After winning election last week, lifelong resident Kolby Urban will officially be sworn in as a St. Cloud City Council member today at noon, and take his seat on the dais at tonight’s 6:30 p.m. Council meeting.
Urban earned 64 percent of the vote in the Nov. 9 election to replace Chuck Cooper, who passed away in June, after winning nearly half the vote in a five-way October primary for Seat 3.
Urban, 31, becomes the youngest Council member since William Tucker won election at age 30 in 1977.
“I bring a younger perspective on the issues at hand in our city,” said Urban, who develops design standards for a construction company. “We’re a small business that’s been affected by the last 18 months just like any other business.”
When he makes the Council a whole five members again, he said his priorities will be the four tenets of his election bid:
Public safety and maintaining the resources of the city’s fire/rescue and police departments to “keep the town safe”;
Making sure that, while city growth is inevitable, to assure “St. Cloud grows the right way”;
Continue previous work on the city’s Economic Advisory Committee to attract highwage jobs to the city;
Maintaining the cleanliness and affordability of the city’s water; “I want to ensure my wife and months-old daughter have clean water to use. The city’s come a long way in resolving its issues.”
Urban said that, once he’s settled into his seat, he’d like to create a public town hall, where he can meet with residents quarterly or bi-annually to hear residents and give them an outlet for their concerns.
“I want to be extremely transparent,” he said.
Urban said he’s had a few recent conversations with current Council members.
“I’m looking forward to working with them,” he said. “We all have the same goals for the city. I think we’ll work well together.”
