Democracy on the Front Lines
City Administrator’s Blog
Walter Denton
April 18, 2007
You may have noticed that there was an election yesterday. Judging by the turnout (except in Ward 7), not many people bothered to exercise their vote. Most of the wards had less than 24% turnout, although Ward 7 had an impressive 40% turnout. In City Hall, the election has a direct impact on our operations and we were quite aware of the various campaigns. (Click here to view the official results. The O'Fallon results begin on page 8.)
While we in administration will work with whoever is elected, there always is some concern over who will be elected. We pride ourselves on having a strong professional relationship with the City Council, and we want to continue that relationship regardless of who is elected. We do not expect the City Council to automatically do everything we recommend, but we work hard to earn the trust of the aldermen that we are giving them complete information and rational opinions.
Including Dan Polites’ recent appointment to Becky Henry’s vacant seat, we now have three new aldermen. John Drolet will replace Phil Gardner who was appointed in January to fill Tom Bequette’s seat. Steve Engler will replace Jason Boone who served one term as alderman. John West and Nila Grogan were re-elected over opposition candidates. Mike Bennett, Rick Reckamp, and Ed True were re-elected with no opposition.
As I have mentioned before, coming in as a new alderman is difficult and disorienting. The business of the City does not slow down so he can become informed on the issues. He will be overwhelmed with data, ranging from sales tax to sewers. He will be overrun with acronyms and governmental minutiae. He will be forced to vote on issues that arrived long before his tenure on the City Council. Several aldermen have served for many years and have a lot more institutional knowledge on what has been tried before and how things work.
Our job as staff will be to navigate the new aldermen through the issues and give them enough information to make reasoned decisions. We will schedule an orientation program for the aldermen so they can meet the department heads and get a brief description on how the system functions. They may not be able to absorb everything in one day, but at least they will know who to call when they have questions.
This is an exciting time to be on the O’Fallon City Council. There are many important projects on the horizon and many of the decisions the City Council make now will have long-range implications on the future of our community. It is a serious endeavor but with the input of residents and City staff, the aldermen will not be alone.
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