Every Friday, we sit down with Mayor Jason Salamun to discuss the latest events and stories shaping Rapid City. Tune in and stay informed
Read along as we discuss key local issues impacting the city.
Meeting With the Mayor transcript from 04/11/25:
Murdoc: It’s Friday afternoon. You are gavled in once again to this week’s Meeting with the Mayor here on The Cowboy, and then in your favorite podcast player here, we punch in with a half hour meeting with our good friend Jason Salamun, who is very kind with us this time. Thanks for coming back, sir.
Salamun: My pleasure.
Murdoc: We tackle. We tackle. We talk about the issues.
Salamun:We tackle sometimes. I don’t know if blocking and tackling.
Murdoc: That’s true. We do the football. We do wrestling. We’re going to talk about Theo Vaughn coming up as well. We got some Ellsworth stuff, and we had local elections this week around the Black Hills, not here in Rapid, but a good reminder that Rapid City ones are coming up. Top news this week has certainly been in the realm of public safety. I guess I don’t know where.
That’s a general term, right? Where should we start on it?
Salamun: I think we start downtown.
Murdoc: Yeah, okay.
Salamun: Folks remember last week we had an incident where one homeless individual took the life of another homeless individual. They were known to each other.
It wasn’t random, but it was done during times that folks are downtown. And, frankly, that is unacceptable. I will say, obviously, police quickly were able to apprehend the man, and he’s arrested. So the suspect is in custody. But we have seen a lot of increased activity just in recent weeks, I think, with the warm weather in terms of harassment and those sort of disruptive behaviors. So what we have done, the chief and I met, we’ve also met with the sheriff, but the chief and I met, and the direction for me is whatever you need to secure downtown. And so we are permanently increasing the police presence downtown, including foot patrols. So if you go downtown, which is a gem, we love downtown. We have to make sure that
Murdoc: it’s our beacon.
Salamun: Yeah, it’s obviously the locals to enjoy, but the 3.9 million visitors that come through here each year are going to go there, too.
Murdoc: So also full stop. These folks that are going through this are people that also require empathy and services and help.
Salamun: I was about to get there.
Murdoc: Not that you weren’t sorry. I’m not trying to steer your thunder.
Salamun: But you know, the first part is you can’t harass people. Don’t care what your story is, whoever you are, if you’re harassing, if you’re disrupting businesses, if you’re assaulting, you cannot do that.
And so we will make sure because here’s the deal. There’s other people downtown that don’t want to be on the receiving end of that. That doesn’t mean that all folks experiencing homelessness are violent. There are, in fact, most of the violence from homeless people is upon other homeless individuals. We are seeing an uptick in violence on women, homeless women. And so they are taking more and more of the shelters space that is available.
I just received that update yesterday because these are some younger men. Usually it’s not like, 10 years ago, I’d say our population that we’re experiencing homelessness looks a little bit different than it does today in terms of age and demographics and those sorts of things. You have a lot more able-bodied folks doing that. So we know that there are people in tough times that are experiencing homelessness that truly need help. And there are great services helping them.
And that’s going to happen from time to time. But the vast majority are really so hooked on something, usually alcohol, often other drugs, and or have mental health issues that it’s a challenge. And so we have lots of services available in this community for folks who want the help that they need. It does exist. Shelter does exist.
The help does exist. But you have to want it as well. But you cannot break the law. That applies to everybody. So it’s not illegal for someone just to walk around downtown, not bothering anybody, just like anyone.
But you cannot go into businesses and disrupt things or throw rocks at windows or do those sort of things that we have heard about. So last week, we held a very kind of last minute meeting, me, Chief Sheriff, as well as Lieutenant Tim Doyle, with Downtown Businesses. We had over 100 show up, 100 folks from downtown show up to talk to us about their concerns.
We talked to them about our plans moving forward, including a proposal to the Vision Fund for more cameras and public spaces, as well as the increased foot patrols and looking at how we can better light up areas like alleys.
Murdoc: I have a question. Group like that gets together. Is it, does everyone, it can’t make everybody happy, right? But does the consensus walk away with, oh, okay.
