http://www.capjournal.com/news/pierre-s-schochenmaier-to-retire-as-city-administrator-after-a/article_b7a0a6d8-bc29-11e6-9685-dbacae2bfe71.html
Leon Schochenmaier, Pierre’s low-key and award-winning city administrator for the past decade, credited with a steady hand in leading the city’s flood-fighting and recovery effort in 2011, said Tuesday he will retire next summer.
At the end of of the City Commission’s weekly meeting, Schochenmaier, asked for any comments, said, “I have one item. It’s a big night for me. I’m going to announce my retirement effective June 30, 2017.”
That will make it 11 years as the city’s administrator, the right hand guy for Mayor Laurie Gill and the professional executive for the five-member Commission, which includes Gill.
He sits in the middle, on Gill's left hand, at Commission meetings, a meaningful location, as Commissioners typically turn to him for data and figures, the ins and outs and nuts and bolts of city government.
“Well, this is big news for the city of Pierre,” Mayor Gill said in response to Schochenmaier’s announcement, that’s been a quiet secret for a few months among city leaders but a surprise, none the less, to many observers.
“Leon, you have been an exceptional administrator,” Gill said, in her ninth year as mayor after several years on the commission. “My perception of what we have done is to really raise the bar of professionalism in the city. You bring to us a level of expertise because you are technically an engineer by trade, so you bring that technical expertise along with the ability to manage in a calm way.”
Commissioner Jamie Huizenga said, “We are going to miss you, You have brought a lot of wisdom , a lot of expertise and a sense of calm to get us through plenty of adventures here at City Hall.”
Blake Barringer, a new commissioner this year but a veteran engineer who spent a career in private firms doing work with and for the city and the state, added a special personal note: “It’s too bad you won’t be sticking on two and a half more years, with me in this first term. But I guess knowing and working with you for 36 years , with your original background, you taught me a lot.”
Schochenmaier is recognized statewide as an effective city leader.
A year ago, he was given the Excellence in South Dakota Municipal Government Award, the top prize handed out by the South Dakota Municipal League.
“To be the one recipient from the very impressive list of nominees we received this year is really a testament to Leon and his commitment to the city of Pierre,” Municipal League Director Yvonne Taylor said in October 2015 of Schochenmaier. “He is widely regarded throughout the state as an excellent leader and advisor to many.”
Gill told the Capital Journal last year that Schochenmaier led the city’s effort to set up the state’s first consolidated 911/emergency dispatch center that handles calls from several counties and agencies.
“During the 2011 flood, Leon worked on little to no sleep to direct department heads and coordinate with stakeholders to save property and mitigate damage,” Gill said last year when he won the state award. “He was indispensable in helping the community and its residents prepare for, sustain and recover from the flood.”
Schochenmaier, who turns 66 on Dec. 19, grew up on a farm and ranch near Bonesteel, South Dakota, a hamlet just north of Nebraska and just west of the MIssouri River.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at SDSU in Brookings and worked 31 years for the state - 13 at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and 18 years at the transportation department, before being hired as Pierre’s second city administrator.
In the summer of 2006 he was hired to replace Rod Leisinger, who had become Pierre first city administrator in 2004.
The big flood of the Missouri River in 2011 that devastated Pierre and Fort Pierre was his biggest challenge but also an accomplishment that “was very rewarding,” he said.
He did the main work and got the big bucks: his 2016 salary is $130,500, the most by a stretch of any city employee.
The stress and hours of work during the flood didn’t shorten his career at the city, in fact, the opposite, he told the Capital Journal: “I stayed longer because of that. I wanted to make sure we got all the projects done.”
That means this fall’s repair and paving of the parking lot in Steamboat Park near the bandstand, as the last bit of flood recovery work on the city’s infrastructure, was more than symbolic.
That means this fall’s repair and paving of the parking lot in Steamboat Park near the bandstand, as the last bit of flood recovery work on the city’s infrastructure, was more than symbolic.
“That was it,” he said of staying on the job was done.
Now he’s ready for his next step on life, he said in his low-key style of leadership that wasn’t about him being out front: “It’s time for new ideas.”
It’s typical of his quiet,understated way of always being prepared with the needed information or decision that Schochenmaier said he wanted to give the city plenty of lead time to hire his replacement, because “there are a lot to things to get done.”
“I will assure you it will be a very smooth transition.”
Someone asked him if he was moving.
“No. This is home, I’m not going anywhere.”
After the meeting, commissioners bantered with Schochenmaier. Was he now going to throw his hat in the ring for the governor’s race? Commissioner JIm Mehlhaff asked with smile.
No way, Schochenmaier laughed.
But some have asked him if now he is going to run for the City Commission, he admitted.
“Yes, I’m going to run as fast and far away from it as I can!”
GIll said she was starting on recruiting a successor for Schochenmaier “immediately,” “It’s my goal we will have an administrator in place by the time Leon retires, or at least we will know who that will be.”
She said the recruitment process would be “an internal process,” not farmed out to a consultant, but handled by Laurie Granlund, human resources director and directed by Gill and the Commission. .
“There is not a predetermined candidate at this point,” she said. “There will be a comprehensive search” for a new administrator.
In written statement released Tuesday evening, Gill said: “Our community has been very fortunate to have someone of Leon’s caliber and dedication. Under his leadership, the city has grown into a much more sophisticated, professional organization with a focus on getting the job done. He will be greatly missed.”
City Administrator Schochenmaier Announces June Retirement
PIERRE SD – Pierre City Administrator Leon Schochenmaier announced that he will retire next summer.
Schochenmaier, who has served as the City Administrator for more than a decade, will leave the post June 30, 2017.
“I greatly enjoy serving the people of Pierre,” said Schochenmaier. “That made my decision to retire a difficult one, but it’s time for me to start the next chapter of my life.”
Pierre Mayor Laurie Gill praised Schochenmaier’s work as city administrator.
“Our community has been very fortunate to have someone of Leon’s caliber and dedication. Under his leadership, the city has grown into a much more sophisticated, professional organization with a focus on getting the job done. He will be greatly missed!”
In the coming months, the City Commission will start working to find Schochenmaier’s replacement and develop out transition plans.
Schochenmaier has served as Pierre’s City Administrator since 2006. Prior to his position with the City of Pierre, Leon worked in various engineering and leadership capacities for the State of South Dakota
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