Butler City Mayor Ben Smith has decided not to seek re-election to a second term in office.
Smith was elected in November of 2017 with about 60% of votes cast and took office in January of 2018 but he says that only one term as Mayor was always his plan.
“I just felt like it would be good to get in for one term, make some substantial changes but changes that were needed more immediately, then hand it over to somebody else, let somebody else take the reigns for hopefully a short period of time as well and then keep turning things over. I just think things get stagnant when you have somebody in office for too long.”
As the incumbent, Smith has firsthand knowledge of many of the issues that will shape this year’s mayoral campaign.
“One of the big things that is not going to be really apparent for the next 12 months or so is what the fallout from the pandemic and coronavirus situation is. Mostly I’m talking from the city perspective of financial. We still don’t know exactly how that’s affected business privilege taxes, earned income tax or real estate tax. That means having a plan to set ourselves up financially to be able to deal with that long-term.”
Smith is a local business owner including Reclamation Brewing which remains closed following the fire next door at Sir Speedy in January.
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