Jim Faris and Michael Reynolds were elected to the Oskaloosa City Council April 7. It was a close race with Reynolds winning the first open council seat with 74 votes, followed by Faris winning the second seat with 73 votes. The third seat was decided by one vote. Mike Boyd won the third seat with 68 votes to Allen Wise's 67 votes. Yes it was that close. Few were of the opinion that one vote doesn't matter after this election.

Being someone that has won their first election, it has left Reynolds and Faris asking "What now?"

One of the things that comes to mind after you have won an election is whether or not you know what you are truly up against. You only have a few vague ideas going in on what you need to do. First, when it comes to getting your berrings you need to know what are some ideas that have been brought up that will be up for a vote once you take office. Where are you on budget? Are there any city or county projects that are needing to be approved or worked on? Do you know how open meetings work? This is the first group of questions that need to be answered before really moving forward.

The last meeting that I attended was the meeting before taking office on May 7th. During that meeting everyone was brought up to speed on what the status of the sewer project and where were we on the city budget so far. It was kind of overwhelming at first glance with the cities budget numbers. Overwhelming in the sense that it was a lot to take in. As far as the sewer project was concerned, the representative of the City Engineer's Office gave the council a long and detailed account of what's been going on with it. To be truthfully honest it was hard on the attention span. However, I have found over the years working with other boards and such that sometimes you will have someone that likes to say things three times over so you understand.

Kansas Open Meetings Act is the bases for all open meetings in the State of Kansas. It talks a lot about what all needs to happen in an open meeting, executive sessions, and what not. I so far have found that if you have this on hand to reference, it is a helpful tool.

I am so excited to get to work. It will be a lot of it, but if you truly wish to serve your fellow neighbors and citizens, you can overcome anything as long as your heart is in the right place.

More to come on this after May 7th!