Employment

City of Sioux Falls Director salary increases at a minimum

l3wis January 22, 2023 4Comments

I was actually surprised that large salary increases for directors were at a minimum this time around. Click on links below to view documents;

2022 salaries

2023 salaries

The list is pretty short of who got big ones. As I projected when the debate about giving the mayor a raise during the last election was floated and turned down by the voters, that due to inflation, the mayor and city council would still get very good pay increases even without voter approval.

• Mayor Paul TenHaken: $12,000+

• Angie Uthe, Assistant Director of Human Resources: $9,400+

• Kurt Peppel, Assistant City Engineer: $9,000+

• Matthew McArearey, Fire Chief, $8,400+

• Dr. Jennifer Tinguely, Chief Medical Officer: $7,800+

• Shana Nelson, former Audit Manager and now City Housing Compliance Manager went from making $90K to $97K. A $7,000 raise isn’t bad for jumping the council’s ship. Still would love to know what happened. Maybe one of these days Alex Jensen who was her direct supervisor as council chair will spill the beans, yeah right!

• Erica Beck, Mayor’s Chief of Staff: $6,000+

Speaking of directors, I have noticed lately that the city council loves to spend several minutes at each informational meeting complimenting the directors and mid-managers who are doing presentations. That’s great, and everyone appreciates a thank you when you do your job. But the gushing is out of control. Many directors receive at least a 6-figure salary, a pension and other benefits. They are well compensated for ‘doing their jobs’. A simple ‘Thank You’ should suffice. Selberg, Jensen and Soehl are the worst of the bunch (Barranco is even joining the ‘your so wonderful’ crowd). Like I said, everyone deserves a thank you for a job well done, but the plump paychecks these public employees are taking home should be thanks enough.

I also find it ironic considering the piss poor job the engineering department did on vetting the bid for the 6th Street Unity Bridge and the fact that Council Chair Soehl is continually bitching about how long the meetings can go. Maybe grab director Bob in the hallway and tell him thank you after the meeting instead blowing smoke and gobbling up time with your requiems of appreciation.

UPDATE: City of Sioux Falls posting 2022 spreadsheet for salaries

l3wis January 18, 2023 3Comments

UPDATE: The city has the correct 2023 salaries posted now. I wonder what poor sap in IT had to upload this at 8:05 AM today?

It’s that time of the year, a quick look at what kind of salary increases city directors received this year. If you go to the link and click on it, you get this;

Oops! It even says that the city posted the new spreadsheet on January 13, 2023.

This of course is NO surprise. The city really struggles with dates on public documents. Probably have to hold a staff meeting and special council meeting to remedy it.