LEXINGTON, Minn. – (Aug. 18, 2016) – Being a city councilmember in the suburbs is often a thankless job. The small pay never equals the time commitment. But, yet there are always individuals willing to serve their community and many times tough election battles are fought for the positions.
However, this year Lexington is facing a historic quandary.
“We have two seats that are currently open. We haven’t had anyone that’s applied to be a city council person in Lexington,” said Lexington City Administrator Bill Petracek.
Lexington is a small town, with a population of just over 2,000, which could be part of the problem. But, it has never happened before. In fact just two years ago, four people ran for two spots on the council.
“We’re really kind of learning through this process,” said Petracek. ” It will be a challenging year for us.”
It is a mystery as to why no one filed this year but Petracek wonders if a growing generational gap and feelings towards local government are at the root of the problem.
“Their is a time commitment to it and their is a lot of responsibility being a city council person. With local government their is a certain amount of apathy in all communities about local government and it comes down to generating some kind of desire to serve your community and the younger generations, and right now we just aren’t seeing that,” said Petracek.
So the question remains what will happen to the Lexington city council.
“Anybody that is a write in, if they get one or two votes, if they are willing to accept the position they can take their seat. Otherwise if a write in vote doesn’t accept the position we would have to have a special election the first of the year,” said Petracek.
Maybe it will take this rare occasion to bring out the next group of leaders for Lexington.
“I think what happens when people realize their are no people here to help run the city, hopefully I think it’ll shake the bushes and people will come out of the woodwork,” said Petracek.
