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 05/23/25:
Houston: Hello everybody, welcome to Meeting with a Mayor. I am Mark Houston and of course the mayor. Is that just what we refer to you now as just the mayor? Can we say it that way?
Salamun: If you want, just call me J-Dog or something too.
Houston: All right, hold on. We’re not going back to the 90s with any of this, all right? No, Mayor Jason Sullivan, Meeting with a Mayor. I am Mark Houston. Thank you for coming up and doing this. I know our offices are closed today because when you’re listening to this, it’s the Memorial Day holiday the weekend before we’re recording this. And so, you know, it’s only the important people that really work our days when…
Salamun: Mark Houston, you are the hardest working man in show business.
Houston: That’s coming from the mayor everybody. You heard it. You heard it.
Salamun: And you’re fine producer as well.
Houston: Yeah, Jakob is up here with us as well.
Salamun: He’s a great guy. We’re the only ones keeping this town running right now. We’re working today. This is the end actually of National Public Works Week. Is this something you just… Did you… has this been a yearly thing or did you just declare this for this year? You know, this is actually something that’s been going on nationwide for, I think, 70 years or something. That might be far too long.
A long time. But it’s something we’ve done in recent years here in Rapid City. And, you know, when you think about the people working public works, and that’s a very broad statement, these are folks that, you know, clean the streets and fix and repair the potholes and remove the snow. They’re the people that work out at the landfill and pick up your garbage. They’re people that make sure you have clean water, by the way, best water quality in South Dakota in 2024. And make sure that when your toilet flushes, everything goes where it’s supposed to go. These are folks that help engineer structures and make sure that drainage and things like that that you don’t think about unless you have a major rain event.
Where does the water go? They are doing so many things throughout this community. And, you know, that when you have a water main break, you hear about those from time to time. That’s in all conditions. They’re out there working.
I mean, I remember over the holidays, so cold and we had a water main break. Actually, that’s several and who’s out there. These guys and they’re just, you know, busting their tails for the city. And so much more.
I mean, quite frankly, they manage our facilities, our fleet, the mechanics. There’s so many different things. So there really a lot of blue-collar work in the city, and that’s our largest area of the city department. And so it encompasses quite a bit. And I, you know, I had the honor of declaring that Public Works Week this week and had them, a bunch of them come up to our city council meeting. But of course, it’s only a fraction of all of them and they work all hours.
They’re, I mean, they’re just always on. And so these are folks that I encourage you to say thank you to because without them, our civilized society would not exist in Rapid City. And if you treat them well, we get better quality, get better outcomes. If you treat them poorly, you’re going to have a hard time recruiting folks to do those jobs and you fail.
I don’t care what else you’re going to do. If you don’t have, you know, you had the Roman Empire fall because of sanitation issues. This is one of the theories.
And so you have diseases, you have things like that. So these are folks that are really putting in the work. And there’s never a shortage of work. Obviously, some things are always wrong at the maintain a growing city. So you have the existing city, it’s continues to grow. And we thank them. They’re awesome.
Houston: Is it, is it a position or a lot of these positions, positions that you’re always trying to recruit people to be a part of? Or is it a, is the staff pretty, pretty solid generally?
Salamun: Well, I think, like most of the city, you have good core. There are folks, you know, trying to make a career out of it. And, but, you know, there’s always, there’s always openings, you know, if you want to work in solid waste, which is at the landfill. And it’s not just picking up garbage.
There’s a lot of work that happens on that site, for example. Right. Oh, yeah. It’s really an impressive operation. And, and the work ethic is second to none. And if you can’t keep up, you don’t last. So there, there are high expectations among those teams there, you know, those guys can go and ladies too. I mean, if you, if you can’t keep up, it’s, it’s a challenge. But there’s always opportunities.
You go on our website, look at careers, you’ll see, you know, whether someone’s retiring, it moves on or whatever the case may be. There’s always some opportunity for folks to work in that space. And we’re grateful for it. To all their families, you should know that your family member helps keep the city running. Right. And they make a tremendous difference because nothing happens in the city without them. They’re really a backbone to everything that we’re doing.
