Two Athens incumbent City Council members announced at the beginning of January that they will not be running again in the next election.
Other community members, such as Ben Ziff, a manager at Donkey Coffee, have expressed their interest in running.
On Jan. 9, Councilman Peter Kotses, D-At Large, posted on Facebook he will not be running for re-election.
“Internally this decision has been known for a little while, and I see the usual names being thrown around for consideration,” Kotses wrote in his Facebook post.
Kotses said his reasons for stepping down largely revolve around wanting to help his community in a more direct manner. He said he is considering working with nonprofits to see how he could be of service there.
On the same day, Councilwoman Arian Smedley, D-1st Ward, also announced her intention to step down from her position on Council.
“With graduate school now in the rear view mirror, a healthy growing infant to care for, and an incredibly fulfilling role at the ACBDD (my day job),” Smedley said on Facebook, “I must put public office on the back burner. As much as I have enjoyed this experience, I am looking forward to scaling back a bit.”
With two seats open, Ziff made an announcement on Facebook that he would be running for the newly-opened At-Large City Council seat as a Democrat.
“I like to think that I would make a very good quality candidate for City Council because of my very varied background of work experience as the theater electrician, as a paramedic in an emergency department, as a barista and a manager in a coffee shop,” Ziff said. “I think that through those things, I'm able to bring a very, hopefully, refreshing point of view to City Council being someone who's newly into their 30s, who is a renter, who is in the service industry. We don’t have any of that in City Council right now.”
Ziff is not the only one who believes he may be able to offer a new perspective.
“What I like about Ben is that he comes from a customer service background,” Kotses said. “He would be able to bring forward what it's like to work with the public in that fashion … and also, what it takes to live on that on that kind of salary.”
Ziff said his goals are simply to listen to his constituents, should he be elected. He is trying to avoid going into the election with an agenda of things he wants to do, because he sees a council member’s main job as listening to the public.
Following Ziff’s Facebook announcement to run for City Council, he received many messages of support and encouragement. Around 70 households in 24 hours messaged him in regards to giving signatures, Ziff said. He has successfully submitted all the signatures and is now on the primary election list as a candidate.
“I've lived here pretty much my whole life,” Ziff said. “I have a huge love for this town, a huge love. It's been incredibly kind to me. I've tried to be kind to it — I hope I have been. And I feel like it's a really great way for me to be able to try and give back with some of my time and parts of my life, to do my best to make things a little better, hopefully.”
