Fourth Ward Councilman Carlos Graham says he wants to continue working on the issues he cares about in the next two years on the Jefferson City Council.
Graham is one of many unopposed candidates who will appear on the April ballot. While there is a six-way race for Jefferson City mayor, all five council seats are unopposed, as are the municipal judge and prosecutor.
Graham said the best part of serving so far is meeting and talking with 4th Ward constituents, and being able to address their concerns. He said he also has enjoyed working with city staff and the other members of the City Council.
"I'm just a people-type person," Graham said.
Since Graham has been on the council, he has held monthly events with his counterpart, 4th Ward Councilman Glen Costales, where anyone can attend and discuss city issues. He said that was something he had campaigned on when he ran for council two years ago and helps encourage transparency at the council level.
"They're the ones who elected me," Graham said. "I don't take that for granted."
When asked what the worst part of serving is, Graham said it's wanting to be at every event or meeting, but not being able to due to time constraints. He said he tries to attend as much as possible, but it's impossible to attend everything.
"You can't be everywhere," Graham said. "You don't really have enough time."
He said it also can take a while to get something accomplished, as an issue often is filtered through committees before going to the full council.
Graham said the most surprising part has been some of the concerns people have that lead them to call their council person. He said there are concerns that he's never thought of that are brought to him and he never knows what issue it will be next.
Graham said he originally campaigned on three core issues - a balanced budget, public safety and infrastructure. He said he wants to continue serving on the council to further work on those areas of the city.
The most important city issue for Graham is economic development. He said he'd like the full council and the next mayor to seriously discuss options to increase economic development in the area, mentioning the possibility of a retreat focused on that topic.
"We, as a council, are going to have to take a serious, hard-core look ... to see if there's anything additional that we need to do," Graham said.
He said they need to think outside of the box and find ways to supplement the economic development service performed by the Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce to attract more jobs to the area.