RAPID CITY, SD – The Rapid City Common Council will decide Monday if they’re going to bring in outside counsel to start collections for outstanding utility accounts related to Tzadik Management.
On Wednesday, the city Legal and Finance Committee unanimously approved moving the item to the full council to start the process of recovering hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid utilities.
As of August, outstanding balances were:
- Mountain View Estates LLC – $83,814
- Oxford Apartments LLC – $24,649
- Dakota Flats LLC – $2,721
- Tzadik Lacross Apartments LLC – $141,950
- Tzadik Rapid City Portfolio LLC – $390,070
The unpaid accounts provide services to duplexes and multi-family homes in the name of the property owners who have paid the property management company for the city services. By ordinance, the city can discontinue utility services for failure to pay bills but isn’t pursuing that option.
“We don’t want to harm those residents,” City Finance Director Dan Ainslie said “So this is the only action we have to pay those bills.”
Mitch Richter, consultant for Tzadik Management, said Tzadik has paid more than $217,000 on the accounts in the past several months.
“We’re not disputing that we owe for water and sewer and we have not stopped paying, we’ve been paying those bills since November 2025,” Richter said.
Richter told the committee Tzadik has requested, but not received, a breakdown of expense detail on a bill.
“It’s not reasonable to be pushed toward litigation for these charges that have never been explained to us,” he said. “There’s a step in any fair litigation process, sitting down and reconciling the account and that simply has not happened here.”
Committee member John Roberts said the city has tried to work with Tzadik for years.
“I find it very interesting that, this company, the only time they want to do anything is after we threaten to take them to court,” Roberts said. “The only time they show up or make any kind of an offer in good faith is when they’re worried about getting sued. So maybe it is time we do this.”
The council will consider the issue at their regular meeting Monday night at City Hall.
