The city government will change to a commission style from an aldermanic style starting in April.

By Gary Dickson, Editor – Siouxland Observer

Photos above from left to right. Image 1: Election workers, l-r, Debra Beacom, Sherry Caba, and David Layhee tabulate votes from Tuesday’s election. Image 2: City Councilor Greg Meyer an avid backer of the commission style of government was at the Community Center all day Tuesday in the role of election observer. Here he learns from City Finance Officer Amy Lilly that he cannot release the results to his media contacts early as she needs to be the one to contact them with official results later. Image 3: Election worker Sherry Caba ponders some of the returns numbers as she adds up the election results. (Photos by Gary Dickson)

Tuesday night North Sioux City voters chose to change the city’s style of government from an aldermanic version to a commission version.

In what was considered by some as a fairly good turnout for an election that a few citizens claimed they weren’t given adequate notice, supporters for the commission style of government garnered 343 votes versus 238 for those voting against it. The supporters of the commission style of government were well-organized and had at least two city councilors active in carrying petitions and promoting their cause in the community. It appeared that those against the proposal were unorganized, even non-existent, limited to only a few people writing letters to the editor or speaking out on social media.

The current government will continue until April 8, 2025, when an election will be held to elect five commissioners to the city government. Until then the current aldermanic style which consists of four wards that are each represented by two aldermen or city councilors and a mayor will continue. During the April 8 election voters will elect five commissioners including one who will serve as the mayor. All five commissioners will be elected at large with everyone in the city able to vote for them. Currently, only residents of each ward are able to vote on their representative aldermen.

Little is known about the details of how the new government will function as only the state’s description of the commission style of government was provided during the weeks leading up to the election. Also unknown are the costs to the city for making the switch in terms of changing department alignments, etc. No costs were provided for any of the “benefits” touted by the new government’s supporters.

Apparently, more will be revealed as the new government backers confront the reality of the situation.

In the meantime, here is a superficial summary of what a commission-style city government consists of, meeting frequency and how many votes to pass an ordinance according to the state:

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