STURGIS, S.D. – The city of Sturgis was hoping to have public discussion about the 2025 budget at their meeting Monday night, but Mayor Angela Wilkerson was absent.
The embattled mayor was a no show for the meeting for reasons unknown. Her absence followed heavy social media scrutiny of her this past week, as well as a recall petition that is being circulated to remove her from office.
Filling in as head of the meeting was Council President Kevin Forrester, who said he was disappointed that the mayor was not in attendance.
Without the mayor present, Forrester and other council members discussed questions they had with the 2025 budget presented by Mayor Wilkerson at a special meeting last week.
Forrester says he is concerned about substantial cuts to some departments, new debt to the mayor and council budgets, the low amount of dollars in the contingency fund, the proposed outsourcing of Rally Sponsorship and discrepancies among some numbers.
Furthermore, Forrester says the Mayor asked for a 10-percent cut from all departments, but he was having a hard time finding exactly what was being cut.
Despite the mayor’s absence, the council discussed their concerns about the budget for an hour before heading into executive session.
They were anticipating a long discussion at the council’s next meeting on October 21, and downplayed a first reading happening that night as the mayor had initially wanted.
In a related move last night, the council did approve a proposal to authorize the mayor to sign a professional services agreement with Casey Peterson C.P.A. to help new finance officer Ann Bertolotto.
Deidre Budahl with Casey Peterson was in attendance and told council members there is a lot of work to do.
The council, though, is only seeking to spend $15,000, and Budahl says what is being asked from them could cost in excess of $75,000. Still, the council approved the proposal in hopes Budahl could get Bertolotto started on the right track in cleaning things up in the finance office.
