Been musing on the choice of Lee Fronabarger to fill out Joel Fritzler's term on the city council. I've asked several of the city council members for their reasoning and will comment on them later. What follows is solely my reasoning.
According to the city's website, a total of seven people turned in letters of interest in the position:
Jessica Bradshaw, Priciliano Fabian, Carl R. Flowers, Lee M. Fronabarger, Thomas Grant, Navreet Kang, and Mike Riley..
Of the seven, four--Bradshaw, Grant, Riley and Fronabarger--ran in the election. Of the others, Fabian is a sophomore at SIUC and apparently active on campus but with no indication of city civic activity. Kang chairs the city planning commission while Flowers serves on the Carbondale Park District board. If I was on city council, I'd eliminate these three from selection simply because they did not run. Bypassing the four people who did run in favor of one of the three who did not would send a negative message so shortly after the election. (I have the same problem with Sheila Simon getting the nod for lt. governor in the last statewide election).
Looking at the four that ran, though both Riley and Bradshaw have been involved in Carbondale as buisnesspeople, neither has a track record of civic activity that I can find. Grant worked for the city as building and services neighborhood services manager for 15 years and would bring a wealth of experience in those areas to the council while Fronabarger has served on a number of city committees including the aquatic center and planning commission. Betwix the two of them, I would have picked Grant because of the experience with city operations he brought to the table, plus his razor thin finish behind Lance Jack in the election. However, he has not been particularity active in city affairs since his termination in 2009, while Fronabarger has, which may have caused the council to choose him, that and the diverse views he can bring to city government a a result of his service upon various committees..
According to the city's website, a total of seven people turned in letters of interest in the position:
Jessica Bradshaw, Priciliano Fabian, Carl R. Flowers, Lee M. Fronabarger, Thomas Grant, Navreet Kang, and Mike Riley..
Of the seven, four--Bradshaw, Grant, Riley and Fronabarger--ran in the election. Of the others, Fabian is a sophomore at SIUC and apparently active on campus but with no indication of city civic activity. Kang chairs the city planning commission while Flowers serves on the Carbondale Park District board. If I was on city council, I'd eliminate these three from selection simply because they did not run. Bypassing the four people who did run in favor of one of the three who did not would send a negative message so shortly after the election. (I have the same problem with Sheila Simon getting the nod for lt. governor in the last statewide election).
Looking at the four that ran, though both Riley and Bradshaw have been involved in Carbondale as buisnesspeople, neither has a track record of civic activity that I can find. Grant worked for the city as building and services neighborhood services manager for 15 years and would bring a wealth of experience in those areas to the council while Fronabarger has served on a number of city committees including the aquatic center and planning commission. Betwix the two of them, I would have picked Grant because of the experience with city operations he brought to the table, plus his razor thin finish behind Lance Jack in the election. However, he has not been particularity active in city affairs since his termination in 2009, while Fronabarger has, which may have caused the council to choose him, that and the diverse views he can bring to city government a a result of his service upon various committees..
I voted for Fronabarger and not for Grant. I'm annoyed that the city council didn't listen to the people. They should have appointed Grant.
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