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Leland back in as FF mayor [UPDATED]
Published 11:22am Wednesday, November 7, 2012 Updated 11:22am Wednesday, November 7, 2012Strong leadership qualities and transparency is what mayor Hal Leland said won him the voters’ approval once again.
“I am thrilled to be re-elected,” he said. “It has been an honor and privilege to serve as mayor for the last few years. I’m truly grateful, and I look forward to serving for the next few years.”
Leland won the race, receiving 36.28 percent of votes over Pat Connelly’s 30 percent and Daryl Synstelien’s 28.81 percent.
Synstelien said Leland has a strong motivation for promoting business and job growth in the city, and that, along with having a name known by everyone in the community, is what led residents to vote Leland in the end.
While acknowledging that Leland has done a lot of things well, Synstelien said he thinks the city will see some of the same areas of struggle into the future. Some of this is due to Leland having an adversarial relationship with the city council.
“My hope is that mayor Leland will successfully find a way to work with the council to have things move forward in a way that benefits the community,” Synstelien said.
Leland said he is eager to continue to provide the city with strong leadership and open communication.
“I’ve brought jobs, I’ve brought business and I think I have brought better communication and transparency into city government,” Leland said.
Leland will serve as mayor for four more years, and he still has plenty of things he would like to accomplish.
“I will work very hard to represent ideas and values of the community,” he said. “I will work extremely hard to bring good public policy to Fergus Falls to make every one proud.”
We know Darrel would have had a easier time since one quarter of the council are family members. If the sitting council had opened their minds and were able to see a vision for this town there would be no need for any adversarial moments. In 2 years we will see if we can’t get a few more people with vision on the council, and maybe this town will grow. And not the way it looks now behind closed doors.