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Rochester, MN's local news source.
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Politics
Winning challengers say council, mayor weren't listening
11/4/2009 9:25:29 AM
By Laura Horihan
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN
RUSHFORD -- Voters tossed out all three incumbents in Tuesday's mayoral and council election in Rushford.
| Other elections
Pine Island School Board (three seats) Jeff Leland, 125 Randy DePestel (incumbent), 100 Janet Szanjer (incumbent), 90 Blooming Prairie School Board (four seats) Rodney Krell (incumbent) 994 Linda Kaplan, 944 Ronald Janning, 864 Jamie Bodenstab, 792 Goodhue School Board (three seats) Brian Shafer, 314 Mike Kehren (incumbent) 305 Michelle Goodman, 221 Wayne Hahn, 130 |
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With three new council members, Hallum plans to start setting goals for the new roster.
Vernon Bunke and Mark Honsey won the most votes for the four-year council term, 358 and 317, respectively. Roger Colbenson received 292 votes, and incumbent James Wolter received 283 votes.
Ted Robertson defeated incumbent Nancy Benson 461-219 for the two-year council term.
Hallum and Bunke said Tuesday night that the city council had not been listening to its constituents.
"The lesson here is that if you don't listen to citizens, you will be voted out," Hallum said.
He said his top three objectives as mayor will be to listen to good advice, explore opportunities and control spending.
"City hall didn't appear to be saving money for Rushford," Hallum said.
According to media reports, several city council challengers cited Rushford City Administrator Windy Block as the source of the communication problem and hinted that they'd like him to quit. Neither Hallum nor Bunke would comment.
Ladewig congratulated the winners.
"I'm not ashamed of what we've done over the past two years," Ladewig said. "I hope they can continue pick up the pieces so Rushford can move forward."
Bunke said improving communications between city hall and the community would be his No. 1 goal as a council member.
"I want to thank everyone for the work they've done," Bunke said. "We went through a really bad thing with that flood. The people at city hall do deserve our thanks for their efforts."
