Concord City Council Race Shaken Up

The Concord City Council races have started to heat up with a number of changes during the last three days of candidates signing up to run.

The most significant revelation was a decision by Ward 4 City Councilor Amanda Grady Sexton on Sept. 12, to re-file and run at-large, two days after receiving a challenge from anti-Bearcat activist and lobbyist, Kevin Bloom.

Grady Sexton said that after talking about it with her husband and knowing that they hoped to have another child at some point, she changed her mind and decided to run at large. The couple and their young son currently live in a condo. If they have a second child soon, they might need to move to a larger home, she said.

“Serving at-large gives us more flexibility with housing options,” she said.

Grady Sexton said her favorite part of serving as councilor was constituent service work and if she wins, she’ll be able to do this “in a larger, broader capacity.” She said she wasn’t shifting races just because she had an opponent, noting that there were two other incumbent councilors running for the two at-large seats.

“I think that one thing that people know is that even though I haven’t had competition, I’ve still run very serious campaigns,” she said of her two previous races. “I love campaigning … I’m looking forward to it even though I know it will be a time commitment and a different type of race.”

Grady Sexton admitted that running at-large is a bit more daunting because it was the entire city but would be running a professional campaign to win one of the seats.

“I’m up for the challenge,” she said.

Bloom said in an interview on Sept. 11, that if Grady Sexton hadn't voted for the armored Bearcat vehicle for the regional SWAT team the city is a member of, he might not have jumped in the race.

“I agree with her on other issues,” he said, adding though that he hasn’t been happy with the increases in property taxes of late.

But Bloom said the passage of the Bearcat showed him that the council “will do other bad things too.” He was happy that four councilors voted against it.

Bloom never considered running for office before during his four years in Concord but after working as a lobbyist at the Statehouse, thought it might be time to contribute.

“People keep telling me it’s hopeless, they’re entrenched, and don’t face opposition,” he said. “But maybe they should.”

Bloom said his slogan is “peace and frugality,” while working on economic development issues, and ensuring that Concord has a “vibrant economy.” He would also like to see the fluoridation level in Concord’s water studied especially after more recent studies and recommendations report that it doesn’t actually protect teeth, he said.

“Some cities have switched to oxidation of the water,” he said. “I’m curious about that. That’s an area I’d like to look in to.”

Also signing up to run on Sept. 12, was Tim Bauman, who is running in Ward 2. Bauman moved to the area six years ago from Wisconsin because he wanted “a new adventure” after working in that state as well as Chicago. After settling into the Primrose Lane neighborhood, he got to meet all of his neighbors but hadn’t spent much time thinking about local politics.

An avid hiker, Bauman has spent a lot of time “out in the woods and on the trails” of Concord and called the system “fantastic.” At the same time, he noted that “just because I enjoy something, doesn’t mean other people should be spending money on it.” Bauman said he was glad that the trails were “minimally maintained,” but not in a negative way.

“It leaves things mostly wild,” he said, “which I like, and it minimizes the expenditures.”

But like Bloom, Bauman said the Bearcat issue “caught my attention,” and said he would have cast a “no.” After watching the proceedings and following the issue, he thought he should get more involved in the political process.

“I thought, I really ought to do something,” he said. “It’s time to do my turn in jury duty, so to speak, to help maintain the quality of the area.”

Bauman, who has worked in commercial property and facility management, as well as a business analyst for the industry, thought the council “might benefit from a broader perspective on things.” Since first thinking about running for council, he has had “meanderings about possibilities” but also wants “to understand everything that is going on first.”

New school board candidate

One new candidate has filed to run for school board during the last three days. 

George Jack, a work-at-home father of two, has filed to run for the District C School Board seat, covering Wards 8, 9, and 10.

Jack said he had been thinking about running and after being one of two potential candidates attending the school board information session on Sept. 11, decided he would.

“After I learned about the seats and the way they changed, I felt like it was a good opportunity to participate on a civic level,” he said.

Jack, who is a published children’s author and comes from a family of educators, said the past few years on the east side had been a bit daunting, with his daughter first attending Eastman, and then moving to Dame, and now, at Broken Ground Elementary School. He said the experience made him realize that he really should find out more about how the schools were being managed. Jack said he was also concerned about proper representation for schoolchildren and parents on the eastern side of the city.

“I’ll be spending time reaching out to people in the community about the future of their schools, to make sure that they feel involved,” he said.

Jack would also like to take his private sector experience – he works in client services for a publishing company – to use analyzing the school’s budget, class sizes, and future birth rates in the city, to make sure the system is as prepared as it can be for the future. He added that he would like to make sure that the future growth of the school budget is at “a smaller rate” and would bring “a level of scrutiny that one brings to business in the private sector” to programs and items the school district pays for.