Given our Thursday evening hire of a new city administrator and the Friday letters to the editor about candidates, including one by a city councilman and one by his partner, I need to weigh in about the 4th ward vote this coming Tuesday. The vote is to replace Al Hoop, with whom I have been the longest person serving with him during his years on the council. Al had a positive attitude, a heart of gold, and a history of donating his time and money to help our city. His replacement should have those qualities.

When Al was still alive, the eight of us sitting at the council table were all male and all white, and our average age was older than 61. For my dozen years as a councilman then mayor, I have been urging people who would be more representative of our community to run for office. We have no diversity, no female, and not enough youth represented at the table.

What will help our new city administrator with her job of filling open staff positions, and what will help our city on its trajectory of growth, is electing a young parent, bilingual female business owner, and consummate community volunteer with a positive attitude and a track record of collaboration. Our CA and I will of course work with the winner. But the voters in the southeast part of our city have the power to keep our post-tornado/derecho progress going forward, or to set us back with an aging, all white, all male, city council.