Houston: So let’s say we haven’t had in Rapid City, I think the last big, I don’t know what to call it, a disaster. But let’s talk about you know, weather related events. It was Atlas. When was that? 15 years ago now? Something like that? 2010? Yeah. Maybe not. Yeah, it was about, it was about
Salamun: 2010, 2011, right in that range, where we got dumped on Snowwys. I remember. Oh my God, it was amazing. We all have our stories on that one. Yeah, I was locked in, I was trapped in my pickup truck on the road in between Somerset and in Rapid City. You were one of those guys for how long? All night. All night. Yeah. I mean, I remember hearing people getting stranded and they were trying to get like deliveries and food and water to folks via snowmobile.
Houston: It was insane. It was all because a semi decided to get off the interstate, take Sturgis Road and then realize he couldn’t do it. And so he stopped and then everybody behind him, we were just, we were stuck.
That’s a fun story to tell. But do we, do you feel like if events like that happen in Rapid City, I mean, we’re moving into the summertime now. So what we really worry about are thunderstorms at this point. Hail. Tornado’s a little, I don’t think Rapid City’s ever had a, like a, like a tornado in town, have we?
Salamun: Well, you’ve had, no, you’ve had like not tornado, tornado, but you certainly had those type of events, vortexes and things like that. Sure.
Houston: There’s really strong winds that can come through.
Salamun: Yeah, there, there, there’s some weird, there’s some weird anomalies within the city limits of Rapid City with, with the wind that’s knocked things down. I would say one of our major concerns is flooding. Yeah, right. That’s, that’s gonna be one of my next questions here, too.
Yeah, that’s the big one. So, you know, right now we’re, we’re in a drought situation. I mean, today, you know, it’s a little overcast and so it’s, you wouldn’t think it, but, but there are seasons and it hasn’t been that long ago, that many seasons ago that we had, you know, what they call a hundred year rain event that created, you know, potential flooding conditions if you do not have proper mitigation.
Houston: How water always wins, by the way. Oh, always. How is, how is Rapid City set up for that now? Of course, you go back to 1972, everybody knows the flood that happened here.
We’re coming up on the anniversary of it here as well in a few weeks. Is Rapid City still positioned well to prevent something like that? I mean, did they take the right steps after all that was done?
Salamun: Oh, they, they took major steps, you know, first of all, they, we have the flood zone, which is what, you know, the green space that we enjoy around Rapid Creek. Well, you know, a lot of people used to live up to those points, right? Just to build on those points and we don’t allow that now. And so that’s, that’s a big part of it. We have people that work in, you know, you talk about public works, you have people who work now and who’ve worked in recent years on drainage and things like that when they’re, they’re really passionate about the flooding thing because a lot of them have a family or emotional tie to that. And so it’s, it’s a constant thing you’re looking at.
I mean, it’s always the question, where does the water go? So even a new development, let’s say, you know, a new store, we all want to come to town. Well, you’re going to add surface parking lot.
Well, that’s in rooftops and things like that. Well, every time you add a surface, the water, it redirects water. And so you’re trying to figure out where’s the water go, most likely. And so that’s where a lot of that engineering, it’s of course on the owners of those properties, but the city tries to say it needs to go here. And ultimately, not only does it not, where does it go in terms of around you, but ultimately, where does it go? Right. And so they have drainage basins and, you know, those sort of things that doesn’t go to Rapid Creek, does has the runoff is that the right is the runoff from it dangerous for Rapid Creek. These are, these are always things that you’re thinking about.
So, you know, I’m not an expert in this, but obviously I’ve been around it enough to hear this conversation. I remember, you know, I went to buy a house. We moved out of a larger house in Downsides several years ago with empty nesting. And but I remember every house we looked at, I’m like, well, I was on the city council at the time. I’m like, well, I’ve been on the city council enough to know where does the water go from this house? And not just the flood within, but where does my neighbors runoff go?
