Resignation commentary

The Story City Herald asked me for some commentary on my resignation from the mayor job. Here is something I put together more as a typed interview. It is not the best written, and maybe a little more conversational. But if you don't get the Herald, it was in there word for word, so just including it here.

I didn't run for the position of mayor last fall, and no one else did either. So the Roland Mayor ballot was to be filled by write-in vote. I asked people not to vote for me either, but it turns out I still ended up with the most votes. If I declined the position, it would go to the 2nd place finisher. I talked to the 2nd place finisher, Dave Donohue, and he didn't want the position either. So the election law states, if the top 2 decline, the city council could appoint someone to the position. So since the council was going to have to appoint someone in any case, I decided to accept the results of the election, and serve as Mayor through the budget process, which is in the first quarter of the year, and then resign. Then the council would be tasked with appointing someone then.

So, we got through the budget process, things have slowed down a bit, and I am ready to resign. Jerry Balmer is my Mayor ProTem (basically what that means is Vice-Mayor), and he will serve as Mayor until a new Mayor is appointed. The council could appoint one of the council members if they want, but it is my understanding that none of them want to be Mayor right now. So I would expect the new Mayor will come from the general public.

While Roland usually has pretty good luck filling its council spots, finding someone to run for Mayor has been problematic over the years. I think part of the problem is that our system of government is that the Mayor is in a weak position when it comes to policy. The Mayor cannot vote on items and cannot even break ties. The only thing a Mayor can do is veto ordinances. The Mayor has no hire/fire power over any city staff.

But the Mayor is an important position. He/She is a representative for Roland on many county boards. It is important for the Mayor to run efficient council meetings so the council can get things accomplished. The Mayor also has to find citizens willing to work on the various boards and commissions for the city. In a small town, that can be a difficult task.

But being the Mayor still has the bully pulpit that comes with the position. Also it can be very rewarding serving as "the CEO" of the city, and seeing good things happen and help facilitate people working together to improve the city.

After 8 years on the City Council and 4.25 as Mayor, I'm ready to take a break. I'm open to the possibility of serving in one of the positions in the future, but I just want to step away for awhile. We have a good city council right now and they are making good choices to help Roland be safe and prosperous for years to come.

If you are interested in being Mayor, contact one of the council members to get on the consideration list. While it is a paid position, it really is more of a position for someone who cares about the city and wants to put in some time helping out. It's not really for someone honked off about one issue. But if you have a vision of how things should be, you have an opportunity to help lead people to how you see Roland in the future.

April 2 Council Meeting

Had everybody there, which is nice. Meeting went relatively quickly too, which also is nice.

In staff reports, we heard that US Cellular is interested in leasing more space on our water tower to support LTE upgrade. The council directed Nathan Hovick to work with US Cellular on the needed lease changes. We will have the street sweeper in town soon to get the curbs cleaned up. A letter went out those that requested a credit on their water/sewer bills for running water when frozen pipes were a concern. 8 citizens have requested so far, with 5 getting a credit. (the other 3 actually had smaller water bills).

We also had a discussion that the industrial park property owned by RADC does not have service level electric or gas in the development. RADC was made aware of that about 2-3 years ago. This is going to be problematic because the school wants to build a bus barn on one of the lots, and RADC may not have the money to put the utilities in.

The final ordinance allowing ATVs to be driven on city streets for the purpose of snow plowing passed. And the 3rd reading of clarifying the responsibility of ownership to the property owner of water service lines passed. The council also approved Denman & Co for being our city auditor for the next 3 years. It costs about $5,000 to conduct that audit, FYI.

The council also approved a library request to use city property behind the library for a small garden plot, as a library patron project. That is the lot across from the car wash that used to have the city water tower on it (for those of you that may have moved here since 2000 or so, when it was torn down.)

Finally, in Mayor comments, I announced my resignation as Mayor. That will be effective at 5PM on April 16. I'll have more on that in a future post.