Restaurants Want Food & Beverage Tax Repealed

Well, of course they do. Rather amusing to read this since, except for Lance Jack of Fat Pattie's, none of them thought the important enough to show up to the council meeting when council originally passes. Jack was the only restaurant owner concerned enough about the effect to say anything at the time.

Brightfields Confirmed.

I saw in this morning's Southern that city council voted to issue the special uses permit to Brightfields for the installation of the solar array on the old Koppers property. When I saw the vote ran 5-2 in favor, I guessed that the 2 "no" votes were Jane Adams and Carolin Harvey and my guess proved right.

Bradshaw had already come out in favor of the project and I had heard second-hand that Jack and McDaniel had as well. Fronabarger is generally in favor of projects like this and Monty leaned toward it, with severe reservations, the last time I heard him discuss it.

Adams, however, had moved from strong support for the project to increased questioning about it as controversy and protests from those living nearby had increased. Since Harvey had remained non-committal in public regarding her stance on the development, I figured it a safe bet that they cast the two no votes.

Lance Jack Arrested

Police arrested councilman Lance Jack early last Friday morning on charges of DUI, resisting arrest and driving without insurance. Oh, also improper lane usage and illegal transportation of alcohol.

Charges of improper lane usage in 2008 and DUI and possession of cannabis in 2009 were both dismissed, though he was convicted of improper lane usage and driving with an expired license in conjunction with the 2009 arrest. Will certainly be interesting to see if he gets these charges dismissed as well. He did get re-elected after the 2009 arrest but the resisting a peace officer is a more serious charge.

Election Candidates

Here are the final candidates for  office for next May's council/Mayor election.

Candidates for Mayor:

L – Jane Adams, 606 West Elm Street

L – John “Mike” Henry, 1210 West Hill Avenue

Candidates for City Council Member:

L – Navreet Kang, 613 South Terrace Drive

L – Adam Loos, 512 West Pecan Street

3 – Angela K. Kaye, 113 North Lark Lane

4 – Rebel Pinkston, 1230 West Short Drive

5 - Tom Grant, 5370 Springer Ridge Road

L - Anna Durrett, 800 ½ West Main Street

L - Lance D. Jack, 1026 North Bridge Street

All Mayoral and City Council candidates run on a non-partisan basis, which means they are not affiliated with a specific political party for the municipal election.  They are also elected at-large rather than from wards, which entitles them to receive votes from all areas of the City. Once the Mayor and Council Members are elected, they represent the entire City and all of its citizens, not just one geographic area or one particular group of people.

The Candidates-elect will take office on May 5, 2015.

City Council Election Petitions Open

Wanna run for city council or even mayor of Carbondale? You can start filing petitions on Nov. 17 through Nov. 24. Councilwoman Jane Adams has said she plans to run for Mayor and I have heard that Lance Jack plans to seek another term on the council, while Navreet Kang will campaign for one of the available three seats.

The Office of the Carbondale City Clerk will be open on Monday, November 17, 2014, through Monday, November 24, 2014, for the purpose of accepting petitions for the 2015 Consolidated Election on April 7, 2015 (or the Primary Election on February 24, 2015, if necessary) for the following offices:

Mayor – one (1) 4-year term and three (3) City Council members – 4-year terms

The dates and times the nominating petitions will be accepted are as follows:
Monday, November 17, 2014 – 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 – 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014 – 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
Thursday, November 20, 2014 – 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
Friday, November 21, 2014– 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
Monday, November 24, 2014 – 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
Petitions for Mayor or City Council member must be filed in the Office of the City Clerk, Carbondale City Hall, 200 South Illinois Avenue, Carbondale, Illinois 62901.
A lottery will be held on December 2, 2014, for all simultaneous filings that are filed at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, November 17, 2014, or that are received in the first mail of Monday, November 17, 2014. Additionally, petitions that are filed between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. on November 24, 2014, will be deemed simultaneously filed in accordance with 10 ILCS 5/7-12(6). A lottery for those petitions will also be held on December 2, 2014, in the Office of the City Clerk. Both lotteries are open to members of the public.

