Twelve years after its founding, Spearfish was incorporated as a city in 1888. Its form of municipal government is aldermanic, with a mayor and a city council of six. Spearfish is divided into three wards and each ward elects two council members. The mayor and council members are elected for three-year terms. A city supervisor, working directly under the mayor and council, is the municipal government’s chief administrative officer. The city’s work is handled by public works, police, fire, library, and finance departments. City council meetings are scheduled at 7 pm the first and third Mondays of each month in council chambers at City Hall, 625 Fifth Street. Agendas and minutes can be found online and are published in the Black Hills Pioneer newspaper.

Budgets

Anticipating an approximately eight percent decline in revenues in fiscal year 2011, the City Council of Spearfish reduced its contingency fund and cut personnel expenditures to trim the city's planned general fund expenditures to $7.48 million. Spending for police, fire, library, planning and zoning, and snow removal increased slightly, as did personnel costs for the city's recreation and aquatic center. To view the 2011 budget for the City of Spearfish, click here. For 2012 the city council approved a total budget of just under $19.5 million.