And by the way, that happens, you’re going to have runoff. That’s why you have drainage easements. People think that’s part of their yard, but and they think that’s never going to happen to them until it does happen to them. And we’ve seen that where, where people will end up, you know, thinking that’s a part of their yard.
It’s not really. And then when the water comes, that’s where the water’s supposed to go. So we have ditches or easements and drainage tunnels and things like that. That’s what it’s all about.
Houston: Do you get, do you get pushback from, from people that want to build in these areas? Oh, yeah. That’s never going to happen again.
Salamun: It’s happened, you know, it’s happened when I was on the city council, there’s a current development right now that has been told that they have to move their structures out of a drainage easement. And, you know, I think we can work with them on that because you think you don’t need it until you need it. And it’s not even you, it may not even bother you, but it’s what’s downstream of that.
Right. And a lot of times that water drainage, you know, seeps in the ground first. So you’re not always going to see this, you know, above ground surface water, but it’s there.
And there’s utilities also that are there and stuff. So, you know, I, I, I remember giving a, making a decision on one, one drainage easement for a neighborhood that wanted to have, you know, their playground equipment and sheds on it when I was first on the council. And I was like, yeah, let them do it.
You know, I was like, go for it. And literally, I think this is the next spring or the one after that we had that major rain event. Yep.
And sure enough, the water was there. I said that one of my decisions I ever regretted, I said, I should I felt so bad for them because I could see that I was putting myself in their shoes. I wouldn’t understand it. But now I’m like, Oh, okay, there’s, there’s a bigger reason here. And if you put stuff there that that moves the water around and where, you know, it’s a, there’s a reason why it’s there. And, and it’s not because the city’s trying to be mean. They’re actually because they care. And if we don’t do this, the city floods, right, we should, we hopefully learned.
Houston: And it still could flood. Like the water will always win. You’re never going to eliminate the risk of flooding or drainage, but you can help mitigate it. And that’s what it’s about. And so that’s why they have the easements. That’s why they have drainage ponds and things like that.
That’s all there for a reason. We’re very fortunate to have great water supply in this area. We have a lot of wells. We have two reservoirs that actually Deerfield and Pactola are reservoirs, but actually they belong. We got those because of Ellsworth.
We happen to be the middleman. People don’t realize that too. Think Ellsworth for that awesome water supply. Exactly. And so, you know, but we do a great job managing that and a shout out to all our folks who do it.
Houston: Do you guys have, do you guys have any plans for commemorating the flooding this year? Is there anything special you normally, you guys do?
Salamun: There will always be the annual acknowledgement. You know, a couple of years ago, we did the 50th, we did a big, big deal. Yeah. So, you know, we’ll certainly acknowledge that. Something we’ll never forget.
And obviously, we’ve memorialized that with Memorial Park. And, you know, I’ve heard a lot of stories from folks who are in the flood. I know people who’ve lost loved ones. I have this great guy. He’s an amazing man, but he had just gotten married and lost his wife who was helping to save his little brother in a tree.
Just these whole. The stories are amazing. If he was in a tree, she’s on a roof.
It’s just wild like that. And I think we, we can’t, I wasn’t here. I mean, I wasn’t even born yet. I was born in December 24, 77.
So this happened in 72. But I’ve heard those stories. Former mayor Barnett, of course I’ve talked to him about, you know, this and, and we will remember. So as, so long as I’m mayor, we’re going to respect the flood stuff and we’re going to respect the memories of those lives lost. And we will not build on that greenway. Excellent.
Houston: Well, thank you for that. And of course, yeah, if you’re listening to this podcast and you’re new to Rapid City, read up on it. It’s, it’s fascinating. Um, coming up, Mr. Mayor, I, um, I want to try something with you. Something that literally everybody is talking about.
And I want to see, uh, how far the city is, uh, where they’re at with it, where they’re moving forward with it, how you guys might be utilizing it. That’s all going to come up here in just a few minutes. All right. Okey dokes. And we’re back meeting with the mayor.
