by Chris West

Last week was a busy week at City Hall. After months of campaigning we selected 3 new City Council Reps. I, myself wasn’t selected to be one of them, but that didn’t change what was going to happen in our city. Whether they will follow through on campaign promises and really be a benefit to our city is yet to be seen.

The very next day the Council picked a new mayor. About time too. Mayor Larsen resigned back in September (for reasons still being disputed) and it took almost 2 months to fill the spot. However, in the end Richard Woodland from the current City Council was chosen and appointed on a 5-1 vote. How it came to this has been the subject to much dispute.

Why didn’t we just elect a new one, you might ask. Well for some odd reason, Larsen resigned 5 days after the ballot closed for the election. So by law, it was too late. This left it up to the Council. So instead of just nominating who they thought would be best and then voting on them (which they did in the end anyway), they decided to treat it like a job and have people apply to it. As weird as that is, they did it. It took about 3 weeks and overlapped an election to boot.

At last Wednesday’s meeting there were many Donna Benfield supporters. Having won the most votes the night previous for the City Council election

and coming within 150 or so votes 2 years ago against Larsen, they all thought that she was the one for the job. So as the vote to appoint Woodland as mayor seemed closer to happening many of the Benfield supporters grew irritated. Some muttering profanity, visually showing their emotions and audible boos came from them. Forgetting that all of this was done within the laws of our land and that this was the way it was to happen, they still acted out of line against the Council. Maybe they should have taken a lesson from their leader, Benfield. I feel she is humble enough to accept the voter’s voice and serve no matter what position she is in.

So while there may be some out there that think that this new appointment was yet another example of corruptness in City Hall, I believe it was all done legally and with the best interests of the city at heart.

I stand to be sure that all is done legally and with integrity at City Hall. As I update this column weekly, I hope to bring to the attention of all Rexburg residents of the issues at hand and the opinions of our elected officials. After all, they serve us. Let’s be sure that they are actually working that way too.