By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
With a new mayor and two other new members of the city council, the council’s next step is coming together in January and beginning to work together. Councilors Jessica Peterson White, Kathleen Holms, and Davin Sokup are in the middle of their terms and were not up for reelection this year. They shared their thoughts on working with the new council.
The three council members are significantly focused on the city’s two long-term plans, the Comprehensive Plan and the Strategic Plan. The comprehensive plan is Northfield’s 20-year plan, which staff and volunteers have worked on since 2023. The Strategic Plan is the city’s more immediate planning for the next few years. On these technical and complicated issues Sokup noted that campaigning now has to turn to governing:
“Campaigning is just so different from than serving in that chair in that role, and I hope there’s that natural kind of shift where you’re like, OK, these are the things that got me fired up to do this, to spend a huge amount of my free time. Committed to making Northfield a great place for people to live, and now I have to actually do the work.” – Northfield City Councilor Davin Sokup on the KYMN Morning Show
Holms expresses a similar sentiment:
“We absolutely have to figure out a way to get things done, and it might be productive. It might not be. So I think I’m kind of approaching it as like with that objective view of, well, this will be interesting and how are we going to do this and how is that going to play out because there’s very different personalities that are going to be joining the group…” – Northfield City Councilor Kathleen Holmes on the KYMN Morning Show
She noted that it can be difficult for the council to interact and get to work together, and because all of their work is in public in the council chambers, it can be harder to build connections and relationships.
Peterson-White noted that in her 12 years on the council, the important role the mayor plays in leading the council:
‘I really hope that that is an aspect of leadership that will be continued, that whoever is in that seat chairing the meeting understands that their role is to facilitate and hold space for a healthy, productive conversation.” – Northfield City Councilor Jessica Peterson-White on the KYMN Morning Show
All three councilors expressed optimism about the future of the city council and Northfield. You can listen to the two interviews we did with the councilors by clicking here: Part 1 and Part 2