I am Mark Houston with Mayor Jason Solomon here in Rapid City. And one big topic that now we can escape everybody for a minute thought, well, who knows which way this is going to go. It’s either going to be a cute little experiment or we’re going to go all in. And that of course is artificial intelligence, AI, which is a big part of how quickly it became a big part of life, uh, for all of us right now. Here in this business, uh, with podcasting and radio and sales and digital advertising, it’s playing a major role at this point. It can do a lot of work in a short amount of time for us, which is super helpful. And I wanted to ask you, now that I had you here for the next 12 to 13 minutes about AI and what you guys are using it for in Rapid City, if you have even started on it yet, what’s your take, Mr. Mayor?
Salamun: Well, you know, first of all, I think you have to have a philosophical discussion on AI. Oh, I’m ready. Let’s go. Because, uh, you know, it is, it is supercharged right now. And, uh, to think you’re going to escape it, um, is untrue. My, my, my personal philosophy is so long as human beings remain in the driver’s seat with AI and use it as the tool that it is, it can be a very good thing, um, be very hopeful, can cut out a lot of time, save you a lot of effort. And, and, you know, it gives you a head start on a lot of issues.
And, and, you know, some of these things are really integrating with technology even more than, than how I would use it right now. But that, I think philosophically, even as the city, uh, mainly because you don’t want to have all of your sensitive information, it’s stored somewhere. And the brains of artificial intelligence or machine learning are data centers. And data centers are a big gold rush right now around the country. And Rapid City has interest as well.
Of course. We can only handle so many data centers. I think I’d love to have just one big one that is, um, very resourceful in terms of water usage, uh, and make sure that we have the power capacity for it. So these are big deals when we’re talking data centers. Uh, and if you, and when you see those, those are really servers, uh, that store the information and you have to remember with artificial intelligence, it’s always learning. So those data centers always have to grow in terms of expansion, having, you know, the brain power, the storage capacity for all that. And of course they have to stay cool. They have, there’s a lot that goes into those. And what you’re seeing right now are a number of different, um, you know, I’d say providers of artificial intelligence. So you, you know, all, all of the, the normal big players, smaller players, some of it’s getting targeted. And, you know, we were just chatting real quick before we started, you know, what you use, you know, in terms of every day for AI, what I would use, they’re two different ones.
Yes. And some of that’s just preference, you know, some of it’s like, well, I trust this company a little bit more. Um, because I know the, the, the bias that can be built into some of the AI is concerning to me, you know, especially in terms of journalism. Uh, I know what happens.
I’m, you can tell it with stories. You almost tell that it’s that way, but it can be accurate, but it can have a bias on either side. So I always think that’s, I, in terms of how the city uses it though. Yeah.
So that’s a philosophical thing. If we remain in control, my concern is we won’t. And, um, that’s a, that’s a, and I don’t think we’re far from that. Really? Okay.
Uh, I don’t think we’re far. No, because the exponential growth and learning of artificial intelligence, at some point, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s, that’s always a concern. And not everybody’s going to have the same ethics dealing with it. It’s, it’s like medical. There’s a lot of things you can do with medical, but you have to have ethics and you have to have ethics around AI.
This is the personal belief of mine. So I think just more beyond the city, just, just as mankind, I, I think we do have to make sure we are remaining in the driver’s seat, uh, but it can be very good. I, I, I am not opposed to its use, uh, use properly. I have dabbled. I’ve, like I said, I’ve not in deep waters with AI, but I’ve, I’ve been in shallow waters say, okay, you know, one of the things I like to do is when I’m looking at policies and I’m looking around the United States, it helps me compare policies, um, that we might be looking at in different cities. And then I can say, well, apply it to, right.
According to the state statutes of South Dakota and, and it’s not everything’s there. I mean, it’s, but it might get you 60, 70, 80% there. And you can, you know, go, it gives you kind of the base knowledge of that.
