Jodi Schwan

Mayor’s Chief of Lunch Dates worries she will be out of a job soon. Stop worrying. I can answer that question for you; you will be.

l3wis April 11, 2010 11Comments

Either she isn’t very bright or she has got accustomed to the nice paycheck;

Jodi Schwan went to City Hall to solve a problem. Four years later, she thinks she solved it. Her thanks for that is the sinking feeling that after Tuesday’s election, she might be out of a job.

I guess I have never really had a personal problem with a chief of staff position and it’s pay, if that is what Schwan was hired to do. It was always Munson’s poor judgement in hiring her that bothered me. He hired her to be a puppet for him not a COS. And apparently, I am not the only one who thinks that;

But she’s never been able to get past the impression that she’s more of a high-priced press secretary than a top-tier executive. Half the candidates to succeed Munson say they will eliminate the position she holds, and some community leaders have found her role bewildering from the start.

“If you ask me what does Jodi Schwan do, I still have no idea,” said businesswoman Linda Barker, a longtime supporter of city projects.

Bob Jamison, a former city councilor, thought the term chief of staff would imply chief over the staff. He found otherwise.

“I like Jodi, but I think she has been utilized more as a public relations person,” he said. “I think it degraded the position, for lack of a better way to put it.”

Bob Good, managing partner of Management Recruiters of Sioux Falls, said it’s common for people to switch careers. Munson previously was a teacher, insurance salesman and banker. But to make such a jump in pay and responsibility as Schwan did is uncommon.

“It’s very rare somebody would hire somebody for that high level position that wouldn’t have the requisite experience,” Good said. “That almost never happens.”

She came in with no experience in government and a salary of $98,000, more than twice what she made as a news reporter for KELO-TV.

Twice? BAHAHAHAHA. If Jodi was making $49,000 a year as a beat reporter at Stormland TV News you better not let the rest of the reporters know that. Everyone knows TV journalists are some of the lowest paid reporters in Sioux Falls.

I think the city clerk nails it when it comes to what Jodi has accomplished;

“I think she’s doing exactly what the mayor wanted her to do,” said Debra Owen, the city clerk.

Maybe I am reading too much into this quote, but it kinda sounds like to me that Jodi has been an effective puppet for Munson. I still remember when South DaCola called out the city on their $30,000 calendar. It only took one day for Schwan to go crying to Stormland TV News (City Hall’s propaganda wing). Most COS wouldn’t mess around reading ‘blogs’. It was clear that Jodi was hired to be ‘damage control’ and Chief ‘Information suppressionist’ for the mayor. Not a chief of staff.

As with Munson, she will not be missed by South DaCola.