Anyway, some folks have emnailed me with additional info from the 5/10/10 council meeting where Jim Neighbor was appointed to fill Cheryl Scott's position. Remember that Monday July 9th the council will vote on a replacement for David Morris.
From Mickey Sandifer
Councilmember Sandifer stated in regards to the election, they have a sitting City Councilman who has been eight (8) years on the Council and in his previous elections had won by 300 or 400 votes. He stated there was a citizen that came out of nowhere and ran against him and came within 88 votes of taking him out of office, which tells him to some degree that the people have spoken and this man received 649 votes.
Note: Mike Kemmling did alot better than that in his recent challenge to Neal Sawyer
From Jeff Vaught
Councilmember Vaught replied he thinks what he said was that it would be hard for him not to support a guy who received 200 more votes than him. He stated obviously the people in Ward I like him. He asked if that was him saying that regards to who else gets in the running, that is who he is voting for, no, but at that time in his position, there is a guy who received 200 more votes that he did and was pretty strong. He stated he knows what he went through to get onto the Council.
Councilmember Vaught stated he finds something interesting in what Mr. Straub said, in that they do have five candidates and while none of them ran for Councilmember Pflumm’s seat, Cheryl Scott’s seat’s election was only two years ago and no one asked them why they did not run two years ago, so maybe they should have all asked that question, because all of the candidates have lived in this community for a considerable amount of time, so why did not anyone run against Cheryl two years ago.
Councilmember Vaught stated he thinks Jim did a heck of job campaigning and got more votes than he did in the election, obviously 640-some people in Ward I like him and he will go back to nobody else seemed to want to run when this seat was open and nobody ran two years ago when Cheryl was up for election, so based on that he will vote aye.
And then when asked why he should be appointed, Mr. Neighbor said:
JIM NEIGHBOR stated in addition to the meetings mentioned, since the filing deadline in January, he has walked door to door meeting his Ward I members in each of the 11 precincts. They have talked about what they want to have happen in Shawnee over the next two years and he wants to be their voice.
JIM NEIGHBOR replied that is a tough question. He stated he would have to say someone with better qualifications, perhaps better experience, and one who knows the ward better than him from the walking he did, have contact with the people – just an overall understanding. He stated he made a tremendous effort over the last six months to learn about this process and what is involved and understands the learning has been very steep and if elected would get even steeper.
These comments would all seem to apply to Mike Kemmling this year..................
