City, county install new members, elect officers

New city councilors and county board supervisors on Tuesday were officially seated — most of them anyway.

On the city council, three new members joined the line up after five city council seats came up for re-election. Councilors Dan Olson, Warren Bender, Ed Anderson, Bob Finsland and Mick MacKenzie were sworn for two-year terms during Tuesday night’s reorganizational meeting. MacKenzie won his seat through a two-week write-in campaign, while Olson and Bender appeared on the ballot.

Anderson and Finsland were re-elected. Anderson ran unopposed while Finsland handily staved off a write-in challenged launched days before the April 1 election.

Councilors also selected new leaders Tuesday night, appointing Tom Bridge president and Jackie Stenberg vice president.

On the Douglas County Board, 27 of 28 members were sworn Tuesday night. The results of the 26th District election remain up in the air because the results of the April 1 election remain in appeal. Carol Johnson, who has represented the district for more than a decade, was declared the winner, but challenger Robert Edelstein is appealing the results after a recount did little to resolve questions about reported irregularities and unreported voting machine errors at the Hawthorne polling location.

The appeal was filed Monday in Douglas County Circuit Court. Neither the county clerk nor clerk of courts knew when the case would be decided because neither had ever faced a case in which election results were appealed.

Only three new board members joined the board after an election in which five incumbents faced a ballot challenge, two faced a write-in challenge and one district only had write-in candidates vying for the seat.

Pat Ryan, who has served the town of Superior and villages of Oliver and Superior on and off over the years was re-elected to office over one-term incumbent Dean Miller, and Mary Lou Bergman unseated George Graven to represent the county’s southernmost supervisory district, which includes Gordon, Wascott and Dairyland.

In the 6th District, incumbent Adam Ritscher decided not to run again, and write-in candidates faced off for the seat. Steven Baker won the seat by a 14-8 vote.

The county board appointed Douglas Finn to serve another term as its chairman. However, vice chair positions were held open Tuesday night until the May meeting because the 26th District supervisory race is in appeal.

Contact Shelley Nelson at (715) 395-5022 or snelson@

superiortelegram.com

Tags: city, elect, officers, bender, finsland, olson, anderson, mackenzie, edelstein