Sam Kooiker
| Sam Kooiker | |
|---|---|
Kooiker in April 2012
|
|
| Mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota | |
|
In office July 5, 2011 – July 6, 2015 |
|
| Preceded by | Alan Hanks |
| Succeeded by | Steve Allender |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 9, 1974 |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Jennifer Kooiker (née King) (m. 1999) |
| Children | 3 |
| Parents | John and Sherry Kooiker |
| Website | www |
Sam Kooiker (born March 9, 1974) is an American politician. He served as Mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota from 2011 to 2015.
Kooiker was born on March 9, 1974 in Japan, while his father John Kooiker taught at the Christian Academy. The family returned to the United States in 1975, where young Kooiker and three siblings grew up on the family farm in Boyden, Iowa. He attended Western Christian High School in the neighboring town of Hull. While in high school, Kooiker held a job at Hy-Vee's Sheldon and Sioux Center stores. He earned bachelor's degrees in criminal justice and psychology and a master's degree in public administration from the University of South Dakota. During his time at USD, Kooiker continued working for Hy-Vee in Vermillion, South Dakota, and was also an intern at the Sioux City Police Department in his home state of Iowa.
Kooiker and his wife moved to Rapid City in the summer of 1999, where he worked at Gateway Computers for eight years; at the South Dakota Division of Vocational Rehabilitation for about a year; and at Golden West Technologies for six years.
In 2015, Kooiker's father was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives.
According to Argus Leader political columnist David Montgomery, Rapid City is an overwhelmingly Republican town where local politics is hotly contested between factions within the Republican Party that Montgomery terms the "Establishment Party" and the "Outsider Party." Montgomery characterizes Kooiker as "the most successful representative" of the more "populist" outsider faction.
Kooiker was named to the Rapid City Planning Commission by then-mayor Jerry Munson in 2001, and served until 2002. He was elected to the Rapid City Common Council later that year and represented Ward 2 until he was elected mayor. As a city council member, Kooiker gained a reputation for being detail-orientated, especially on budget issues. While serving on the council, he was censured twice, privately in 2005 and publicly in 2010. The 2010 censure was the first public rebuke of an elected official in Rapid City history.
...
Wikipedia