Donald Boerger will serve as Marysville council’s president and the city’s mayor.
Boerger told the other council members that being elected president and mayor is “one of the greatest honors in my personal life.”
He said he is very passionate and determined.
Boerger said he has a plan for the city.
“When I do take over the meeting in the next meeting, I will have a speech prepared as a president of what I would like to see moving forward and how we are going to guide public policy moving forward,” he told his fellow council members. “I am looking forward to working with every single one of you to execute those policies and creating master plans and moving our community in a direction that prepares us for the next 20, 30, 40 years down the road.”
He added that “people in this community overwhelmingly support the ideas and the wants that I have voiced for the last four years.”
Zach Bordner, one of three newly-elected council members, nominated Boerger during the reorganizational portion of Monday’s meeting. Boerger was the only incumbent city council member reelected in November.
Bordner and Boerger, along with new members Steven Wolfe and Scott Hunter, and council member Henk Berbee voted for Boerger.
Council members Mark Reams and J.R. Rausch voted for Rausch.
Berbee was unanimously named vice president of council. Berbee explained that he had agreed to support Boerger with the understanding that Boerger would appoint him to the city’s finance committee.
“I told him it would be an honor to work with you,” Berbee said.
Berbee told Boerger that one of the most rewarding parts of serving as mayor is participating in semi-monthly executive staff meetings.
Emery congratulated the new president and told him the meetings are “a good opportunity to meet with our executive team.”
Boerger said it was the actions of the other sitting council members and prior council members that “really has led residents to want to engage in our political process and want to run for city council and become a voice.”
He told the new council members that “not that long ago… we all were in your shoes as new council members.”
“It is a learning curve,” Boerger said. “Ask a lot of questions and just be true to yourself and who you are.”
Boerger told the new council members, who along with Boerger represent the city’s four wards, that
“it doesn’t matter where you live in this community, what neighborhood you live in, I think all three of you have heard the same stories I have heard. Change is necessary and it is needed.”
Boerger said he hopes council will be able to work together, even though they won’t always agree.
“The true level of character someone has is how they treat others,” Boerger said. “There are going to be times when we are not going to agree and there is times we are going to agree, but hopefully there is always a level of respect in all of us that we keep guiding Marysville in the right direction.”
Berbee said his time as mayor and council president “has definitely been an honor.”
He told the council that nothing gives him more pleasure than mentoring others then allowing others to make the best decisions.
Berbee took the opportunity to announce that he would not seek reelection next year. Rausch raised his hand to say he also would not seek reelection next year.
He congratulated the new council members, as did each of the other at-large council members.
Emery said that even though their official terms didn’t start till Monday, the new council members have been busy in meetings since winning their seats in November.
“You guys have hit it head on,” Emery said.
Rausch acknowledged it can be overwhelming at times, but told the new members to rely on staff and other council members as a resource.
Bordner said serving on council is “the highlight of my life right now.”
Hunter agreed, saying he loves Marysville, but there is work to do. He said that in talking to residents there is concern about “growth which doesn’t account for long-term success,” as well as “sustainability of our city as we know it,” property maintenance standards, quality of growth and decisions that do not take other entities like the school district into account.
“Our residents aren’t satisfied and they want better,” Hunter said.
He said he is not pro-growth or anti-growth but will advocate for responsible growth and for “executing planning with a degree of excellence that our residents expect from us as elected leaders.”