Ashland voters elected three new City Council members and approved limits on utility-bill fees as the city prepares to balance its next two-year budget.
Dan Ruby, Linda Adams and Teresa Cisneros won council seats, according to preliminary results. Voters also re-elected Bob Kaplan to a second term. They’ll join sitting Councilors Gina DuQuenne and Dylan Bloom.
This year, voters picked their top four candidates rather than voting on individual seats. Councilors Derek Sherrell, Eric Hansen and Jeff Dahle did not run.
Passing the next two-year budget will be a major challenge for the new council. Kaplan said he wants to focus on climate resilience, affordability and economic development.
“Underlining all of that is our fiscal position,” said Kaplan. “We’ve got a really strong balance sheet at this point, but we need to take some decisive moves on our revenues and expenditure side, we're out of balance.”
That will be the first major challenge for the new council, passing the next biennial budget.
Voters approved a ballot measure giving voters the final say over most new or increased charges added to utility bills to pay for other city services. Increases that do not exceed inflation are exempt.
The restriction applies to charges such as the city’s $5.15 parks fee, added each month to residents' utility bills
Ashland resident George Kramer spearheaded the effort to put the measure on the ballot. He said its preliminary lead of 15 percentage points was larger than expected.
“We need to think about how we spend our own personal money,” Kramer said. “The city needs to do a better job about how it spends tax dollars.”
Most members of the city council opposed the measure, worried it would limit the city’s ability to respond quickly to fiscal emergencies.
Kaplan said cuts would be needed to balance the budget.