Salamun: Yeah. Well, you know, we get a course of mailing lists from downtown Rapid City. They have their own thing. We hear from them. You know, we share, they want to know that we’re taking this seriously and we are.
And they have our head already started to see that. They also want an opportunity to share what their experiences are. These are people in their livelihoods and their customers.
So, you know, they, and some have, you know, ideas. What we walked away with after a couple of hours last Friday afternoon was cooperation. I think we all want the same thing. They recognize that they’re, they were actually very grateful and gracious to, to us regarding our work on public safety. They see that we’re trying to do everything that we can. They’re frustrated and want to know what they can do. So here’s some things that we do need the community’s help on. You know, basically if someone can panhandle seven bucks, they will get all the vodka they need for the day.
And they can go, we know the exact stores that they’re going to, to buy that. And so one thing I discourage people from doing is, is giving to panhandlers. Instead, there are organizations to give to that are doing great work, whether it’s Cornerstone Rescue Mission or Journey On or Salvation Army or Volunteers of America. One heart, all those organizations you can, you can give that are actually productive in that space, not enabling, but productive. And so that’s a big thing.
Two, we, we come to learn. And one of the things we found out is many of the downtown business owners would see stuff, but wouldn’t say anything. And that’s probably true of our citizens. So if you see illegal behavior or concerning behavior, you see somebody passed out, we don’t, you know, don’t, don’t ignore it. Call it, just call it in, call dispatch or call 911.
Let the police officers go and check them out. And if they need help, they can get them the help that they need. We have to be able to report those things because the police can’t be everywhere at the same time. So we do need the community to be the eyes and ears and actually report that in.
So we’re encouraging folks, if you see something, whether you’re on Mount Rushmore Road downtown, you know, up, up by Rushmore crossing or wherever the case may be, if you see something that is illegal or concerning or you’re concerned for someone’s wellbeing, um, make sure you call that in and we, they can, our folks can go and check it out and see if there’s any assistance that’s needed.
Murdoc: This has been a lot of your week, this, I mean, I’m over generalizing the conversation of, of this, but like it’s, this has been, this has been your media week.
Salamun: Me, well, yeah, media, uh, even more behind the scenes, you know, we spent all afternoon yesterday, uh, me, chief sheriff, um, and, and others, uh, talking through what, you know, what, what we’re seeing right now, what shifts do we need to make on our end? What resourcing do we have? You know, one of the data points is kind of a, I guess a sneak peek. We’re looking at some data points right now regarding public safety. This one kind of rocked us.
We were all really surprised by it. Um, you, you determine the amount of officers you have by your call volume. And generally the rule of thumb is one officer for every thousand calls.
Murdoc: Um, and it seems like a lot. Yeah.
Salamun: Yeah. Sioux Falls sits at about, you know, one officer for every 1200 calls right now. Um, and we compared, you know, Billings for Collins, Cheyenne, um, Grand Forks, I think
Murdoc: I should clean my, it seems like a lot. I have no frame of reference of what this good or bad, or maybe it’s supposed to be, you know what I mean?
Salamun: Some of these are quick. Some are heavy. You know, it’s the calls for service, you know, will vary. Um, but that’s kind of the standard that a lot of, a lot of, um, police departments and sheriff’s offices, uh, use. Well, in Rapid City, uh, ours is about one for every 2100 calls, meaning let me put it this way, let me compare it to our friends in Sioux Falls. We get the same number of calls as Sioux Falls with half the population and half the staffing, um, because you don’t just staff to your population size.
You wish you, that was the case, but that’s not the case. So frankly, our police department is as busy or if not busier than the Sioux Falls police department who has well over 200,000 people and, uh, you know, significantly,
Murdoc: feet up eating a donut.
Salamun: I’m a lot. Yeah. You know, there is, they have, they have their own ish. They have their own challenges and, you know, sorry, Paul, we, we obviously, um, you know, have a great relationship, obviously with their mayor and their police chief and, um, we, we, we touch base on a consistent basis, but, um, but it tells you about the challenges that are here. So one of the things we’re having to figure out is without, with limited resources, meaning we don’t have extra revenues. How are we going to even bolster our police department even more?
