Newly elected Durango City Council members Gilda Yazzie and Dave Woodruff took the oath of office Tuesday night as victors in the April 4 municipal election that included a recount.
During a pause in the regularly scheduled meeting, the new arrivals were congratulated by well-wishers, including City Council candidate Harrison Wendt, who lost to Woodruff by four votes. Wendt presented the new city councilors with flowers and a congratulatory hug.
After taking their seats, the new board appointed Councilor Melissa Youssef as mayor and Councilor Jessika Buell as mayor pro tem.
Youssef, who was previously appointed to serve one year as mayor in 2019, said she is more prepared for the role than her first time around.
“I'm excited for the opportunity to serve as your mayor,” she said. “I'm looking forward to building on the positive working relationships that I have with all of you, and keeping those positive open lines of communication.”
In the election, which included two open seats, Yazzie was the top vote-getter with 2,748 votes. Meanwhile, Woodruff received 2,435 votes and Wendt received 2,431 votes.
Prior to the swearing in, councilors Kim Baxter and Barbara Noseworthy gave parting statements about their single terms in office.
Noseworthy said she and Baxter ran on similar platforms focused on housing, good paying jobs and city budget issues. She added she also looked at sustainability and resilience from a climate change perspective as well as homelessness.
The two councilors didn’t agree on everything, but Noseworthy said she appreciated the robust discussion they had and their ability to find a middle ground on issues.
Baxter said the last four years have been a “really wild ride” full of significant change and positive impacts for the city of Durango.
She said she ran on a platform of having a multigenerational and diverse community, and after spending time on City Council she sees mixed-income as another important factor.
“You can’t have good paying jobs if you don’t have businesses. And you can’t have businesses if you don’t have places for your employees to live,” she said. “And I’m very excited about the path we are on with our housing division and how we’re working with our community, with developers, with builders, with people who live here, with the nonprofits, to create housing units whether they be ownership or rental.”
She said housing is the city’s No. 1 priority, and she hopes it is the top priority for Woodruff and Yazzie.
“This is crucial to the long-term success of our community,” she said.
Baxter and Noseworthy also complemented City Manager José Madrigal for transforming the relationship between community members and city staff, making staff more accessible to residents. She praised staff members for their efforts and commitment to the city.
“We have a new city manager who has incorporated a new way of thinking in our city organization so we have continuous improvement, best practices,” Baxter said.
Addressing staff, she said councilors make policy, but staff implement it, and that’s where success stems from.
Noseworthy said she served a single term because her goal was to get a more diverse candidate pool and build inclusiveness.
“I was thrilled with the candidate pool this year. I very much look forward to seeing what you do and the challenges that you face and how you go about it,” she said.
Youssef said Baxter and Noseworthy served through “extremely difficult times,” including COVID-19 and everything that came with the pandemic such as virtual meetings, mask mandates and emergency ordinances.
And she mentioned an embezzlement case against the city’s former finance director, Julie Brown, who was originally sentenced to five years in prison for embezzling over $712,000 from the city over a course of 11 years. She was later resentenced to 90 days in jail and 20 years of probation.
She said both outgoing councilors played a “tremendous” part in oversight by City Council.
“That was such a difficult and harsh reality that we faced as a community that we dealt with internally here within our organization,” she said.
She credited the councilors with aiding in the creation of the city’s first strategic plan, a foundation document that lays out the city’s action plan for years to come.
cburney@durangoherald.com
