{"id":19844,"date":"2017-02-18T02:39:15","date_gmt":"2017-02-18T02:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=19844"},"modified":"2017-02-18T02:40:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-18T02:40:12","slug":"city-faces-second-straight-change-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=19844","title":{"rendered":"City faces second straight ‘change’ election"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Amarillo voters opted for “change” when they cast votes for their City Council in 2015.<\/p>\n

Three new guys got elected to the council two years ago, giving the body a new majority.<\/p>\n

Guess what, folks. The city is setting up for its second straight “change” election this coming May. The context is a bit different than the 2015 earthquake, but it’s fascinating in the extreme nevertheless.<\/p>\n

Word came out today that one of the “change agents,” Councilman Randy Burkett, has decided against seeking re-election. From my vantage point, City Hall won’t miss him.<\/p>\n

Burkett becomes the third incumbent to forgo another go on the council. Councilwoman Lisa Blake, appointed to succeed former Councilman Brian Eades, won’t seek election. And then there’s the mayor, Paul Harpole, who has decided to call it a public service career.<\/p>\n

What I see shaping up is a City Council that will be a\u00a0more functional and collegial body, now that Burkett has decided to bow out.<\/p>\n

Ginger Nelson appears to be the prohibitive favorite to be elected mayor. That would be a good thing for the city.<\/p>\n

Elisha Demerson and Mark Nair — the other two newbies who got elected in 2015 — are seeking re-election to their seats.<\/p>\n

Blake endorsed Freda Powell to succeed her in Place 2. From what I’ve observed of Powell over the years, she would add a great, fresh new voice to the council.<\/p>\n

Burkett’s Place 3 seat well might be filled by Eddie Sauer, an Amarillo dentist apparently with many friends within the city’s business community.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, two of the three new council members defeated incumbents; this year, three new council members will succeed incumbents who are\u00a0bowing out voluntarily.<\/p>\n

Despite the differing circumstances, the city is facing its second consecutive “change election.”<\/p>\n

I have been a longtime supporter of Mayor Harpole, but I believe the city is poised to welcome a strong new presiding officer on its council, assuming that it’s Ginger Nelson.<\/p>\n

I don’t know Lisa Blake well, but I’ve been impressed by her own commitment to the city and hope she returns to the arena eventually.<\/p>\n

Demerson and Nair have done fine in their first term as council members. I trust they’ll continue to grow and learn as they work with a\u00a0city administration led by City Manager Jared Miller.<\/p>\n

As for Burkett — a social media gadfly and occasional loudmouth who’s argued openly with Harpole about city policy — his “contribution” won’t be missed. I’ll concede that my knowledge of Burkett lies only in what I’ve read in local media reporting of his antics.<\/p>\n

If his successor is Eddie Sauer, then I have a good bit of faith that the city will be served well.<\/p>\n

Can we handle a second straight “change election”? Sure we can.<\/p>\n\n

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Amarillo voters opted for “change” when they cast votes for their City Council in 2015. Three new guys got elected to the council two years ago, giving the body a new majority. Guess what, folks. The city is setting up for its second straight “change” election this coming May. The context is a bit different … Continue reading City faces second straight ‘change’ election<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[288,290,3519],"class_list":["post-19844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-political-news","tag-amarillo-city-council","tag-amarillo-city-hall","tag-paul-harpole"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19844"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19847,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19844\/revisions\/19847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}