I want to make something akin to a campaign endorsement, which isn’t the style of this blog — but I do believe the time is appropriate.

The Amarillo City Council is staging an election on May 6. Under the city charter, all five seats are on the ballot. All council members run at-large; they all represent the entire city. Their jurisdictions are identical, as is their political clout; that includes the mayor, in the strictest of senses.

We’re going to welcome three newbies to the council when all the ballots are counted. They are the mayor and whoever is elected to Places 2 and 3.

My choice for mayor is Ginger Nelson, a bona fide big hitter. She’s a successful lawyer, a downtown building owner and is a former member of the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation. She enjoys the support of business and civic leaders throughout the city.

I’ve talked about her at length already on this blog. She will get my vote on May 6.

My favorite for Place 2 is Freda Powell, who won the endorsement of the council member she seeks to succeed. Lisa Blake won’t seek a full term as councilwoman after being appointed to succeed Dr. Brian Eades, who had been re-elected in 2015 but who moved away the following year.

I don’t know Powell well, but I do know her to be a conscientious, civic-minded resident who will bring the kind of steady hand that Blake used during her time on the council.

The third seat worth mentioning here is Place 3. The incumbent, Randy Burkett, isn’t seeking another term, either. Eddy Sauer is the clear choice to succeed the council’s gadfly in chief, except that Sauer — a successful Amarillo dentist — is far from the Burkett mold of rabble-rouser.

I do not know Sauer, but he — like Nelson and Powell — is being touted heavily by many individuals and groups in Amarillo with whom I am quite familiar and for whom I have great respect.

My sense is that Elisha Demerson will return in Place 1 and that Mark Nair will get the nod in Place 4. Those two joined Burkett in comprising the new majority on the City Council after the election two years ago. But unlike Burkett, they have managed to govern with a quieter effectiveness.

Amarillo’s gadfly quotient needs to be reduced and my hope is that it will with Burkett out of the picture.

I see a potential for a return to a saner municipal government, one that doesn’t get all riled up over matters relating to, um, personality conflicts — which was the case on occasion when Burkett would butt heads with lame-duck Mayor Paul Harpole, who is bowing out.

The city has made some tremendous strides in recent years, even pre-dating the election two years of those three aforementioned “change agents,” Burkett, Nair and Demerson. Our city’s economic base continues to grow and our downtown district is in the midst of a major makeover that — when it’s completed — well could trigger a tremendous boost in our city’s quality of life and economic health.

We don’t pay our City Council members much money to serve, not at $10 per meeting. You do this as a labor of love. Nothing more.

Amarillo is poised to restore a brand of good government at City Hall. It can regain its leadership footing. My hope is that the city’s voters will respond the right way.