Athens City Council will be looking a little different in the upcoming months. City Council is holding its election May 6 and three of the nine current members have decided not to run again. The seats for Ward 1, Ward 2 and council president will all be open for new faces or current members to take their place.
Early voting for the Primary Election takes place at the Athens County Board of Elections Office at 15 S. Court St. in room 130 starting April 8. Hours can be viewed online at the Board of Elections website. Polls are open May 6 for voting from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Ward 1 currently has three candidates running for the seat currently held by Solveig Spjeldnes. Spjeldnes has been a member of the council since 2021 and said her decision to step down was due to her desire to do more around the community.
“I’m really interested in housing issues, workforce issues, trying to help with small businesses,” Spjeldnes said. “I feel as though it’s time for me to focus on the things I’m most interested in tackling.”
When she’s done serving on City Council, Spjeldnes said her extra time will be used for activist work which she believes is vitally important in America’s current political state.
“I am very disturbed by decisions being made by the Trump administration,” Spjeldnes said. “I want to become far more involved with activist activities to convince the administration to take another turn.”
The other seat up for grabs is Ward 2 where a political newcomer, John Staser, is running uncontested. The seat is currently held by Jeff Risner who has held the position for six terms, or 12 years, and felt that his time at City Council has reached an end.
“I believe in term limits for one thing,” Risner said. “I’m 73 now, getting older, and there are other things I’d like to do while I still have time to do it.”
Micah McCarey, a current Councilmember At-Large, is running unopposed for the open seat of council president. McCarey has previous campaign experience running for House District 95, and current President Sam Crowl believes he will be a good fit for the position.
“He has the type of demeanor who I think fits very well in the role,” Crowl said. “He also is a very intelligent man, so I think he brings a lot to the table and so when I discussed with him my plans not to run I really encouraged him to run.”
Crowl said his decision not to run was due to his desire to spend more time with his family and focus on his other responsibilities. He said he was also frustrated by the amount of political turmoil across the country and how federal or state jurisdiction would affect Athens City legislation such as the plastic bag ban.
“There’s a fair amount of stress and criticism and difficult situations that you really have to be prepared for if you want to be involved at this level,” Crowl said. “Personally, I’d like to have a little bit more of my time back and be able to spend more time with my family and not be consistently stressed out about things.”
Crowl said people do not always realize it takes a large amount of time and commitment to serve as a council person. Along with the public meetings Monday nights, there is also a lot of other work that goes on behind the scenes that can be very time-consuming.
Risner said before he became a council member he didn’t realize how much time and energy he was dedicating.
“When I first ran, the county chair told me ‘Oh, it’s only a couple hours a week, no problem, anyone can do it,’” Risner said. “It’s a lot more than two hours a week. You have your regular sessions, and then you have your committee sessions and then you’re on other committees that have to meet sometime during the week.”
If there’s anything he regrets about his time on council, Risner said it would be that he didn’t acquire any benefits for council members especially because of the commitment it takes. He said if a role on City Council provided things such as health care it might encourage more young people, or even students, to get involved with local politics.
“Council is terribly underpaid for the importance of the work we do,” Risner said. “And we need younger people on council; once upon a time we used to have students who ran for council.”
When asked if he had any advice for future council members, Risner said it takes time to adjust, so make sure to put in effort at the beginning to understand how City Council really works.
“For your first year at least, you’re learning,” Risner said. “You gotta give yourself some time to really figure it all out because there’s no school to teach you how to behave as a council person.”
