Sioux Falls, S.D. (KELO AM) – Sioux Falls Mayoral Candidate Greg Jamison sees people as the greatest asset. He was a guest on the Greg Belfrage Show and discussed the future growth of the city, the Mayor Huether’s budget and some background on himself.
“As a five year member of the Sioux Falls City Council, I have seen the way things are done and how they can be improved,” said Jamison. “There should be a line of communications, a line of cooperation and eight council members who could bring a lot to the table not being utilized. There should be a change of culture how we do things at City Hall and that’s why I am in the race.”
Jamison said the election is coming in April and it’s time to make the call to run or not. The other choice is to sit back, not say anything and just let it go. The other option is to stand up, step forward and make a change to make things better because it’s the local official that has a bigger effect on the people.
“I had a great conversation with Representative Kristi Noem and reminded her that they get to go off to Washington D.C. and separate yourselves from your constituents in South Dakota,” said Jamison. “In Sioux Falls, we have a discussion about a Walmart and the room is packed with local constituents who are going to be happy or mad depending on how you vote.”
Jamison said he envisions a new traffic system with lights that can keep traffic from backing up and flow traffic through the city. Smoother roads is something everyone wants and will lend to a quality of life everyone can cherish.
“The biggest challenge to Sioux Falls is our growth and how we manage that growth; to be crystal clear, I want growth,” said Jamison. “I have always fought for growth, even as far back as the Dave Munson administration, we were begging for development to come in. Growing our city and providing new services is a wonderful thing, but, it’s how you manage that growth that counts.”
Jamison said 41st Street is the best example of bad management for growth. When you are driving down the street and someone wants to turn into a business, everyone has to stop until that person turns. We allowed all of these access points off of 41st Street and we created all of these future problems and we are dealing with that now. Well thought out planned growth that we have to take care of now will prevent problems from rearing its head in the future.
Jamison is a Sioux Falls native who grew up in the area of 23rd Street and Duluth Ave. He married his high school sweetheart Beth and they ran a couple of businesses before he decided to enter public service. My brothers, sisters and cousins have all stayed around Sioux Falls and that’s why I consider it home.
“My dad was elected to the City Council about 25 years ago,” said Jamison. “While most children and their dad’s talked about baseball or fishing, my dad and I would talk about a new bridge or sewer system repair. He served the Southwest District until my mom told him she wanted him home more and suggested I go take up where he left off.”
Jamison said that one thing he would change is the way Mayor Huether sprung an additional 19-million dollar addition to the budget on us. There is a right way and a wrong way of doing this.
“As an elected official from the South West District, wouldn’t it had been nice to discuss this before unveiling it to the public,” said Jamison. If he were to first ask what we need to address in the budget with all of the council members in the city, we would have had a great budget process. Instead, it was full of fluff and very few details.”
“A collaborative approach to getting this done would have been way more productive,” said Jamison. “By communicating with us, we could have come together in a streamlined fashion and come together to do it. The Mayor serves as the chief administrator of the city, and this adoption is the council’s biggest service to the city.”
City Councilman Greg Jamison was a guest on the Greg Belfrage Show July 26, 2013