Business Friendly Council Members

Struck me as I watched the voting at last night's city council meeting that of the current council membership, only Lance Jack currently runs a business.  All of the other council members are either retired (as far as I know) or work for the university., though Jessica Bradshaw did run Rosetta Bookstore for a couple of years before closing it.  This likely influences the way they vote as, if I recall correctly, they were the only two to vote to support all of the changes before council last night including the failed rezoning attempt for Giant City Heating and AC.

Devils Advocate?

Councilman Lance Jack had an interesting approach to the CCTB's funding request at the last city council meeting during his questioning of the CCTB's executive director Cinnamon Wheeler-Smith about the purposes to which the funding would be put. (Just a reminder that I do serve on the board of the CCTB).

Several times he questioned if the CCTB was the best vehicle for promoting the city and whether it was a good idea for the city to put all its "tourism eggs" in one basket.  He said several times that he was not advocating removing funding for the CCTB but was playing devils advocate as to whether the city should look at some other methods of promoting tourism in the area.

I could understand him questioning the uses to which the funding would be put, as that was the purpose of the Convention and Tourism Bureau's presentation.  However, revisitng whether the revised CCTB is the best organization to do so doesn't make much sense. The council made that decision after looking at several options and decided to go with the CCTB so bringing up a re-examination of whether it is the best choice seems a bit precipitate.

July 17 City Council Meeting

Was busy with other stuff earlier in the evening so didn't tune into last night's city council meeting until the discussion on what to do about tourism.

Representatives of two organizations, ILLINOISouth and Southermost Illinois, were on hand making presentations (the Williamson County Tourism Bureau had said it was not interested in partnering with Carbondale and the proposal regarding working with the Carbondale Park District has gone by the wayside).  Should Carbondale partner with either one, the city would be an outlier in the organization, lying at the far Southern end of the region covered by ILLINOISouth and at the northern end of that covered by Southernmost Illinois.

Of the two organizations, Southernmost Illinois is the better fit, as its main office is located in Anna and the organization promotes tourism in the seven counties to the south of us, which is where Carbondale would focus if it wants to develop itself as a tourism hub.  Ed Benyas, representing the Jackson County Board, spoke to the council in favor of Southernmost Illinois, indicating that the county had opted to partner with the organization to promote Jackson County tourism. 

Southernmost Illinois also indicated, if I understood correctly, they would give Carbondale three members on the organization's board as well as open an office in Carbondale, while ILLINOISouth only indicated they would dedicate a staff member to the community, with no guarantee to open an office.  Southernmost Illinois appeared much more willing to accommodate the city, as the amount of money Carbondale would bring to the organization exceeds its total current budget.

Council's major concern, and the reason city staff proposes bringing the tourism function in-house, is the lack of control the city would have by outsourcing tourism functions and the fear that tourist activities within the city would not get appropriate attention.    Both City Manager Kevin Baity and Mayor Fritzler noted the city would lose $60,000 in state funding for this year by turning over tourism functions to another organization, however to retain the funding would require the city to re-establish the now defunct Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau as a city organization and assume responsibility for its debts, totaling about $34,000.  Councilwoman Corene McDaniels prefers this option as well, while Councilman Chris Wissmann appeared to lean towards joining with Southernmost Illinois.

In the end, after a short recess, the city took no action, instead deciding to study the situation and various proposals further, though it appears that either partnering with Southernmost Illinois or re-establishing a CCTB under city control are the preferred options.

