile justice issues, he said.

“So when I say public safety is my top priority, it doesn’t mean just adding more cops. It means working with partners to come up with collaborative solutions, so it’s as much collaboration and coordination as it is law enforcement.”

Building bridges, assembling land

One of the city’s signature construction projects this year will be an extensive improvement to the Sixth Street bridge downtown, which will be renamed the Unity Bridge and honor “city founders and people who have been instrumental in being bridge builders,” TenHaken said.

By sometime in October, the plan is to have the diverging diamond interchange complete at Interstate 29 and 41st Street.

Other major projects include widening 85th Street and Cliff Avenue and finishing improvements at Arrowhead Parkway and Six Mile Road.

“The challenge with infrastructure is dealing with cost and inflation right now,” TenHaken said. “There are certain projects we’re getting bids back where we have to question if it’s realistic to move forward or a good use of taxpayer dollars.”

The city also is focused on land acquisition options, including for the growth of fire stations and near or within downtown as options become available.

“That could lead to some exciting announcements for growth areas in our core,” he said. “There’s continued momentum in downtown, and in a lot of ways we’ve exhausted the low-hanging fruit with Sioux Steel and Cherapa. Where’s downtown going to grow next? Where’s the next big district? We’re working on that.”

Year of master plans

The coming year also will bring completion of three major master plans involving the city’s quality of life — downtown, Falls Park and the city’s aquatics system — as well as the recently announced Vision Sioux Falls 10-year community-planning process.

“Probably the biggest financial decision is the aquatics bond for new pools,” TenHaken said. “We have a good bond rating, so I don’t see it not moving ahead, but we’re also looking at what we can get for our dollar with the projects, and had we been bonding three or four years ago, it’s a different story.”

The public “has been very clear more year-round recreation opportunities are a must,” he added. “They want more year-round swimming and year-round turf.”

There’s also a lot of momentum around the sport of soccer in the community, TenHaken continued.

“I think it’s community soccer and the World Cup year and the increasing diversity in our community, but a week doesn’t go by when a soccer project or program doesn’t make it to my office. So we’re looking at soccer initiatives — more fields, more year-round soccer opportunities specifically for some of the kids in our core who don’t have an opportunity to play at some of the nicer facilities because of transportation or other things.”

The city also will evolve its approach to serving kids and families in the coming year by transitioning its community centers to the Sioux Falls School District as part of its enhanced after-school programming.

“So instead of recreation time, it’s structured program time with recreation, tutoring, mentorship opportunities, homework support and additional classes,” TenHaken said. “It’s a big shift.”

Internally, city government also is focused on “trying to be an employer of choice” through assessing its compensation, benefits and culture, as well as a revamp of its website, SiouxFalls.org.

“That’s a huge project, and as a guy who was in that world, I know how big of a project that is,” said TenHaken, who founded digital marketing firm Click Rain before becoming mayor. “But our website has increasingly become our biggest front door by a long way in terms of how people are interacting with us, and we haven’t updated in seven or eight years, so it’s well overdue.”

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