Fitzwater announces run for Jefferson City mayor

Even though the next Jefferson City mayoral election is two years out, one current councilman has already announced his bid for the position.

Ward 4 councilman Ron Fitzwater announced Saturday his intention to run for Jefferson City mayor.

Current Mayor Carrie Tergin will be term limited in 2023, the next mayoral election.

Fitzwater is in his second term on the city council and said he plans to run for his third term in 2022. Because of his seat's term cycle, the two wouldn't line up.

"That opportunity doesn't come along very often, and I just think this is the right time for me to try to step in and hopefully expand on the role I've been able to play in the fourth ward," he said. "I wanted to start laying out my strategy and my vision for how we build on our strengths, how do we take a look at it or maybe we need to change some of our operations and hopefully continue to build this city."

As a capital city, Jefferson City has great opportunities and meaningful responsibilities, Fitzwater said.

"I am a fiscal conservative that builds consensus when dealing with the difficult issues we face at City Council," he said. "I am not afraid to ask the tough questions as issues move through the debate process. We have critical issues to address such as infrastructure, public safety and appropriate economic development. Community involvement is the key to resolving those issues."

Fitzwater said he hopes making the announcement this far out will give people time to see how he works on the council and get conversations started.

"I want to begin starting the dialogue and hopefully people that attend city council or pay attention to what we're doing get the vision that I'm trying to create here," he said. "Where we have honest discussions and dialogue that we can discuss very complicated issues and come up with what's best for the community."