A new candidate has jumped into the Sioux Falls race for mayor. Tuesday City Councilman Greg Jamison says he plans to run against current Mayor Mike Huether in 2014. Jamison believes the city council and mayor can better work together.
Jamison is currently serving his fifth year as a Sioux Falls city councilman. He says he decided to challenge Huether for mayor because he thinks he could do a better job. Jamison says there are some good things happening in the city but certain aspects could have been handled better. The councilman says the focus of the top office needs to change. Jamison says his focus is on maintaining the quality of life within the city.
"Certainly I want to see Sioux Falls grow, we need it to keep growing and I don’t see anything that’s going to stop it in the near future. But I don’t want to lose sight of our quality of life. Our public safety, our fire department, our water supply, our streets; I don’t want to trade that out just for rapid growth," councilman Jamison says.
Jamison says this is a long term vision the city needs to look at. He says the current administration is looking at the short term and that could hurt Sioux Falls in the long run. Jamison says the approval of two new Wal-Mart stores within the city limits could have been handled better. He says the administration sprung the announcement on the council through a press conference putting pressure on council members.
"There was no collaboration on you know on A we're concerned about the impact of this Wal-Mart in your district. Your constituents in your district are going to be upset and we want you to know about that or we want to mitigate some of those efforts. So instead what they did is they try to take this approach that we’re here to save the day. Aren’t you glad I’m mayor, kind of approach and really push it upon us," Jamison says.
Jamison says overall he is looking forward to the challenge. The election is held in April of 2014.