The Emporia Gazette

February 14, 2012

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The “businessman’s ballot” prevailed in Tuesday’s elections for the Emporia City Commission. And that probably means the commission will take a closer look at tax-cutting and commercial development, outgoing City Commissioner Ray Toso said.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt of that when you have three people that are very pro-chamber (of commerce) and the chamber is very pro-commercial development,” said Toso, a 20-year veteran of the commission who chose not to run for re-election this year.

Incumbent Commissioner Bobbie Agler led the way Tuesday night with an unofficial county of 1,850 votes followed by car dealership owner Jeff Longbine with 1,714 votes and departing school board member Kevin Nelson with 1,513. All three are businessmen who live in northwestern Emporia.

Coming aboard

The new commissioners take office April 18. When that happens, it will amount to a rookie revolution — four of the five commissioners will have two years of experience or less.

“I thought I knew an awful lot two years ago,” joked Agler, who came on the commission two years ago. “Thank goodness I knew as much as I did, because there was a lot to learn.”

“It’ll be challenging for them, no question,” Toso said. “It takes a good while to even get a good grip.”

The three election night winners are all astute businessmen, Toso said. But, he added, the city is not a business.

“The only reason we exist is because most of the functions we provide, a business wouldn’t do because it’s not profitable,” he said. “There’s a good-sized learning curve. It takes at least two years to get a real feel for it.”

It should help, he added, that new City Manager Matt Zimmerman will be in place by the time the new commission meets.

“Hopefully, his experience will help them as well — they’ll be able to work together and learn together,” Toso said. “The city commission is supposed to lead the city manager, but it’s really a dual relationship. Everyone has to work together.”

And while the new commission may want to cut taxes and focus on commercial recruitment, Toso said, both those things may be easier said than done.

“Everyone wants to cut taxes, but our tax base is eroding,” he said. He pointed to the state’s decision to eliminate taxes on new machinery and equipment, a category that makes up about 17 percent of the city’s tax base.

“When you lose that tax base and you still have an aging infrastructure and the needs of the community, they may find it’s a little more difficult (to cut taxes) than they had originally envisioned,” Toso said.

As far as commercial development, he said, it’s easy to put the cart before the horse.

“I still think you need to develop the jobs to get people who can buy at the commercial development you get,” Toso said. “I still think good jobs need to come first and commercial development will follow.

At the polls

Election night brought an end to a 14-year run for City Commissioner Tom Myers, who finished fourth with 1,161 votes. During his time on the commission, Myers had been especially active in social issues such as domestic violence and housing conditions.

“Oh, Tom,” Agler said, patting him lightly on the back as the two watched the last results come in at the Lyon County Courthouse. “Tom, it isn’t going to be the same.”

“Well, my cardiologist approves,” Myers joked.

Political activist Phil Dillon finished fifth with 1,041 votes while Jesse Solis, who owns Elbert Liquor Store and Solis & Solis Security, brought up the tail end with 1,030.

“I think one of the things I’ve seen is that it really takes a lot to overcome inertia,” said Dillon, who intends to continue working on local issues at a grass-roots level. “But also, you get to a point where you think ‘I must be the only guy thinking this.’ But when you get on the stump, you see there’s others that understand.”

He said this morning that he would be organizing a “Coalition of the disillusioned, disappointed and disenfranchised” through his Web site.

“The issues didn’t go away because of the election results,” Dillon said. “They’re going to be more prominent now.”

Solis was not available for comment.

Getting ready

Agler said he was impressed with how much information was available to the voters, adding that they seemed to be looking at preparation more than personalities this year.

“I think this time, people really wanted to know what you believed in, whether you had done your homework and had a foundation for what you were talking about,” Agler said.

Longbine, who also chairs the Regional Development Association board, said he was pleased with the results and eager to get to work.

“I’m one of those guys who doesn’t have a lot of down time and I don’t really want a lot of down time,” he said. “It feels like I’ve always got to have a project or something to do.”

Longbine and others saw it as a positive race, but not a boring one. There was plenty of debate, but no rancor.

“The thing that I know I’ve appreciated most is that people have different views, different ideas on how to get to the common goal,” Longbine said.

Nelson had planned on spending election night at home with his family rather than watching the tally at the courthouse. Then he found out his family didn’t want to stay home.

“We got to talking about it and the kids were interested,” said Nelson, who came with his wife Lori, their 11-year-old son Nicholas and their 7-year-old daughter Reagan. “So we thought we’d check it out.”

A four-year veteran of the Emporia school board, Nelson said that his city campaign required him to study a much wider scope of issues. But of all of them, he said, the first priority would be to forge a good working relationship with new City Manager Matt Zimmerman.

“We need to get to know our city manager, what’s his background and where does he want to take the city,” Nelson said.

End of the line

Myers took his defeat in stride. He is the first incumbent city commissioner in more than 10 years to lose a bid for re-election.

“Well, the good news is, now I can make a book deal,” he said with a chuckle. “The important thing is we’ve got good candidates in the race. No matter which three of the six of us get a seat at the table, the city’s going to be just fine. That’s the important part.”

The hardest thing about this election, Myers said, was letting the public know the good things the city had done.

“It’s hard to combat misinformation or mis-impressions,” Myers said. “For instance, the budget situation we were in, I thought it was probably not well understood. It probably wasn’t understood about the budget cuts and other cutting we did to keep from raising the mill levy. The mill levy actually declined. But it’s hard to explain that in a minute or two at a forum or a short written form without sounding defensive.”

It’s been good to be able to give back to the city, he said. But leaving office is not the end of the world.

“I’ve got alternative methods of paying my light bill,” he said, grinning. “It’s a sub-minimum wage part-time job, after all. And some would say we’re worth nearly every penny of it.”