Despite familiar faces filling the newly elected Ketchum City Council seats and the mayor's office, a sense of change is in the air.
Council President Randy Hall was decisively elected the city's new mayor in Tuesday's election.
Councilman Ron Parsons was for the first time elected to political office, having been appointed to positions on the Planning & Zoning Commission and City Council.
Incumbent Councilman Baird Gourlay secured another four-year term. As the council candidate with the highest number of votes, 698, he embarks on another term with a resounding vote of confidence from the public.
Gourlay and Parsons often campaigned for and with each other, and in their six months on the council together they have agreed on many issues.
The two councilmen and Mayor-elect Hall, in an apparent display of solidarity, celebrated their success together on election night.
In addition, the fourth member of the current council, Councilwoman Terry Tracy, who was not up for re-election this cycle, had endorsed Hall for mayor prior to the election.
While the makeup of the governing body taking office in January will not bring a variety of new faces, it almost certainly will usher in a new dynamic. Hall will move to the mayor's seat and seemingly will have the general support of Gourlay, Parsons and Tracy, as well as a new council appointee he will choose to fill his former seat.
Neither Hall nor outgoing Mayor Ed Simon publicly commented on the battles between them over the last 18 months that resulted in lawsuits, mediation and the occasional outburst at council meetings. But their rivalry was well established.
Despite troubled interpersonal relationships among council members and the mayor, the city in the past year reached several milestones.
The Wood River Community YMCA received final approval in September for an 84,000-square-foot recreational facility that will be built at the corner of Warm Springs and Saddle roads, on the city's Park and Ride lot.
The council also approved a detailed development agreement for the Simplot lot, near downtown. The 3.8-acre, two-block parcel northwest of the Ketchum Post Office is slated to be developed with a mix of commercial, cultural and residential structures.
Hall voted against the Simplot planned unit development, saying the value the city gave the landowner—mainly in public land platted as city streets—doesn't equal the value the developer is giving back to the city.
Simon this summer cast the tie-breaking vote to approve the general fund budget at $9,080,784 for fiscal year 2005-2006.
Gourlay and Parsons voted to approve the budget, while Councilwoman Terry Tracy and Hall voted against it.
The city on Oct. 11 enacted a 182-day moratorium on some residential development in the commercial core. The resolution was unanimously passed and was supported by Simon, who as mayor votes only in case of a tie.
Come January, the mayor and council will undoubtedly face more weighty issues.
"We have a lot of things going on," Parsons said. "The downtown task force and the downtown master plan ... transportation and housing. These are some of the big ticket items."
The downtown master plan, being formulated in conjunction with a moratorium in the commercial core, will likely capture much of the City Council's attention over the next year.
"Randy (Hall) knows he needs to help the council be successful," Parsons said. "He knows he needs to create an environment where we will be successful. Baird (Gourlay) will be one of the strengths of the council. And Terry (Tracy) has been there a lot of years. There's good experience there."
"I'm very optimistic," he added. "We have really good department heads. On that level things are flowing nicely. There are no personnel issues at all. That takes some of the pressure off ... and frees us up to do other stuff."
The public should be a part of the process, Parsons said.
"I hope a lot of people give a hand," he said. "Hopefully, people won't be shy and they'll give us ideas. I'm really hoping they show up to meetings because the mayor and council don't have all the answers."
Parsons said he looks forward to tacking the multiple challenges facing the city.
"If a year from now we're still kicking the tires, I'll be disappointed," Parsons said. "People expect us to get things done, and so do I."
Claiming a "trifecta" with their wins in Tuesday's election, Ketchum City Councilmen Baird Gourlay, left, and Ron Parsons, right, congratulate Council President Randy Hall on his election as the next mayor of Ketchum. Photo by Willy Cook
