Jamestown City Council President Tony Dolce recognized at Council’s final meeting of 2021 the three Council Members whose terms are ending December 31.
Dolce said when the term started January 1, 2020 with the first new mayor and administration in 20 years, no one realized that the COVID Pandemic would overshadow everything, “The COVID virus also touched all of our city departments as well as us personally on this council. Through it all, we continued to work on city business the best we could and stay as open and transparent as possible by livestreaming all of our meetings and changing up our meeting spaces when given the opportunity to come to this building to meet in person. This council also had to endure the tragic loss of one of our longtime members this past year with the sudden passing of Councilwoman Vickye James.”
Dolce said highlights of the last two years include the Public Safety Committee’s work on police reform and the Finance Committee’s work on two challenging budgets.
He also publicly acknowledged the council members not returning in 2022, “Councilman Grant Olson, who is not here this evening, has served on our Public Works committee as well as a member of the BPU Board. Councilwoman Tamu Graham-Reinhardt, who has served on our Public Safety committee, and has been an integral part of our Police Reform committee as well as a strong advocate for minority owned and women owned businesses. Councilman Tom Nelson, who has served as Chair of the Public Works committee and is also chair of Council’s ad hoc Deer Management committee and also a member of the Planning Commission.”
Council member at large Tamu Graham-Reinhardt did not run for another term, while Ward 6 Council member Tom Nelson was defeated in his run for re-election by Republican Andrew Faulkner. Nelson said it was an honor to serve for the last 6 years and he was disappointed to not be returning for another term, “Being on the Council has been a great experience. It’s made me more appreciative of what local governments do. I don’t think the average citizen understands the hard work and dedication of all of our men and women who work in our police and fire, parks, public works departments, department of development. It’s made me appreciate the hard work of the people who lead those departments.”
Graham-Reinhardt thanked Council member Kim Ecklund for her guidance after she was first appointed in 2017, “All politics are local and everyone up here is here to do the best that they can for the residents and the taxpayers and the people who live in this town. And I think we’ve done the best of our ability. We have not agreed and the public has not agreed with us, and that’s understandable, but we’ve had to make decisions that felt in the long run were going to benefit the residents of Jamestown.”
Ward 5 Council member Grant Olson announced in September he would not seek another term, but still won that race as it was too late to remove his name from the election ballot. No announcement has been made at this time on who Mayor Eddie Sundquist will appoint to replace him on Council.
The reorganizational meeting for Jamestown City Council will be held at 7pm, Monday, January 3 in Council Chambers.
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