Sturgis city executive team dissolves

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The City of Sturgis has more staff-related issues.

The city’s public works director Rick Bush and police chief Geody VanDewater are not leaving their jobs but they have resigned from the mayor’s executive administrative team, according to a City of Sturgis news release.

The two said they wanted to focus on their departments “during these challenging times,” the release said.

The City of Sturgis will likely need to cut its budget for 2025. On Sept. 30, Mayor Angela Wilkerson proposed cutting the city engineer, director of communications and the city’s human resources/administrative services.

Bush and VanDewater were members of a team that formed after former city manager Daniel Ainslie left the city in April 2023. After voters in May approved removing the city manager-style government, the six-member team was reduced to a three-member executive administrative team to work with the mayor, according to the release.

The third member of the team recently left her city job.

Wilkerson plans to hire a city administrator early next year. Until then she will continue as the city’s chief executive officer, according to the release.

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