BOONE, Iowa—Incumbent 3rd Ward Council Member Elijah Stines has decided to seek re-election to the Boone City Council. He made his announcement this week:
Four years ago, I was humbled to receive the opportunity to represent the citizens of Ward 3 in Boone on the City Council. Many people know me as the guy with the well-worn cargo shorts and ball cap playing out with his three kids Avery, Edith, and Henry and wife Katie in the yard. In a nutshell, that’s really at the core of who I am and that is why I’m always trying to do my small part to promote ways for Boone to be an even better place to live, work, and raise a family. Another way I have given back is my service in the Boone Lions Club as Secretary for the past several years. In my professional career, I started and have run the mathematics tutoring program for Veterans and military affiliated students at Iowa State University.
One of the most important things to me has always been to listen to citizens with empathy and to foster a culture which grants those who may not have otherwise felt comfortable coming forward with their issues the space to do so. To that end, one of my accomplishments that I believe will have the most lasting impact is the move towards first recording our City Council meetings, and then later leading to live-streaming them, making the City government’s business more accessible to all. Another instance of making it easier for citizens to be involved in policy direction was the implementation of polling software, which helped the City gather input on the consideration of creating a Community Center to replace the services lost when the YMCA closed. This project is still ongoing and is one of the main reasons I would like to serve another term, in order to gather and give input on the final realization of this project.
Through experience in my first term, I have garnered what is working well and serving the citizens of Boone and things that can be improved upon in our town. One way existing policies have served us well is a very conservative fiscal policy, implemented by staff and long supported by Council. One way we can build on this is by finding a way to sustainably lower the total property tax levy for the City, which ranks in the highest 18% of Cities according to the Iowa Department of Management. In my second term, I would like to work to reduce this and make our City more competitive for new residents to choose Boone and existing residents to be able to stay and still maintain the level of services our citizens are accustomed to, the unprecedented housing growth in the past four years should allow for this to take place.
Finally, some of the strengths I bring to the City Council are an open mind and independent spirit. I listen to understand a situation as fully as possible before coming to a conclusion. I am not afraid to be in the minority if I am not convinced that is the path forward, I try to offer alternative viewpoints, portions of which are oftentimes incorporated to the existing direction, making stronger policy. For these reasons, I would kindly ask for the citizens of Ward 3 to grant me one more term to serve them on the City Council. If you would like to reach out to me, you can email me at stinesforcouncil@gmail.com .
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