In citizen comments, a pair of John A. Logan students asked the city for help in re-establishing mass transit from Carbondale to John A. Logan College.  Since SIUC moved its automotive technology facilities from Carterville to the new facilities at the Southern Illinois Airport, SIUC has discontinued the Saluki Express route from the SIUC campus that many JALC students residing in Carbondale used to get to the campus.  Councilman Monty suggested Jackson County Mass Transit while Wissmann recommended looking at Williamson County RIDES program.  Lance Jack said the city should investigate some way to provide transportation for JALC students in Carbondale to the campus and the mayor asked the students to give their names to city staff with a promise to look further into the matter to see what could be done.  The city does provide over $14,000 in funding annually to keep Saluki Express buses running when school is out of session so perhaps some additional funds could be directed to re-establishing a JALC route.

Wedding Chapel and Beer Garden

Last night's council meeting produced a bit more controversy than I had anticipated. The request for beer garden status for Sports Blast's new outdoor patio cum wedding chapel ran into a roadblock when Councilpeople Adams and Monty, long with Mayor Fritzler, voted against granting approval, splitting the council vote 3-3, meaning approval was not granted.

Sports Blast's location was the sticking point. Currently, beer gardens in Carbondale have no restrictions on noise level during weekend hours.  People living on Giant City Road can often hear music coming from Pinch Penny Pub's garden during the weekend, even though Pinch Penny is located about 2 miles away.  Sports Blast is located in an area zoned agricultural, adjacent to the high school and a planned Hindu temple, with a number of residences and apartments nearby.  Given complaints about noise from other beer gardens Monty, Adams and Fritzler expressed concerns about the possible noise coming from the new facility disturbing residents of the area. 

The application contained language indicating the SB planned to play "soft entrance music" for when the bride arrived and exited the ceremony and expected to play music only between 5 p.m and 11 p.m.  However, under the Liquor Code as currently written, beer gardens are exempt from sound level ordinances over the weekend.  Ergo, if the beer garden license passed, the city could do noting legally should Sports Blast play music more loudly than anticipated or past 11 p.m.  When asked if he would include the language regarding time and music constraints as part of the application, making them legally enforceable, Sports Blast demurred, saying they felt it unfair to treat them differently from other beer gardens in the city.  After this, the vote went ahead with Fronabarger, Wissmann and McDainiels voting to approve and, as noted earlier, Fritzler, Adams and Monty voting again (Jack had to recuse himself, due to his ownership of the beer selling Fat Patties).  Wissman and McDaniels made a point of saying they felt it important to encourage business growth as much as possible within the community.

Sports Blast then, upon invitation from the city attorney, had a private discussion with him, and, when they returned to council chambers, announced the company was willing to restrictions as enforceable parts of its application.  The beer garden application went before council again, this time passing unanimously, though Wissmann and McDaniels both made a point of saying they would have preferred to pass the application as originally written.

City Council Meeting

Sat in on part of the city council meeting last night.  Missed the vote on the chicken ordinance but it passed, though with a limit of 20 licensed coops in the city at any one time.  Some of the details from the ordinance:

oops and enclosures must be covered in mesh, and they must be kept dry, clean, odor-free and in a sanitary manner.

- The odor of chicken waste must be contained to the property of the chicken owner. No more than three cubic feet of chicken waste may be stored on property at any one time. Composting of chicken waste is encouraged.

- Coops may not be located in side or front yards, and they must be at least 15 feet from the property line and 25 feet from neighboring residences.

- Coops must have at least 4 square feet of floor space but no more than 40 square feet. They must be at least 5 feet tall, but cannot be taller than 8 feet.

No indication who will handle inspection of the coops.

Discussion of funding of assorted community organizations took up the couple of hours of the meeting, with the main focus on Mayor Fritzler's proposal to pull $120,000 in funding from the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau's and distribute it among other organizations, several of which had apparently been asked in January to present proposals for what they would do with additional funding.  Apprently, cutting the hotel/motel tax was not given consideration.