I will say this, we were down 37 police officers. We’ve made so much progress to that end only to find out that our call volume, uh, the last several years when we start comparing it to everybody else is, you know, out of, out of whack. And so it’s a, it’s a challenge. The more it’s this, it’s this thing that more officers you have, more deterrents you have, so maybe you won’t have as many calls
Salamun: and it’s always, you know, a balancing act. So as we’re applying more pressure downtown, we have to take resources from somewhere else, but then, you know, you’ll have an incident and everybody will respond to that, but we have to be able to keep our eye on the prize. Rest assured, our commitment, and this is my promise to the people of Rapid City, we will enforce the law. We cannot prevent people from becoming criminals because I believe that starts it in the home, um, but we will do everything we can to provide deterrence. On the back end of that, we will enforce the law, but we do not have any control over the judicial system.
So whether it’s a courts parolees, a probation, all of that. We have a lot of work, I think, to be done there, to make sure that we can hold people accountable who needed accountable. And of course, you know, continue to, to look at how do we get people into treatment because I don’t believe we have a homeless issue. I believe we have an addiction issue and that often is informed by trauma. There’s a lot of stuff that goes with that, but regardless, it’s, it might be a reason for the behavior that we’re seeing, but it’s not an excuse for it.
We have, we cannot allow that as a society or else you break down. So we will continue. Uh, my commitment, we will continue to enforce the law. That is what we will do.
There is, there is no letting off the gas on that. Uh, we would try to always be more strategic about it and smarter about it. And, you know, keep, keep watching, try to stay a step ahead to keep this community safe because at every one point should be safe in Rapid City, whether you live on the streets or not.
Murdoc: I want to, same dartboard, but slightly off a high five to all of the fire crews got that black Hawk fire. I mean, now they’re outstanding.
Salamun: You know, the regional cooperation is, it’s right. Right. Uh, we got a letter this week from our, uh, county emergency services, uh, director that really, you know, said, Hey, we’re concerned that we could have a heavy wildfire season and we need to make sure we’re doing everything.
We can’t mitigate that. So I’ll tell you here in the, we’re going to work on some prescribed burns in town. The fire department will have a release soon talking about where and when, but it will be, you know, within the parks. There will be, you know, it’ll have to be in.
Yeah. These, you know, these are, these aren’t great because they’re in urban settings. Um, so they’re very, you know, they have to be controlled, but all of this is to help mitigate, you know, either even further disaster. The beautiful part about living here is, is are all the trees and the hills and everything, the tough part of that is when we’re in drought situations and it’s dry like this, it increases the risk of wildfires. So our folks, they’re, they’re on top of that.
And, uh, we take that, that, uh, warning seriously from emergency services and we will do what we can to help.
Murdoc: We’re going to take a quick break when we come back a little lighter, maybe on the back half with Theo Vaughn and, uh, the governor’s reception and you got, you’re going to, you get, we get to talk about the B1 simulator. Oh, I can’t wait. We’re going to do that and more. We come back with your meeting with the mayor.
Murdoc: On the back half welcome back to it. It’s your meeting with the mayor here on the cowboy K K L S. Thanks for joining. If you have any questions for the mayor, I forgot to my bad. I forgot to check the question jar this week, so we’ll get to it next week. But if you have any questions for the mayor or myself, not that I could answer any of them, but you can go to the cowboyradio.com which Jakob is going to check and make sure I’m true on that. And then you can fire your questions away. We’ll get to them when we can and slash I remember. Theo Von announced in our you can tell the town cares about a show from our vantage point here at the home slice group.
Salamun: Oh yeah. I was I was pretty fired up. You know, he’s got a good podcast and I mean, he is really funny, but he’s also very insightful. Yes, you know, he’s got a story. He’s pretty open about his struggles.
Murdoc: Yes.
Salamun: But he’s really funny about it. And if you have not seen his interview with President Trump, it is a must watch. I mean, he says things and you’re like President Trump’s just kind of sitting there like what are you saying? But you know, it’s it’s funny, but he he is a good interview because he’s so natural in himself. So I saw that announcement like everybody else and I reached out to our director over at the monument. I’m like, dude, I am pumped about this. He goes, I had zero clue you’d be excited about. I’m like, yeah, Theo von not everybody knows who he is, but those of us who do its a real treat.
