Shaun Sipma is an American journalist and politician who served as the

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

of Minot, North Dakota from June 2018 to June 2022.

Early life

Sipma worked as a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, working with KXMC-TV in Minot as a news anchor from 2000 to 2013. After this, he became an agent for the North Dakota Farmers Union Insurance. Sipma served as the

Alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

for the 5th Ward from 2016 to 2017. Sipma also serves on the Board of the Farm Rescue Foundation.

Political career

In 2016, incumbent Alderman Tom Seymour decided not to run for reelection to the Minot City Council representing Ward 5, and Sipma decided to run for the seat.Skurzewsk, Joe (June 7, 2016).
Minot Elexction Preview: Ward 5 Candidates
. ''

KFYR-TV KFYR-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Bismarck, North Dakota, United States, affiliated with NBC and Fox. Owned by Gray Television, the station has studios on North 4th Street and East Broadway Avenue in downtown Bismarck, and its trans ...

''. He said the primary issue at hand was flood control. Sipma said he decided to run for City Council because he saw a lack of leadership, with incumbents acting more like city liaisons rather than leaders. Sipma won the election with 80 percent of the vote. One year later, he won reelection to the City Council when the Council was reorganized. When incumbent mayor Chuck Barney decided not to run for reelection in 2018, Sipma announced his candidacy the next day.Amundson, Barry (November 8, 2017).
Minot mayor won't seek re-election
. ''

WDAY-TV WDAY-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Fargo, North Dakota, United States, affiliated with ABC. It serves as the flagship television property of locally based Forum Communications Company, which also owns WDAY radio (970 AM) and ''The F ...

''. During his campaign, he said that the city needed to plan long-term, which it hadn't been doing for too long. He favored stabilizing the city's work force in order to reduce the cost of constantly replacing employees. Sipma won the election with 49 percent of the total vote. In August 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Mayor Sipma and the City Council unanimously approved a resolution requiring city employees to wear face coverings when a six-foot distance cannot be maintained or when the employee is instructed to do so by their medical provider or their supervisor.Strong, Sasha (August 17, 2020).
Minot City Council approves temporary mask resolution
. ''

''. The resolution recommends the general public do the same, but without any penalties or enforcement measures. In October, Mayor Sipma instituted a requirement to wear a face covering in public, without any penalty or enforcement measures. In September 2020, Sipma approved a decision to fly the LGBTQI flag underneath the US and State flags. During a council meeting, a resident voiced his strong disagreement with that decision. Sipma responded, "It's been referenced a couple of times that there isn't hate or that they're not against those folks. ...I've experienced a tremendous amount of hate towards me and towards the folks that fit under that umbrella. So, what led to my decision on that was also seeing a population within our community that does need to have that issue addressed—the issue of hate. When they came to me, they had stated that they wanted a call for kindness, not necessarily acceptance, but a call for kindness. And that I can appreciate."Kaur, Harmeet (September 18, 2020).
A city council member in North Dakota declares she's a proud lesbian during a heated debate over flying the Pride flag
. ''CNN''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sipma, Shaun American male journalists Mayors of Minot, North Dakota Living people Minot State University alumni People from Bowman County, North Dakota People from Minot, North Dakota Year of birth missing (living people)