ALLENDER A MAYOR UNCHANGED

PHOTO BY SHILOH FRANCIS STORY BY SHILOH FRANCIS

There’s a list of accomplishments Mayor Steve Allender could boast of from the past eight years in office.

He created the Kids Ride Free program for Rapid City Transit. Approved scarves and winter apparel items on the presidential statues. The Youth City Council was established under his leadership along with Early Learner Rapid City.

He also improved divisions and systems within the city, from creating departments to key positions like the Cultural Strategist and Human Services coordinator.

The list goes on, and on, and on.

But there is one thing he is most proud of: “I was unchanged from a personal standpoint. I am a citizen my fellow citizens elected, and I worked hard for them. now, it is someone else's turn."

That was a promise he made when he ran in 2015. While on the campaign trail, he would tell people “I am who I am. I won’t turn into someone else when I’m elected.”

Allender never aspired to become mayor. He had worked 29 years for the Rapid City Police Department before retiring. Many had asked if he was planning to run, to which he simply shrugged it off, believing it would “be the worst job I ever had.”

After some time away from the job, however, Allender began to feel better mentally and physically. He believed City Hall needed a change in leadership and he started asking others to run. After one encounter where he passionately encouraged someone else to run he was met simply with, “I’m not running, but it sounds like you’re ready to.”

The rest, they say, is history, and June 2015 he was elected mayor.

And the worst job he could ever have, turned out to be anything but. For five years, Allender waited for the honeymoon period to end. His experience with staff and the community were nothing but positive and encouraging. “People really want to work together,” he recalled.

City Council meeting agendas were changed so they were about business – more professional and efficient. President’s Plaza was “killed” in order to make room for a different model. The new project, Block 5, is already underway.

He holds firmly to the belief that public service is hard work. The goal of any elected official is to serve the people – providing a general benefit to all, not to benefit a select group. “Take the ego out of the politician, and you’re left with a public servant,” he described. “It’s not about me. Things change, technology, laws, the environment and more. The work I do isn’t about a legacy. It’s leaving things better right now, so the next generation has something to build on. No one has been successful keeping things as they were.”

Unfortunately, in some ways, the job became exactly what Allender feared. The pandemic

and 2020 election brought a change in people. “The work felt less effective,” he said. “Now we had to work on shorter-term issues.”

Despite the frustration, Allender continued to focus on his belief that as a citizen government, his job was to work hard and focus on the greater good. He could even remember a meeting he had, where a gentleman disagreed with how Allender was leading. Rather than get upset he pointed to a sign he has hanging in his office with the headline ‘A House divided cannot stand’ –and used it as a reminder that, “we have to work together for the people.”

He was also able to lean on his experience as a police officer. “My time in law enforcement keeps me from being angry at people today,” he explained. “By the time someone needs a police officer, they are angry at their situation, not the officer. The same is often true with elected officials. It’s not me, the person, they are angry with.”

It can also be said that Allender had a style all his own. A reinforcement to his promise to stay true to who he was even before he got into office. Tom Johnson, president and CEO of Elevate Rapid City, remembers his first impression:

When I arrived in town four years ago, Allender seemed a bit of an odd bird. He wasn’t glad-handing. He wasn’t playing both sides. He wasn’t blowing smoke. He bluntly told me that Rapid City needed to get on the map nationally and that I was the guy to help the community get there. Not to play to my ego, but as a factual statement. It made me want to live up to the statement. It’s also the kind of honesty you don’t expect from a politician, and at first, it took me aback. But I came to respect that freshness. You always knew where you stood with Mayor Allender. You never had to guess. We teach our kids about the value of speaking their minds and being honest, and serving others without self-interest. And here was a guy who was elected to run a trade area of almost 150,000 people who was doing all of that all at once.

If there is one thing Allender wished for most, it would be for more people to ask how they can get involved. “We have too many talkers, but not enough doers. People seem to get words confused with involvement.” There are committees and organizations in need of more people getting involved, and bringing their expertise.

Retirement is not something Allender fears. “I have a life. A family. This job was never my identity,” he said. “We are a citizen government, it was always meant to be temporary.” He admits he may not have been perfect, but he is still proud of his time in office. “I know I can look back on this time knowing I did my best, I left things better than I found them, and I set the stage for the next person. That is leadership.”

Lastly, Allender has three pieces of advice for the next mayor:

1. There are no emergencies in the mayor’s office. Crises are managed by others in their departments.

2. You are here to enable and support the work being done in the city.

3. Your obligation is to the greater good, not a specific person or interest group.