August 4, 2005

Arnett announces intention to step down from Council

Tony Arnett will resign as Council president by the end of September.

By Robert Mihalek

Village Council president Tony Arnett announced on Monday that he plans to resign from Council by the end of September because he and his wife, Kathy, are relocating to Wisconsin.

In a statement at the beginning of Council’s meeting on Aug. 1, Arnett said that he would not serve the remainder of his term on Council, which ends after the Nov. 8 election.

Asking his fellow Council members to seek his replacement, Arnett said that he would serve until Council selects his replacement or until “I’m on a moving van out of town.”

Council members did not discuss plans to replace Arnett during the meeting Monday. In the past when someone has stepped down from Council, the remaining Council members have encouraged candidates to apply for the vacant position.

In fact, one current member of Council, Bruce Rickenbach, was appointed in April to fill a vacancy created when George Pitstick resigned a month earlier. Rickenbach’s term also expires after this fall’s election.

The Village Charter gives Council 30 days to appoint Arnett’s replacement once he officially hands in his resignation. The remaining Council members — Mary J. Alexander, Jocelyn Hardman, Rickenbach and Denise Swinger — will select Arnett’s successor, who would serve until the November election.

After the meeting, Arnett said that he and Kathy are moving to Watertown, Wis., which is between Milwaukee and Madison. When asked why he was relocating, Arnett said that he was “making a personal decision to move on.” Though Tony Arnett said his wife has family in Wisconsin, he said that fact is not the “sole reason” they’re moving.

Arnett has served on Council for eight years, winning four-year terms in 1997 and 2001. He has served as the president of the five-member board for the last four years. Before joining Council Arnett served for four years on the Yellow Springs school board.

He also served on the Community Children’s Center board for six years, the last three as president; the Glen Helen Association board since 2001, including the last three as president; and was a founding member of the Yellow Springs Endowment for Education, serving on that organization’s board for six years. He is a member of the board of Community Resources, the local community improvement corporation that is spearheading a project to build a commerce park here, and the Community Round Table.

Arnett said that it’s a privilege to serve the community, noting that “I got into the public arena to be a public servant.” His tenures on the school board and Council, Arnett said, have included a consistent theme of focusing on the “quality of service delivered by the organization” and “trying to right the financial ship” of both institutions.

With the help of the community, the school board shored up its deficits, he said, while Council has been making “visible progress” on raising revenue, reducing spending and addressing many neglected capital projects. “There’s opportunity for it to go right, and there’s opportunity for it to go wrong,” he said of Council’s efforts.

But he sounded optimistic when he added that the community is finding the “right opportunity to deliver services we’ve come to appreciate.” Focusing on adding jobs and housing in Yellow Springs “will make it possible for the community to continue to have the quality of life we’ve enjoyed for a long time,” he said.