Former Rapid City mayor Sam Kooiker continues serving the public in his home state of Iowa. After being unseated by Steve Allender in 2015, he landed a job as city administrator for the 5,000 people of Cherokee. Now Governor Kim Reynolds has appointed him to the Iowa State Civil Rights Commission:
Kooiker was born with Cerebral Palsy, something that made him want to help others with disabilities and disadvantages. He was the mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota for four years and was a member of the community’s city council for nine years. During that time he was intensely involved with issues of Native Americans and disabled people in the area.
…“At the time, I never dreamed I might have the chance to someday serve on this board,” Kooiker said. “Life is what happens to you when you are making other plans, and I am now back in my home state of Iowa. The origins of the Americans with Disabilities Act can be found in Iowa, and it’s such an honor to serve on the Iowa Civil Rights Commission and to serve my home state of Iowa” [Courtney Carstens, “Kooiker Appointed to Civil Rights Committee,” Cherokee Chronicle Times, 2017.08.18].
Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa was a main author and prime Senate sponsor of the ADA.
Among cases the Iowa Civil Rights Commission has dealt with was a sex-discrimination case in which a male student complained that the University of Iowa discriminated against him by only providing late-night transportation to female students. The ICRC got the university to expand its Nite Ride service to men and pay the complainant $5,000.
Good Democrats do good where ever they are. That was even possible in Rapid City. There is hope for democrats.
Mr Kooiker has invited me to stop in for coffee when I am back in my original home town.
I’m moving on up…..
Since Sam Kooiker was voted out of office. Rapid City seems to have done nothing that Allender said he was gonna fix. The latest is to fix the railroad crossings as I understand it, the last time I drove over them, still rough as a cob. Allender should hire the company that put the railroad crossings between Oelrichs and the Nebraska state line. You can hit that bad boy at the speed limit and it is more or less like hitting a week old dead rabbit in the road. Kooiker got his man though with the garbage firm though, Rapid Citians are still in the dark about how much it cost though, so I’m told. Anyone know the true cost to Rapid City on the garbage case?
Mayor Sam
You can have two hometowns, come back home to Rapid City, your help is desperately needed.