By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Three newcomers to politics and a veteran city councilmember appear on the St. Joseph municipal primary ballot tomorrow for mayor.
Gary Lewis says the timing seemed right to run for mayor after spending years in health care administration and seeing that Mayor Bill McMurray decided against running for re-election.
“Not really happy with the way things are being done right now,” Lewis tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “So, instead of sitting back and complaining about it, I just decided to go ahead and run for mayor of St. Joe. Didn’t want to do city council. I had people talk to me and, let’s do that route when it first started out. And I said, no, I think I’ve set my sights on mayor and that’s kind of what I kind of want to do and I think I can make some change from that office.”
Lewis describes himself as open, honest, and fair, adding he’s approachable.
“I want to hear ideas from people. I think ideas are our key to success in this town; to change,” Lewis says. “For every 100 ideas you have, probably 90 of them that really aren’t very good. You have five or six of them are okay and you have two or three that are really, really good.”
Also running for office for the first time is Community Action Partnership Executive Director Whitney Lanning, who moved from Kansas City to take a job with St. Joseph Head Start.
“In the time that I’ve been in St. Joe, I’ve had the opportunity to serve on a lot of different local boards and commissions and initiatives and I’ve just seen where this is such a great town with great people in it, but we could do better,” Lannings tells Birr during her appearance on the KFEQ Hotline. “And, I’ve just seen kind of the ways that we’re not focusing on some of the problems that are really apparent.”
Lanning says she wants St. Joseph to assert its regional leadership.
“I understand the role that St. Joseph plays, not just for the people that live here, but the people that live in small, rural towns that use us for many of their day-to-day needs,” Lanning says. “They commute in and out. They shop here. They visit here. We have tourism here. So, what I want them to know is that I’m going to work hard. I am going to stay connected to the people. And I’m not doing this to become a politician. I’m doing this to be a public servant.”
Executive John Josendale has decided to run for mayor after retiring from Wire Rope, saying he remembers growing up in St. Joseph.
“You didn’t have to worry about locking the car or the door or anything. But, we’ve seen that disappear,” Josendale tells Birr on the Hotline. “We were an All-American city. Now, we’ve got crime. We’ve got the infrastructure and I see a lot of problems with the red tape down at city hall. My background in working in different aspects, I think, brings a lot to the table.”
Josendale says he will work with others to move the city forward.
“I don’t want to go in with an agenda, one item,” Josendale says. “You don’t want to go in and say I’m doing this, because you’ve got to listen to everybody and it changes day-to-day. You watch what happens in St. Joe every day. You’ve got to be willing to change your position. You’ve got to willing to listen to what the people say and then do what’s right as a group.”
Gary Wilkinson has returned to St. Joseph after serving as Superintendent of Streets for University City.
Wilkinson served three terms on the St. Joseph City Council and served as Deputy Mayor in the mid-1980s to late 90s.
“I chose to run for mayor for a couple of reasons. I’ve been on the council; been elected to the council three times,” Wilkinson tells Birr on the Hotline. “It’s one of those been there, done that type of things. So I said, I can do that job. I can do the job of mayor. As a matter of fact, I’ve done it before, when I was deputy mayor.”
Wilkinson proposes the city take a pro-active approach to improving the appearance of St. Joseph.
“We have an issue here in the city with our appearance,” according to Wilkinson. “I think that could be something that would help us to take a step forward in that aspect. If the city took charge of all installation and maintenance of sidewalks, curbing, alley ways, I think we would have a better looking city.”
St. Joseph voters will narrow the field to two tomorrow, unless one candidate receives a majority of the votes and is elected outright.