Murdoc: funny, stand-up guy
Salamun: He’s relevant today to which is always nice when Rapid City gets very relevant artists that are I’m all for, you know, nostalgia acts and things like that. I love it. But I do also like when we get a lot of them, though. I love it. But, you know, I do think mixing in, you know, here in this case it’s a comedian.
Murdoc: And comedians are tough.
Salamun: They are.
Murdoc: You lose your teeth in the event world on comedians
Salamun: they and there aren’t a lot that can draw the crowds like Theo von can and and others like him this day and age. But I’m looking forward to it. Welcome him to Rapid City.
You know, we’re we’re grateful to have have him coming. So it’s June 22nd. I do believe the tickets go on sale today. I’m going to have to remember or tomorrow today. I think it’s today.
Murdoc: Say this, listen to your favorite. If I may sneak a quick plug in, be listening to your favorite home slice radio station podcast or stream for your Theo von tickets.
Salamun: Yeah, I got to go buy mine. That’s for sure.
Murdoc: But you could do with the old school radio with the van and the members Jack down at Sound Pro for Theo von tickets, baby.
Salamun: I remember those days. I’ve stood in line for tickets. So Gwennie and I were we’re excited to go see him and I told her, hey, that make great father’s day present. So there you go. you know, it’ll be a good time, I’m sure.
Murdoc: So you are after this, you said you were heading out to Ellsworth.
Salamun: Yeah, I’m spending the rest of the day at Ellsworth. I’m part of the honorary commander’s program. Well, I’m doing this separate from the rest of the group. That’s kind of my own little thing with my group that I’m honorary commander of. So we’re going to do everything from first of all, I’m going out there to do a proclamation at a luncheon for honoring military families and military kids especially. And so we’re going to have the dinosaur on dinosaur hill lit up purple.
That’ll be in their honor because of the sacrifices the families make. So when you see that, that’s what that’s about. Well, I didn’t know that’s part of the new deal of the upgrades. That’s pretty rad.
Salamun: It is.
Murdoc: Oh, cool.
Salamun: I will rarely use it though because I want the dinosaur prominent. So we’re not lighting it up every week.
Murdoc: Right. Every week can be can be blue for Jakob and, you know, pink for Murdoch.
Salamun: Very, very, very, very selective. But however, that is something that we do.
Murdoc: It’s my new goal to light the dinosaur upon my death. Now I have something to strive for.
Salamun: Oh boy. Well, paint it black as the rolling stone say.
Murdoc: Sorry. Keep going. You’re trying to honor military families. I’m doing bits. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
Salamun: But, you know, obviously we’re very grateful for what Ellsworth means to our community. And so I’m spending the day out there. They want to show me all the operations that they have. It’s going to be kind of fun because some of these operations are things I did in this military. So I’m going to talk to Airman and they’re going to find out that I was doing some of the jobs that they’re doing today. That’ll be fun. As part of the journey.
Murdoc: That’s rad. It’s going to be a fun speech to give too. Yeah.
Salamun: As part of the journey, I get to do the B1 simulator again. Last time, speaking of Dinosaur Park, I crashed it into Dinosaur Park. If you don’t know that the simulator, I know not everybody gets to experience, but basically you’re flying. You’re flying a B1 around the area, around this region.
Murdoc: And so you’re I bombed Belfouche myself.
Salamun: Oh, you did?
Murdoc: With all due respect to Belfouche as a people, it just seemed like an easy target to go hit.
Salamun: Oh, well. Belfouche, if you said your comments to Murdoch at home slice .com or home slice meet, I don’t know.
Murdoc: I’m Google.But I’m Googleable. You can find me
.
Salamun: I’m a big fan of Belfouche. You know the same center of the nation. Yes, absolutely. Black Hills Roundup Baby will be there all week. And they got that great reservoir up there and
Murdoc: good catfishing in the in the in the outflow there.
Salamun: Good people, good people. So, you know, get to do that and and quite frankly, I mean, they got me stacked up for thing after thing after thing when I’m out there and I’m looking forward to it should be a good time on a beautiful day.
Murdoc: Yeah, it’ll be gorgeous out there today. And then Governor Reception tonight.
