RAPID CITY - Mayor Alan Hanks has appointed Kevin Thom, former director of the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, as the city's new Community Resource Director.

Thom, who starts Oct. 1, will head the newly created department of Community Resources, a department that will include code enforcement, human resources, community development, information technology and the geographic information systems divisions.

In addition to 28 years in law enforcement, Thom has a master's degree in public administration, extensive knowledge of human resources, budgeting and management and will be a great asset to the city, according to Hanks.

"We wanted someone with tremendous experience managing people because that's really what department heads do," he said. "He served as the director of the department of criminal investigations, which is a very large department, so he has plenty of experience as far as managerial skills."

Hanks said the city has been without a human-resources director for about eight years. Finance officer Jim Preston handles those duties now, but Hanks believes human resources should operate under a separate department head.

"Jim Preston has done a very good job, but because of his position as finance officer, I think there is a conflict between his roles acting as HR director and acting as finance officer," Hanks said.

Thom will also oversee special projects for the council and mayor's office that could be special community-wide initiatives, such as the Undoing Racism task force or looking into whether code enforcement should be more proactive, Hanks said.

Hanks said Thom could also take on projects the council assigns that currently go to a department heads that sometimes don't fit under that department head's scope of responsibility.

"The bottom line is our current department heads have become so overwhelmed with work and special assignments, we're looking to lighten their load a little bit," he said.

Contact Scott Aust at 394-8415 or scott.aust@rapidcityjournal.com