And then you can run with it. So I’ve done that where I’ve handed something to a, uh, one of our city attorneys said, I don’t know how accurate this is, but I look it over here. Here’s the prompt I gave it to try to get the most information and, uh, you know, write this policy in accordance with the United States constitution, Supreme Court rulings, state of South Dakota statutes, city ordinances of Rapid City. It goes and finds all that.
And, um, you know, for this purpose and then just kind of see what that looks like, right? Um, and sometimes it tells me, yeah, probably ought to not do that. That’s not going to work. You know, other times like, okay, this is how you do this.
Um, that’s one way. I do think though that you’re going, you’re seeing a lot more AI connected to the technology that we use. So we use a lot of equipment, whether it’s, you know, we’re talking about public works, I think there’s a day in time where AI is going to be integrated into dashboards of your snow removal that will help you, you know, probably make better use of your time and resources for removing snow. I mean, I don’t know if it’s there yet, but I think it’s close.
Houston: Yeah. You are close because, um, there are cities now that use it for, uh, like smart traffic management, um, when it comes to your lights and the flow and the traffic flow and you know, my, my frustration here in Rapid City is traffic flow. And again, that’s probably just a bias of mine because I can, I hit every red light. Doesn’t matter. I never get a green street going down Mount Rushmore road ever. And so I thought, let’s, you know, let’s talk a little AI with a mayor and see,
Salamun: well, I do think traffic engineering, those are, those are actually easier. Those are, then let’s fix them. No, no, no.
Houston: Well, they might be fixed. And that might be the reason you don’t like it because you’re, you’re issued. There’s a greater hole. Um, I hit, I, I seem to hit every red light too, but, and it, and sometimes that stop and start, uh, might be more inconvenient for you, but it might turn out to be safer for everybody. Those things do happen. Um, so there’s a lot of factors with that.
I think, you know, when we look at camera technology and stuff that we’re looking at, that’ll have, uh, you know, probably some intelligence to help us search through, you know, suspects, find this, um, said it, watching a video for a long time, find this, uh, vehicle with this license plate number, uh, that we got a cue on and you can find it at an intersection. Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah.
Salamun: Um, we don’t have it yet. Right. Um, we are actually, you know, working out. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to do that, but that software gets better and better that, that connects to all that equipment. But I think in the professional staff, like kind of, kind of people have to write long things and do stuff like that.
Houston: We, the paperwork alone, it seems like you would save, you know, in, in government would save hours of time. Yeah.
Salamun: You know, there’s, you know, we use a lot of templates and things like that for, for stuff. Now I’ll have our communications guy, Darrell, who I think the world of, he’s an old school reporter. I don’t think he’ll ever trust anybody, but his own facts. And, um, but I do think, you know, it’s something you, you can look at, stay in the driver’s seat on, double check it. Like it has to be double checked because it may not be accurate. I, I, I use something to write a, help write a letter recommendation for somebody recently and, and it pulled really cool information that really wasn’t relevant to the person I was writing a letter of recommendation to is about the organization they worked for.
Houston: Oh, sure. That person, the credit for it. And I had to go in and they didn’t do all that. They invented the whole thing. You know, it was, so, you know, you do, and that’s again, shallow water, but, you know, in the medical field, you’re seeing it, uh, integrate more. And as we update platforms and software and, and we are, and I think in terms of how we hire people and recruit and screen applications.
And it used to just be about, you know, do you have this word in your application or whatever I think can get more comprehensive and smarter. Oh, that’s a good idea. Um, so we, you know, you, we will, uh, continue to look for ways to integrate it where it’s appropriate and something we are talking about internally. My director of IT, you know, has some thoughts on that. Hasle has some concerns.
You know, he’s like, Hey, I think internally we got set some policy around it, uh, to make sure that, um, everything’s being done correctly. And, but it’s always learning. We’ve, we’ve done it to, to get data. And that’s one of the things I’m trying to get us to is to be more of a data driven organization.