Salamun: Yeah, some folks are organizing kind of a West River reception for him that you know, still kind of following in the transition from him taking over. So, I go go say hello to him and the black tie.
Murdoc: Do you have to wear black? How many times do you got to wear black tie? Like real, real black tie once?
Salamun: I think once or twice.
Murdoc: Yeah, we don’t have all the way.
Salamun: I got like a standard outfit now. It’s kind of like my I got a Halloween costume which I old timey mayor.
Murdoc: Your rally outfit, cowboy outfit, your black tie outfit.
Salamun: Well, you know, once I learned from Governor Noem, you know, Secretary Noem now you have an outfit for every occasion, right? So, I need an outfit. I’m learning. I’m not saying I’ve got it today. I’m wearing all black. I don’t even know why on a nice day.
Murdoc: Johnny Cash look going.
Salamun: I got a Johnny Cash thing going today. It’s kind of just what was in the what was in the closet. I didn’t give it a lot of thought. I probably should. No, it’s pretty. I need a fashion stylist and I, you know, I probably need to upgrade my
Murdoc: sometimes I don’t think you’re a fashion stylist. Sometimes you walk in like the rock and roll mayor. Sometimes you come, you know, little Johnny Cash.
Salamun: Yeah, like on a Friday, when we do Friday shows, I usually dress more casual unless I have appearances. And then that day I’m wearing what I would normally wear.
Murdoc: Well, and you got solemn topics probably a couple of times. You don’t want to be wearing a Hawaiian shirt because it’s, you know, Rob’s looking like he’s going fishing to Tommy Bahama today. You can’t be dressed like him.
Salamun: Yeah, but I do like my, you know, my band T-shirts and my jean jackets and all that kind of stuff. I, you know, but today, of course, I’m dressed somewhat appropriate for the occasion, but
Murdoc: you know, it would be fun on the meeting with the mayor page that we’ve been playing with on the cowboy on the website. We can build a little like here’s what we’re here’s what the show’s listening to. Yeah, we’ll put a little here’s a book. Here’s a movie. We’ll throw it in that little section.
Salamun: We’ve talked about that. I’ve always, I’ve always got things, you know, I listen to music. I love music I like podcast music. So I’m always listening to something when I’m not doing anything else. Although these days I’m on the phone most of the time when I’m driving. That’s the only time I can return a phone call because I’m busy going from one thing to the next. But yeah, I was listening to Cody Jinx this morning.
Murdoc: Cody Jinx. Good artist. All right.
Salamun: And you don’t know Cody Jinx. So I, I, but I mix it up, you know, I I’m going to my old 80s stuff. I love modern country. I love really good rock and roll. I love ACDC.
Murdoc: I’m going through a real old school like Wu Tang. Oh, you’re going to 90s. Some 90s historic travels through hip hop.
Salamun: Yeah, like this is how we do it.
Murdoc: Some of that some of the, you know, Kumo D some of the really, you know what I mean? Like the where did it start? Where did it start? And then some of that like that 90s when I found it, it was like, I was an elsa South Dakota town of 700 and like here’s, here’s the west side connection.
It was a real advertised thing. And so you don’t really, you know, how can you share that perspective? I still couldn’t in any, but I’m just going through this old, I missed a bunch of cool Wu Tang stuff and I missed a bunch of cool hip hop from Minnesota and the southeast. I’m just kind of going through a little.
Salamun: So I have this this thing I’ve always liked to do is make playlists and just random. I own, I try to own as much music as I can. I just buy cheap CDs over the years and rip them. But so you know, I’ll get on a kick of like yeah, like 90s alternative, for example, you’ll go, I don’t know, you’re big on that.
Murdoc: Mayor Mix Tape. That’s what were callin that.
Salamun: Oh dude, I got I got that for days. Not only that, it’s a wide genre, but I love blues rock and country. But you know, eight, like I grew up on the 80s.
I was a teenager in the 90s. So all the mainstream music in that era, I like to timing wise, we’ll have to figure this out because you’ll just have to email the songs. But what about right after this show? We do the mayor’s mix tape. You have half hour kick your feet up here’s what the mayor’s listening to.
