Simon defeats 4
challengers for mayor
Last minute antics
lead
up to Ketchum election
By GREG
STAHL
Express Staff Writer
Mayor-elect
Ed Simon will assume Ketchum’s top job in January.
Ketchum
voters unofficially cast 518 votes for Simon Tuesday, electing him mayor
by a decisive margin. David Hutchinson, current mayor and runner up,
received 313 votes. Mickey Garcia pulled in 77 votes. Janet Dunbar nabbed
72, and Chase Hamilton won 62.
"I’m
just going whew," said a stunned Simon late Tuesday night. "For
the first time in the campaign, I’m speechless."
Simon,
repeating one of his campaign promises, said he wishes to develop a city
government that is inclusive of its residents.
"I
want it to work like it did during this election, with long lines at the
polls," he said. "I want to encourage all of the people who
actually went out to vote to stay involved. There’s a lot of work to be
done, and it’s going to require a lot of participation."
Among the
first things he said he will pursue after he takes office on Jan. 7 will
be to host a town meeting "so people can express what they want to
see and where they want to go."
Hutchinson
appeared eager to telephone Simon to congratulate him on the win.
"You
win some, you lose some, and you always congratulate the opponent,"
he said. "It doesn’t matter how the game went."
The loss
ends a 16-year record of public service for Hutchinson, who will leave
office at the end of the year.
"I
still have a couple of months left as mayor, and I truly believe in the
priorities we set. I have a tremendous amount of confidence in the city
staff, and some of those goals will be accomplished."
Of Ketchum’s
1,862 registered voters, 1,050, or 56 percent, voted on Tuesday. The
election’s results will be made official Friday when votes are canvassed
at noon at Ketchum City Hall.
Voters
waited in lines that hadn’t been rivaled since a 1992 recall of three
city council members, City Clerk Sandy Cady said. Ironically, perhaps,
Simon was one of the council members ousted in 1992.
For most of
the day, the line of citizens waiting to fill out ballots for mayor and
two city council seats wove from the city’s meeting room, through the
Ketchum City Hall lobby, and occasionally into the cool autumn air
outside..
But apart
from election day news, the final week of campaigning became
confrontational as the weekend drew near. Tempers peaked Friday when a
campaigner for one candidate allegedly attacked a supporter of the
opposition inside the Ketchum Post Office.
The same
week, Ketchum Police Chief Cal Nevland and Simon faced off with pens,
paper and words. And even Councilman Randy Hall, up for re-election in
2003, and Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Peter Gray
stepped up to the plate and penned letters to the editor.
In a letter
printed Oct. 31, Hall dismissed Simon’s claim that being recalled in
1992 was irrelevant to the campaign.
"How
can the recall not be relevant?" he asked. "I believe the best
prediction of the future is to look at the past. In the past, Ed Simon
polarized this community. Nine years later, Mr. Simon is still polarizing
the community with false and negative ads and campaign tactics."
The battle
of letters between Nevland and Simon began when Nevland penned a letter to
voters, postmarked Nov. 2, that denounced Simon’s conduct as a city
councilman that led to his 1992 recall after only 10 months in office.
"This
town deserves better," Nevland wrote.
Nevland’s
letter had barely been delivered before Simon fired back with a letter
sent to 1,000 homes, calling Nevland's charges untrue and announcing he
would be at the Ketchum Post Office between noon and 2 p.m. Monday to
personally talk to voters.
Nevland,
who has been Ketchum’s police chief for 21 years and an officer for nine
years before that, told voters in his letter that Simon and two other
council members recalled in 1992 tried to fire him and other city
employees.
Remembering
the events leading up to Simon’s recall, Nevland wrote, "A calamity
befell our town, events that left Ketchum with a government that turned on
its citizens, ran up huge legal bills for taxpayers to pay, smeared
innocent workers in callous disregard for their rights, held secret
meetings in private homes and, finally, was thrown out of office in a
landslide of disgust."
Simon
countered in a letter dated Nov. 3.
"I do
not wish to look back upon the past, nor to relive the painful events for
all concerned in 1992," he wrote. "I am running for mayor of
Ketchum to bring positive solutions to the problems we all see and live
with every day. I have promised you straight talk and will continue to
bring you only that."
At a Monday
night Ketchum City Council meeting, Ketchum resident Phyllis Shafran
questioned whether the chief of police should air his opinions on the city’s
political matters.
The council
deferred to Nevland, who said he wrote the letter on his own time and at
his own expense.
"I
should have the right to express myself as much as any other person,"
he said. "I probably know the history of Ketchum better than anyone,
and why shouldn’t I be able to put out that information?
"I
thought long and hard about it, and decided it was something I had to do,
and I never misled the citizens of this community."
Answering
to Simon’s rebuttal, Nevland said, "I stand by my letter."