Salamun: Um, one of the things this next year I’m excited about is we’re going to use that and other tools to, to get us more accurate data so that we’re measuring the right things. So we have key performance indicators, have a dashboard of things that’s, here’s how we’re doing. Uh, I use it also just in terms of like, you know, I get statistics on how our housing is or what their average weekly wages are and stuff like that. It can pull a lot of information from various sources to give me a better outlook and help me compare to other cities. So I use it for analysis, probably is probably my, uh, if I was to break it down. But that’s just because I’m a decision maker.
So I need information to make better decisions. But there are other people that use it as a tool and it literally can work your equipment. It literally can do a lot more. And so a lot, it’s a race right now because you have a lot of vendors trying to capitalize on it.
Some are better than others. Um, but you know, I can see that, you know, you’re in the news field. I’m sure that it’s being used to aggregate stories. Of course. And you don’t have to have a whole bunch of reporters now. You can aggregate it. You can post it, probably can use it to edit. You know, it’s good a job as Jakob, but it
Houston: might, but you know, it’s all, he’s all AI out there. It’s what he’s doing. He’s running it. No, it’s not what he’s doing.
Salamun: But, and you know, it can recreate photos, create art. You know, of course, when I look, when I asked it to make a picture of me on, as a test, uh, it did not get it.
Houston: Can we post that on the city website? Can we just put it up on RC? Uh, can we just throw that up there?
Salamun: Picture me writing the dinosaur dinosaur park through the hills with an American flag in my hand.
Houston: And if I don’t see that up there in the next week, come on, we failed at the podcast. Yeah.
Salamun: But the problem is it doesn’t get my likeness very good.
Houston: I’m like, some of the dread, some of the dinosaurs perfect, but the likeness of you is off.
Salamun: For sure. I did, I did one, make a picture of dinosaur park in Rapid City on a, you know, uh, with a sunrise and stuff. Cause I have this picture and it doesn’t take that dinosaur park, but it takes a dinosaur and does stuff. So it also has a hallucinations and there’s some,
Houston: there’s some funny things with AI that you’re going to have to look at. So I think we’re always learning. We are certainly looking at how we’re going to apply that to the city. Mostly we need to create efficiencies in the city. And that’s where that’s our best bang for the buck and be more accurate and use that as the tool that it’s intended to. And so, um, certainly something we will, we are looking at and we’ll continue to look at. And I think it’s going to evolve even more so with the technology integration. Well, I think, I think at some point, if you continue to do this podcast for as long as your mayor, uh, you know, Murdoch will be gone, I’ll be gone. And you will just be an AI, just asking you questions at this point. Cause I can’t get, we’ll never get Jakob on the microphone. So, uh, it’s going to be that at some point. So I’m glad, I’m glad you’re at least started the process, mayor.
Salamun: Are you sure this whole interview is an
Houston: AI and we’ve been seeing nobody knows that right now? Voice recognition. I’ve talked enough that we have it, that anybody can deep fake me with AI. Have you, I mean, you’ve seen those influencers online that are selling products, you think it’s just this young lady or whatever. It turns out it’s all AI. It is all AI. And that’s the scary part.
That’s what I mean. We have to be in the driver’s seat. We have to make sure that there’s the ethics around it and disclosures. And so the right guardrails around it, but it itself can be a good thing. It will be. Well, hopefully it will be for sure. Uh, well, thank you for coming in and talking again.
My pleasure. Uh, yeah, I know, uh, Murdoch, sometimes, uh, you feel like you’re being grilled for an hour and a half. He’s good at it though. I don’t mind. Uh, so, you know, I want to keep it a little lighter and, uh, and, and bring out some, some faxed information that, uh, might have even surprised you. Yeah.
Salamun: I didn’t, I wasn’t expecting to talk about all these things today, which I appreciate that’s what I’m hoping for. I just want to wish everyone a happy Memorial Day. Uh, you know, we, we have this holiday to honor those lives that are lost in service to our country and the military, but we also know many people remember their loved ones as well. Uh, but just enjoy it, have fun, uh, be safe. And yeah.
Houston: All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I talk to you next week. All right.