Salamun: Oh, just to play.
Murdoc: Yeah.
Salamun: But it’s going to be on the cowboy, which is fine because I do. Okay. And you know, I love country. It don’t have to be. We’ll do whatever we want. But if it’s like, you know, you got a KKLS,
Murdoc: we already born him to death with six hours of talk on a Friday afternoon.
Salamun: Trust me, they could use a Metallica song once in a while. Here’s what my mix tape would be would probably be a true mix tape where you’re swapping genres around. Or if I was really good, I’d have the flow where I’d start with Wheylin Jennings and end with ACDC
Murdoc: and prove to you how I can do it connected all together. By the way, you got a job to do. You got to run a city. This will be this will be all encompassing.
Salamun: Yeah, yeah. Wheylin Jennings says that rock blues country are like a half a beat apart or something like that. He was he was one of my favorites. Old good old Wayland Wayland Waymore’s blues love.
Murdoc: Love Wayland Jennings from the area was born in and heard stories about him growing up and course love the dukes of hazard and then appreciated his music love that outlaw country.
Murdoc: You got the you got the look a little today.
Salamun: That’s probably what you also listen to Cody Jinx who’s kind of modern. It probably was a mood and I didn’t even know it. I didn’t even know it because I’m just hurrying up.
Murdoc: Country Friday with Mayor Jason.
Salamun: I can get a little bit of chicken fried.
Murdoc: We got like two minutes left. How do the local elections, you know, Deadwood, Spearfish, few other towns like does that immediately affect you one way or the other? Well, those are all policymakers.
So, you know, if they have an anti housing policy, it’s going to impact our housing here. Sure. Have but we generally have pretty good cooperation.
I don’t know. I don’t have great relationships with every you know, mayor elected official in those areas. I should probably get them all together, but there are several that I do stay in contact with or have gotten to know. The Spearfish mayor and I have reached out. I just met with Hill City. They were their city manager and their mayor. That was a great visit hearing their plans and I support them. I told them I want them to thrive. If the Black Hills communities thrive, it’s only going to help Rapid City.
Murdoc: I’m telling you that’s people forget about that. They get a little, you know, when a lot of our connectivity in these universes are through economic development. So, it becomes a little site selector, you know, competition and that’s healthy in its own right too. But in your discussion, there’s more people that are doing well in Custer that are going to come to Rapid City and buy their refrigerators and eat their dinners and go to the movies.
Salamun: And every community, you know, should run their race, be the best that you can be. I mean, Hot Springs has got its own thing going on.
Murdoc: Custer is that’s what we pick a Hot Springs because of the, because it’s own vibe. It’s its own vibe.
Salamun: Sturges is great and, you know, like,
Murdoc: Sturgis is fine at its footing. Sturgis has but it is great.
Salamun: Some of the greatest potential in the entire Black Hills is in Sturgis.
Murdoc: Boy, howdy. And, you know, and there’s only one way up from now, from here, right?
Speaker 1: But, you know, meeting with Hill City, I love to spend an afternoon in Hill City. I think it’s great. And even the smaller communities in and through the Black Hills, you know, I love it all. So, obviously, it is good for Rapid City and we we want everybody to do well. And it’s just a reminder we did not have Rapid City elections. That’s in June.
Murdoc: June.
Salamun: That’s City Council and School Board races. You’ll need to look those up, but would encourage everybody to vote as we always do. The candidate selections are in. We talked about that at previous podcasts, but you know, do your homework. Find the one who best aligns with you and your values and vote accordingly.
Murdoc: It is Mayor Jason Salamun, who’s very kind with this time every week. We sit and do a half hour on the topics facing Rapid City, the Black Hills and western South Dakota. You can find it on your favorite podcast player. Just search for meeting with the mayor.
Jakob: Motion to adjourn.
Murdoc: Second.
Salamun: All right. We’re adjourned everyone. Thank you.
Jakob: Don’t you have to, you second it? You don’t get to so move it
Murdoc: like we just Oh, yeah, we just we did just second it.
Salamun: I just do it.
Murdoc: It’s what we do.
Jakob: Okay.
Murdoc: Thought we had it clean.
Salamun: You’re too smooth.
