On Tuesday night, Albany County has unofficially announced the new members of the Laramie City Council for each of the three wards.
Ward One
In Ward One, Brian Harrington and Andrea “Andi” Summerville maintained their seats.
Brian Harrington is running for his second consecutive term. In his first term he contributed to Thrive Laramie and plans to continue to offer financial support for businesses so they can continue to operate while making health conscious decisions.
“Campaigning is always a challenge but this year was particularly challenging since it happened in the midst of a pandemic,” said Harrington. “Campaigning is always a challenge but this year was particularly challenging since it happened in the midst of a pandemic.”
Andrea “Andi” Summerville has served as a council member previously for five years. She plans to propose a ballot measure of a sales tax for parks and recreation.
“I want to get a handle on where Laramie is economically and see where Laramie is at. We need to get a handle on that and the city’s financial situation, work on business, keep laramie growing and going forward,” said Summerville.
Summerville thanked voters for putting in the extra work to vote this year.
Brett Glass and Kaleb Heien had fewer votes in Ward One
Brett Glass is running for his first year on the Laramie City Council. Glass planned to subsidize testing and encourage remote work and education. He also advocated for decreasing the Laramie city budget.
“The democratic website promoted candidates in a non-partisan race, but did promote other non-partisans. I am disappointed that so many people under voted and there was promoting from a political party in a non partisan race,” said Glass. “I think the promotion from the party was important because people didn’t do their independent research. People seem to be somewhat apathetic.”
Glass said he would consider running again in four years.
Kalab Heien is the youngest of the previous term of city council candidates. He stated COVID policies should be what is directed by the state health officer. His policies focus on promoting new and existing businesses and cutting policies he views as excessive.
Heien was unavailable for a comment at this time.
Ward Two
In Ward Two Jayne Pearce and Sharon Cumbie won the city council seats.
Jayne Pearce plans to model COVID-19 safe behaviors as communicated with the partnership with Albany County.
“You know I think We’ll continue the good fight, continue the good work that we have been doing. There are five women [on the Laramie council],” said Pearce. “I don’t know when that has occurred. RIght now we have three and we will be adding two more.”
Pearce said that she appreciates the support she’s received this campaign and that the full plate of candidates was a good turnout.
Sharon Cumbie advocates the import of public health practices and supports the Thrive Laramie plan established in January 2020.
Cumbie was unavailable for a comment at this time.
Tim Hale and Mark Andrews did not make the council seats this year.
Tim Hale advocated a government with a limited role in peoples’ lives. He planned to audit the city budget and advocated for no more taxes.
“I’ve tried to be very specific about issues and if you compare my answers to others they are very vague, they want transparency and economy. It could be voters are used to generalizing,” said Hale.
Hale said that his blunt approach could have been viewed as polarizing.
Mark Andrews made the November ballot as a write-candidate. He was opposed to one percent sales tax and stated he does not feel the council can enforce controls regarding COVID-19 guidelines and that private businesses can enforce their own restrictions as long as they do not infringe on peoples’ rights.
Andrews was not available for a comment at this time.
Ward Three
Ward Three had only two candidates. Pat Gabriel serves as the current Vice-Mayor and has been reelected for his seat on the council.
Gabriel has served on the City Council for one term and previously was the Albany County Commissioner for 20 years. He advocates educating everyone on the state guidelines for COVID health safety. He currently does not promote a sales tax.
“Because of COVID I downplayed campaigning. When talking to Klaus Hanson we said we were going to put out signs and I did a little bit of radio ad,” said Gabriel. “I think the biggest thing we have to do as a community is get COVID under control.”
Gabriel said aside from getting the community of Laramie to get COVID-19 under control, he plans to deal with the sales tax for businesses that have suffered during the pandemic and review the city budget and what programs will suffer in the poor economic state.
“We’re all pulling in the same direction, all working together to get through this,” said Gabriel.
Klaus Hanson has served 16 years on the city council as of 2018. He did not promote mandates regarding COVID-19 safety guidelines, but rather supported appealing to peoples’ nature. He advocates the one percent sales tax.
Hanson will not be running again for the Laramie City Council again.
“Pat is on the council right now, he is the vice mayor, and he has more recognition, and he is a good councilman,” said Hanson.
