INCUMBENTS FILE FOR SCOTT CITY COUNCIL SEATS

SCOTT CITY -- Cindy Uhrhan and Teresa Crump have filed for re-election to their Scott City Council Ward I seats despite numerous controversies that have plagued the council this year.

Crump was named to the city council in July to fill John Rogers' seat after he was hired as public works director. When the city offered Rogers the job while he was still on the council, it was not only viewed as potentially illegal but politically unethical.

Rogers avoided breaking city ordinance by resigning his seat on the council before accepting the director's position.

Another ordinance that prohibited family members from working under the same supervisor -- which affected Rogers because his sister, Carolyn Tinsley, works for the city administrator, who supervises public works -- was changed.

"I feel like some of the problems were there before I came in," Crump said. "I really haven't had anything to do with those. It was like a bomb before I even got in there."

The city council seat is Crump's first ever on a governmental board.

"I've learned a ton," she said. "I love it. It's interesting and I really enjoy it."

One issue that Crump has been right in the thick of with the council has been a potential lawsuit threatened by a group of rural water users in September.

"We're doing everything we can to come to an agreement with them," she said. "I feel like we do owe them an answer and that's what we're doing, working through it."

Crump has taken on a couple of projects in her ward, including clearing a number of neglected ditches, and wants to become a more involved and outspoken member of the council.

"We are getting something done," she said. "I don't know what's going to happen after the election but I told my husband I want to run.

As a member of the police committee, Uhrhan was directly involved in the latest controversy involving the Scott City Council, the dissolution of the police personnel board.

"When the police board was first initiated they were to be reappointed or new members appointed within so many years," she said. "That was not being done. What we were trying to do was get things back that we felt was right, like the appointment of the police board, so that's what we were doing.

"We had contacted most of the old police board members after the mayor had dissolved that board and they no longer wanted to be on it. So we did appoint new members."

Uhrhan said much of what the public sees coming out of the council has been one-sided.

"We've been bogged down by all this little petty stuff," she said. "We need to work on bigger things that the city needs to get done. I think a lot of it is hearsay. There's only a few people who come to the council meetings and it's usually if someone has a major gripe and they tell a few friends and they come. And that gets circulated throughout the city. Both sides of the story are usually never heard."

Uhrhan, who has served since 1994, is seeking her first re-election to the council.

"When I first got elected it was because I wanted to get more involved in the community," she said. "I'm glad I did run for city council and got elected. The first year I was learning, the second year I became more involved. There are a lot of problems in the city we're trying to deal with those. So I just want to try it for another two years."