Restructuring mayor's office, raising spending limits for police chief part of Paul TenHaken's 100-day strategy

If Paul TenHaken is elected to be Sioux Falls' next mayor, he promises to shake up City Hall from the start of his tenure at the helm of city government.

TenHaken, who will face Jolene Loetscher in the May 1 runoff election to decide the city's next mayor, unveiled his "100 Day Strategy" during a Wedneday afternoon press conference that he says will guide his first three months in office.

Included in the four-page, 13 point document is plans to restructure the mayor's office in hopes of improving openness and transparency at City Hall, and empowering the city's police force to do more to combat crime and drug use in Sioux Falls.

"I put together a 2026 plan for the city that I've referenced a lot on the trail," TenHaken said. “But the voters of Sioux Falls want to know the specific steps I’ll immediately take once I am sworn in as their next mayor.”

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At the top his list is being more aggressive in fighting crime and drug activity by taking some restraints off the police department.

TenHaken said right now the police chief must get the mayor's approval before spending more than $1,000 for department initiatives or programming, and, if elected, he'd remove that cap and let the chief use more of his or her own discretion in fighting crime.

"Our police department has not been empowered to police the way they need to police," he said. "They, in some ways, have had the thumb on them by City Hall."

In that same vein, TenHaken said he intends to hold roundtable discussions with every member of the police force to get a better gauge on the issues they face in the field.

Much of what he shared about his 100-day plan centered around better communication with the City Council, the media and the public.

Having already announced plans to have a chief of staff, TenHaken said he will add another layer to his leadership team to include a deputy chief of staff. That position, he said, will replace the communications specialist position created under Mayor Mike Huether.

Here's Paul TenHakens 100-day plan:

"That deputy chief will have full authority to communicate with the city, to lead press conferences, to speak on behalf of the mayor's office," TenHaken said. "Right now, there's one voice out of City Hall and that's the mayor."

TenHaken said he also intends to repeal an executive order signed by Huether regarding confidentiality across city government, something he said was a mistake that's led to the transparency issues that have plagued City Hall in recent years.

"(That executive order) puts the same fear of sharing information to the street plow driver as it does to the city attorney and everyone in between," he said. "Putting that in place created the culture, I think that we have, of secrecy because (city employees are) worried about sharing information."

TenHaken said he'd planned to craft a 100-day strategy from the start of his campaign, but needed to vet ideas and potential policy changes with existing city employees, police officers and community members to get buy-in.

"I'm not just pushing out things that are going to upset the existing directors and leaders in City Hall," he said. "That will help, even day one, when I start out. I've already had the discussions needed to get people to agree to some of these (changes)."

After TenHaken's ideas surfaced in news stories Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Huether's finance office defended its practices in a news release, saying budget restraints on the police department also apply to the rest of city government and were a result of slowing sales tax revenues.

And in reference to the confidentiality executive order, the release said it was signed by Huether at the request of the Human Resources Office and "has nothing to do with secrecy."

Here's the city's response below: