The city of Dell Rapids will have a new mayor as Mayor Scott Fiegen submitted his resignation during the regular Dell Rapids City Council meeting held on Monday, August 15th. The resignation was accepted by the council and was effective immediately. Until a new mayor is found, Dell Rapids City Council President Mark Crisp will assume all the duties and responsibilities of the mayor. Fiegen’s resignation comes due to him moving outside of the city of Dell Rapids.
City Administrator Justin Weiland presented three options to the council on how to move forward with the open mayor seat.
Weiland said, “The first option is the board president could just continue in the role as acting mayor until the next municipal election in April (2017). That means the board president would assume both the duties of the mayor and president until the next election.”
“The second option we put together is the council could appoint a sitting city council member to fill the role. It should be stated that this council member would have to relinquish their existing seat to take over the full mayor’s roles and responsibilities. That appointment is only good until the next election in April. That would create an open seat in the that ward where the council would have to look at appointing a new council member to fill that open seat.”
“The third option is to appoint another resident of Dell Rapids. That appointment to mayor would only last until the next election in April.”
There was potential for a fourth option. The city could have taken petitions for mayoral candidates and held an election with that elected person holding the position until April. However state statute says the city would have to have an ordinance adopted that governs how the special election would be held prior to the vacancy occurring, and the city of Dell Rapids does not have such an ordinance in place.
City council member Tom Earley said, “I firmly believe that the city needs to have somebody in position of mayor to operate until April. I think we have capable people on this board who are well versed and well aware of what’s taking place in the city right now with various projects and some potential things down the road. This council has operated with a vacant seat in the past many times. I would think that hopefully at the first meeting in Sept that we are able to agree on who we want to appoint as mayor of the city of Dell Rapids. I think it’s a position that somebody needs to be in to give it the proper attention full time.”
City council member Mary Klockman motioned to table a decision until the September 6th meeting (in hopes a full council will be present), seconded by council member Mike Sterud. The motion carried. Council members Mike Geraets and Gary Haak were absent from the meeting.
Fiegen had been serving as Dell Rapids Mayor since 2009.