City Council to swear in new member, two incumbents

Joel Fritzler's first meeting as a Carbondale City Councilman tonight will be relatively easy, as he will not have to vote on any controversial issues, city officials said.

Fritzler along with incumbents Corene McDaniel and Chris Wissmann will take the oath of office at tonight's council meeting. The three were elected to their positions in the April 5 general election.

Fritzler will fill a seat vacated by Maggie Flanagan, whose last meeting was April 19, after serving 12 years on the council.

City Manager Jeff Doherty said the agenda for the meeting, outside of the seating of the new council members, is relatively small, with no items on the general agenda and 11 items on the consent agenda, which is a set of items the council considers routine and passes in one motion. Doherty said all of the issues on the consent agenda are of big impact.

Doherty said the past two meetings have carried a numerous items and the council will finally have the relief of a lean agenda in tonight's meeting. He said they wanted to keep the agenda small to accommodate the swearing in of the new council members.

"The last two meetings we had so many items and so much work that we got a lot of it out of the way," Doherty said. "We wanted to focus more on the swearing in."

Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole said the council wanted to make the first meeting relatively easy for the new councilman. Cole said this is the customary thing to do in order to acclimate new members to the routine of the council without forcing them to make any big decisions on their first day.

"There is no reason to hit them with any controversial issues on the first day," Cole said. "We try to give them a softball for the first meeting."

Cole said he could remember his first time on the council and said while he had been to meetings before and knew what to expect, it was still nerve racking because of the realization of the importance of the decisions a council member has to make.

"It's a lot different view when you are sitting at the big table as opposed to being out in the audience," Cole said.

Fritzler said he isn't necessarily nervous about his first meeting, but rather excited about the chance to get behind the council desk and do something.

"I get to sit down and do stuff now," Fritzler said. "Before, I always had to stand up before the council; now I get to sit and listen to people's concerns."

Fritzler said the change from one side of the table to the other will be big, but he doesn't think it will be anything he can't handle.

"Obviously, it will be different," Fritzler said. "I guess we'll find out."