Councilwoman Jane Adams had a number of questions for Bureau Director Debbie Moore, most of which, of those I caught, concerned the Bureau's website. Adams appeared especially concerned that Moore devoted more time to her personal website than she did to the CCTVB's site and that Moore's website ranked higher in Google rankings than did the Bureau's.  Moore responded that the Bureau's website was under construction and appeared to take offense at Adams' questions regarding her personal website.  It does appear that the current version of the  Bureau's website is fairly recent, as the event calendar shows no events in the area prior to this month and several of the pages (favorite food events, camping, favorite grocery shops) are blank.

Mayor Fritzler cut off Adams' questioning before she had finished, appearing to want to give other council members time to ask questions of the CCTVB.  However, Councilpeople McDaniels, Monty, and Jack, preferred to make comments about the proposed shift in funding from the CCTVB.  All three were opposed, or at least concerned that not enough time had been devoted to the proposal.  Still seems there is acrimony between Fritzler and Jack as both men accused the other of interrupting him.

Several people got up to defend the CCTVB, includingformer mayoral candidate Sam Goldman, CCTVB Board chair Trace Brown (and owner of the Holiday Inn), and the manager of the Super 8, as well as a student in the SIUC Hospitality program, who spent much of his time behind the podium attacking Mayor Fritzler for stating on his official biography that his only goal as mayor was to help SIUC (it's not, you can read the whole thing here), then wanting to strip money away from CCTVB which would harm the Hospitality Management program at SIUC, and the organizer of a Marine reunion in Carbondale last year, who said the CCTVB had been quite helpful in organizing their reunion last year.

A couple of people, including me, got up to say that the CCTVB had not been particularly helpful in putting gone events in Carbondale (I have helped put on annual gaming conventions since the early 90s in Carbondale and have gotten little if any help over the years from the CCTVB, so am likely viewing the CCTVB with a jaundiced eye).  Had to leave soon after that, so am not sure what time the meeting wrapped up.

Fat Patties

Fat Patties now has beer.  The restaurant got every finally set up that week and added three varieties last Thurday:  PBR, Miller Lite and Sam Adams (don't remember which variety).  Lance Jack's plan is to add 3 new beers per week until the restaurant offers a total of twelve, six mass brewed beers and six craft brews.

Whoops!

I don't know how the vote on the liquor ordinance went last night, but made a mistake in yesterday's post in that Lance Jack, due to his holding a liquor license, could not particpate in any of the discussion or vote on any ordinances or issues having to do with liquor.

Liquor Ordinance

Tonight's city council meeting has the revision to the city's liquor ordinance on the agenda.  As proposed, it would allow grocery stores to get a class C2 license, allowing them to sell beer and wine only and not if they have a gas station within 200 feet.  Councilmen Chris Wissmann's comments about the proposed ordinance can be found here and Don Monty's are here.  Councilwoman Jane Adams had this to say  about the ordinance:



We have a lengthy agenda at our meeting Tuesday, but the most important item is an amendment to the City’s liquor ordinance. I think that we have tried your patience with our deliberations, but I hope this is the end or at least the beginning of the end.

We will be considering an amendment that allows the sale of beer and wine in grocery stores. At their July 7 meeting, after addressing comments and questions from the audience, the Liquor Advisory Board voted to recommend the more restrictive and limited sales of beer, wine, and spirits of the two proposals put before them (see my last blog, July 6).

I’ve talked with a lot of people about the issue and have found that most people I’ve spoken with first say they want beer and wine in grocery stores. But as we talk many of them say they would like to be able to buy spirits as well as beer and wine in grocery stores, and they’d like to be able to buy alcoholic beverages in gas station convenience stores, as well.

The amendments before us also require liquor sales in grocery stores to end at 11:00 p.m., rather than 1:59, which is closing time for all other establishments that sell liquor. And it has a lower fee for grocery store licenses than for regular package liquor licenses.

