Kerkman seeks full term in City Council seat 

SIDNEY – Brett Kerkman is finishing two years of former city councilman Paul Strommen's term and with voter supporter will return for four more years. 

He says he is enjoying his time on the council. 

“It’s been very interesting getting acclimated to how city government works, what the council can and cannot do. It’s been fun ... I think,” Kerkman said. 

He said Council challenges include working together toward the strategic plan. 

“There’s always the challenge of getting the alignment on like the strategic focus, and obviously we’ve got the shuffle up with the city manager. I think once we get that as permanent I think we can get back on pace as far as what’s the strategic alignment that we’re driving for there,” he said. 

He said the City has a four-year Strategic Plan. He said he doesn’t believe the City has spent enough time on it. He said budget decisions at the State level has resulted in “a lot of threats.” 

“There’s a huge initiative from the Governor’s Office, not specifically the legislators but the Governor’s Office, is to drive through his budget. And his budget is definitely a negative effect on what we’re trying to do here in our city,” he said. 

Affordable housing is one of his interests as well. He presently serves on the Housing Authority Board representing the Sidney City Council.  

“That’s going to be a huge initiative. Affordable housing. [It] sounds like there is significant demand for like voucher-based housing, workforce housing, these types of things, so we really got to tackle that Sioux Villa, super important thing and we gotta rally around a project there. We have to get interest out there,” he said. 

He said the vision currently is a “mixed property” of multiplexes and single-story homes.