Changes in the formats of municipal governments don’t happen very often, but voters in North Sioux City, South Dakota, took that step on Tuesday.
A petition to change the form of government put the measure on the ballot, and voters decided to shift away from having eight aldermen and a mayor.
The new version in North Sioux City will be a commission format, with five members, including one commissioner being a mayor who votes on certain issues to break ties.
The final vote was 343 to 238.
*In other news, longtime Iowa Congressman Jim Leach has died.
Leach was born and raised in Davenport and served in the House of Representatives from 1977 until 2007.
He was a Republican who famously broke from his party in 2008, when he endorsed Barack Obama for president over John McCain.
Leach would do the same in 2022 when he backed many of Iowa’s Democratic Congressional candidates over their G-O-P counterparts.
In an interview from that year, Leach said it was the January 6, 2020, insurrection that spurred him to cross the aisle again.
“Insurrection is absolutely untenable. And then when you have a party in Congress defend it, that’s absolutely bizarre,” Leach said.
Leach held a law degree from the University of Iowa and was elected to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Waterloo. He was 82 years old.
*Additionally, the Sioux City Human Rights Commission gave their annual War Eagle Awards to people who promote civil and human rights.
The honorees in a Tuesday evening ceremony were two groups and two individuals. That included the Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ, for its Project Good Neighbor endeavor that works to actively help others in need, plus also the Women Aware group.
Women Aware was founded in 1979 to the nationwide phenomenon of homemakers displaced by divorce, widowhood, societal trends, and economic pressures. Their goal is to help women transition into greater economic independence and self-sufficiency.
The first of the two individual honors went to Kristine Bornholtz for her volunteer work mentoring young refugee students so they could move towards post-secondary educational programs.
Also honored with a War Eagle Award by the Sioux City Human Rights Commission was Perla Alarcon-Flory for her dedication to civil rights. She was the first Latina elected to public office in Woodbury County, when she won a seat on the Sioux City School Board.
*Another NAIA college women’s volleyball national tournament in Sioux City has concluded, with a team from Indiana winning the championship for a second straight year.
Indiana Wesleyan won the title at the Tyson Events Center on Tuesday evening, to finish the weeklong tourney. Indiana Wesleyan had a furious comeback in the fifth and final set, to win 3-2 over Bellevue University of Nebraska.
Indiana Wesleyan finishes the year with a 37-2 record, after entering the NAIA tourney with the second seed in the field. The top seed was a Siouxland college, but Northwestern College of Orange City, Iowa, was ousted a few days ago.
*Additionally, a former Spencer City Council member has been picked as the new city manager.
Kevin Robinson had been serving as Acting City Manager for a few months following the retirement of Dan Gifford. He was elevated to become city manager during a council meeting Tuesday.
Spencer is one of the larger county seat towns in Siouxland, holding a population of 11,500 people in Clay County, Iowa. One of the key tasks at hand for city officials is recovery from devastating June flooding by the Little Sioux River that bisects the town.