I'm not a big fan of the "grocery store" ordinance as the restriction regarding closeness to gas stations is nonsensical since we have at least three drive up liquor windows in town,  creating another class of licenses adds unneeded bureaucracy,  and not including gas stations just means we will have to reopen the whole thing in another year or so.  I would also like to see the ordinance take effect 6 months to a year after passage to allow currently existing stores time to adjust their product mix.  We currently have 8 liquor stores in town.  Based on the number of liquor only stores in surrounding communities that allow liquor sold in grocery and convenience stores ( only 1 in Murphysboro, 3 in Marion), I'd bet we see 4 of the current stores close up within 5 years after the ordinance is passed. 

Can't be there tonight, but based on their past actions, I expect Mayor Frizler and councilmen Monty and Fronbarger to vote in favor of some form of a revised ordinance and Wissmann to strongly oppose it.  Councilwoman McDaniels has shown little opposition to granting new liquor licenses in the past, so I'd expect her to vote in favor.  Lance Jack and Jane Adams, I'm not certain about.  Both on on record as supporting local businesses as the heart of the community, but given Jack's struggles to get his own liquor license, I don't think he could oppose some other business applying for one. Adams doesn't have  a track record yet, save for voting in favor of liquor licenses for the Icebox and Elite Lounge, though her comments above lead me to think she leans towards a "yes" vote as well.  Ergo, if the vote tonight goes the way I think it will, and the proposal doesn't get tabled for more work, the council votes 6 to 1 in favor with Chris Wissmann the lone opponent.

Fat Patties Licensed

Lance Jack  got the liquor license for his Fat Patties' restaurant renewed last night by a vote of 5-1, with Mayor Fritzler the lone "no" vote. This comment by Jack struck me though:

Jack said getting a license from the state and digging out of a financial hole were his next steps.
"For two years now I have been operating on a less-than-ideal business platform," he said.
Jack said he has taken a loss on his business and taken out loans to stay afloat

Beer and liquor should be a secondary product for the restaurant. If they were going to be an important part of the restaurant's business plan, Jack should have made arrangements to get the license before ever opening Fat Patties.  If the primary product, burgers and sides, is not enough to make the business profitable and was the revenue generator in the original business plan, I'd have serious concerns about the long term viability of the restaurant.

Update:  Councilwoman Jane Adams has posted her comments on last night's vote.

Lance Jack Liquor License

In case you would like to see the city council get moderately frazzled, Lance Jack will apply for his umpteenth time for a liquor license for Fat Patties tonight at 7 at the Civic Center.  Last time the City Council split 3/3, which meant no license.  Hopefully one person has changed their mind since then, as it appears the community really doesn't care if Jack votes on the Liquor Control Commission or not.  They voted him into office knowing he had a liquor license, that it would come up for renewal and that he would have to recuse himself from any liquor decisions.  Yeah, it makes it harder on the council to pass any liquor related issues, or easier to keep liquor licenses from being issued by the city, depending on your point of view, but that's what the voters of Carbondale wanted.

Lance Jack's Liquor License

Lance Jack failed to get the liquor license for Fat Patties renewed at this week's city council meeting, so there will  be a special meeting of the Liquor Control Commission this Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Civic Center.  The Liquor Advisory Board had recommended that all businesses applying for renewal of their licenses, including Fat Patties, be approved.  It appears that Jack, as a result of his position on the city council, was the only license holder not renewed.  Even Kevin Kirkwood's (who had been the target or recent police activity) Icebox Bar and Grille got a license renewal without any difficulty.

Councilwoman Adams points out that the city attorney sees no legal difficulty with Jack serving on city council, he just cannot serve on the Liquor Control Commission:

I have been advised by the City Attorney that he sees no legal problem with Jack serving on Council, though he cannot serve on the Liquor Control Commission. State law, I understand, forbids any liquor license holder from being a liquor commissioner.

Knowing his position, the people of Carbondale elected him to another term on the city council.  it appears they are not concerned with his inability to serve as a LCC member and feel what he has to offer as a council member outweighs being one member short on the LCC.   If there is no other reason for Fat Patties not getting its license renewed, the LAB needs to go ahead and approve it.

Council Meeting

Missed the meeting last night, only getting there in time to talk with Councilman Lance Jack and council candidate Mike Riler afterward (and to get told by city manager Allen Gill that he could not discuss the circumstances regarding Beth Ponce's resignation/administrative leave).  The C'dale Times covered the council but spent all of its space discussing procedural problems during the meeting and the time  spent by Brent Ritzel and Pricilla Pimentel chiding the council for its choice of Lee Fronabarger as the replacement for Joel Fritzler.  Mayor Fritzler's plan to move citizen comments to the end of the meeting lasted all of about five minutes as council decided to put them on the agenda earlier, allowing Ritzel and Pimentel to have their say and not have to sit through the entire meeting.


The Southern, meanwhile, skipped over the Fronabarger discussion, focusing instead on the votes to ban the sale of  bath sales aka synthetic cocaine within city limits and to appoint the city manager as the hearing officer for the Liquor Control Commission.  Both passed, albeit with lots of discussion.

After the meeting,  Mike Riley indicated he planned to attended council meetings on a regular basis in the future, likely setting himself up for another run two years hence, whilst Jack said his attention, for the foreseeable future, was focused on acquiring his long sought liquor license for Fat Pattie's.

Council on Fronabarger

Emailed the city council members asking for their reasoning on the choice for Lee Fronabarger to serve out the remainder of Joel Fritzler's term.  No response from Lance Jack or Corine McDaniels.  Responses from Wissmann and Fritzler were pretty short indicating that the council had discussed the candidates and come to consensus on Fronabarger.

Adams and Monty gave more detailed responses.  Both felt that they had a strong pool of candidates to choose from but the major factors they felt distinguished Fronabarger were twofold:

1.  his service on numerous city committees, both citing his current service on the city's Planning Commission giving him insight into both city and business needs.

2.  his experience and involvement in writing the recently adopted city comprehensive plan.  As the comprehensive plan became an issue in the mayoral election, with various candidates either viewing the plan as an idealistic starting point (Mahoney) or blueprint for future city action (Ritzel), Adams and Monty both felt that Fronabarger's work with the plan would be valuable as the council works to improve the quality of life in Carbondale.

In response to a followup question about lobbying for candidates for the position, no council member reported contact by any member of the community to argue for the appointment of any of the seven people to applied for the position, though several did mention the topic arising in the course of other conversation.  The closest to any active advocating for any council replacement was a letter received by the council for someone who ultimately did not submit an application for the post.

City Council Meeting

Hopefully, the length of last night's meeting was indicative of the new members and mayor getting their footing and not of meetings to come.  Meeting started with the Liquor Control Commission at 7 p.m. which quickly approved, 6-0, a liquor license for the soon to open Premier Lounge on West Jackson. Don Monty probably set the tone for his councilship with several  questions indicating he had looked over the application quite thoroughly, including questioning the capital reserves the business had and the reasoning behind the shift from a business model relying on 100% liquor sales to one deriving 20% of its revenues from food sales.  Newly re-elected councilman Lance Jack was noticeably absent.

Next up was the approval of the Icebox Bar and Grille's application for a A2 license, with requires 51% of sales to come from food.  Both Monty and Jane Adams questioned the applicant, Kevin Kirkwood, closely regarding the application especially about such concerns as parking, funding, the track record of other restaurants at the location and the murders that took place after an event there last fall.  Several people spoke in favor of the application, most from a "give the man a chance" view, while Sandy Litecky of the Arbor District raised concerns about the effect of the business on the nearby neighborhood.  The application passed 3-2, with Chris Wissmann and Corene McDaniels voting against.

Moving onto the regular meeting, Lance Jack arrived and Mayor Fritzler quickly proclaimed this Mental Health Month and Public Works Week and presented a pair of Historic Preservation Awards to two properties on properties on West Walnut.

The consent agenda, which came up next, was the high point of the meeting as Lance Jack asked for individual votes on appointments to boards and commissions and an ordinance approving a right of way license agreement with Delta Communications.  The right of way vote was just to emphasize that fiber optic commissions were coming to Carbondale.  Jack then proceeded to get very hot under the collar about Mayor Fritzler's appointment of Jane Adams to the Carbondale Main Street board, since Jack has been the council representative to Main Street for several years and wanted to know why he had not been re-appointed.  The two men argued for a few minutes with Mayor Fritzler finally summing up his reasoning for Adams' appointment as (and I'm paraphrasing here), "because I wanted to".

The change in the business development plan for the new Goodwill location (moving to the old Rex Video store next to Applebee's) and a couple of rezoning ordinances passed with out any controversy or question, though Don Monty was in his element here, making comments and questioning the applicants about specifications relating to the requests.  He likely added 15 minutes to the length of the meeting with his comments on each property. The man knows his stuff, though it's doubtful he changed the outcome as all three passed 6-0.

Up next were resolutions declaring Fair Days for the Sunset Concerts, Southern Illinois Irish Festival and Neghborhood Co-op Local Harvest Picnic (which, in the interest of disclosure, almost all of the council said they were members of).  Fair Days designation allows the consumption but not sale of alcohol on city property.  These all passed 5-1, with Lance Jack abstaining and Corene McDaniel, as is her wont, voting no.  She made a point of saying her vote wasn't against the events but rather the consumption of alcohol on park property and requested the sponsors of the Sunset Concerts look into making one of the concerts at Turley Park alcohol free.

The other high point of the meeting was the attempt to pas an ordinance authorizing the sale of city property at 709 West Pecan to the owner of adjoining property so she could build a garage.  When making her statement to council, the purchaser rambled on about people speeding down the alley, the cost of removing trees from her property and flooding before getting to her point that she thought the city was asking too much for its property and she did not want to purchase it at that price.  The council, a bit flummoxed, since it thought a deal had been completed, withdrew the ordinance and directed asst. city manager Kevin Baity (who looked really thrilled at the idea) to meet with her and work out a deal.

After citizen and council comments, the council went into closed session for about 2 hours to choose someone to complete Joel Fritzler's unexpired council term.  Tom Grant and Mike Riley, both candidates for council in the last election, along with a reporter from the local TV station, hung around for the two hours to find out the council had not selected either of them, choosing Lee Fronabarger, who also ran in the last election, instead.

Final Results

Here're the final results for today's elections if you want to take a look at them. For all the attention focused on them, voting was down significantly in the mayoral race from the Cole/Simon contest, about 40% by my rough estimation. Apparently the concerns that votes for Haynes and Goldman were votes for Maroney and against Fritzler proved overblown as Fritzler beat Maroney by 8%, indicating that a vote for Goldman would up a vote for Friztler, instead.

Fritzler and the three winners in the city council race, Don Monty, Jane Adams and Lance Jack proved once again that name recognition and a good ground game are hard to beat in politics. Monty and Fritzler about tied in terms of walking neighborhoods and knocking on doors with Adams and Jack not far behind. Fritzler also dumped a significant amount of money into direct mail as the campaign sent out several postcards in the week before the election, compared to one or two from Goldman and none that I saw from the other two candidates.

Looking at the council results, it roughly appears that most voters cast one vote each for Jane Adams and Don Monty,t hen picked a third candidate. Only about 30 votes separate Lance Jack and Tom Grant, indicating Grant's name recognition was almost enough to beat Jack's extensive campaigning. Also indicating the importance of name recognition, Janet Elizabeth Donoghue, who suspended her campaign several weeks ago, beat Candle Wester-Mittan by about 50 votes and Hugh Williams by about 10.

In the other race catching a (comparative) lot of attention, Amy Erickson won a spot on the school board for District 95, due in part to lots of support from residents of the Arbor District, who hosted several "get to know the candidate" meetings with her. Tommy McQueen-Hamilton, who had been canvassing quite a bit in his bid for a seat on the school board and had his campaign literature available at several of the candidate forums, came in last in the field of five.