metro
10-03-2008, 10:28 AM
Warstler withdraws from City Council election
Journal Record
October 3, 2008
OKLAHOMA CITY – Although two names will be on the November ballot for the Oklahoma City Council Ward 6 seat, one of the candidates announced his withdrawal from the campaign Thursday.
Clarence Warstler said a death in his family prompted his decision to end his campaign to represent the inner city ward. Warstler said he called his opponent, Meg Salyer, to concede and congratulate her, and to offer his support on City Council.
But Oklahoma County Election Board Secretary Doug Sanderson said the opportunity to remove a name from the ballot passed in mid-September, so Warstler may still receive votes in the Nov. 4 election against his announced intentions.
“I am deeply saddened for Clarence’s loss,” Salyer said. “Clarence and I have served together for about 10 years on the Citizens Committee for Community Development, and I’m really looking forward to working with his neighborhood and other surrounding neighborhoods in the months to come.”S
alyer has been working with City Hall for several years. She currently serves on the Oklahoma City Economic Development trust and the Business Improvement Advisory Committee. She was also the founding board chairwoman of the Automobile Alley district Mainstreet Program. Salyer is president of Accel Financial Staffing and treasurer of Downtown OKC Inc.
She will finish the unchallenged campaign with the endorsement of former Ward 6 representative Ann Simank, who left the seat vacant to avoid potential conflicts of interest after her son became a city employee. “I have known Meg Salyer for many, many years, and she is truly a hardworking, honest individual,” Simank said Thursday. “She has the disposition and personality necessary to help the people in Ward 6 as well as the rest of the city. She has a great sense of economic development of the downtown area.”
Salyer said, “I’m extremely excited about the opportunity to serve the city in this way. I’ve been in Oklahoma City for 24 years now and have been working all of those years on issues I think are important both to Ward 6 and the city as a whole.“
My mission is to forward the initiatives the people have said they want the city to focus on, and in large part that would mean trying to continue the very positive forward momentum the city has experienced for at least the last 10 years,” she said.
Salyer said she will focus on “the three S’s” in her ward and the rest of the city: safety, streets and services. The ward includes most of the downtown district west and on both sides of the Oklahoma River, commonly referred to as the Core-to-Shore area of redevelopment planned with the impending relocation of Interstate 40. It also includes several historic neighborhoods; Salyer lives in Heritage Hills with her husband, Chris. The race initially drew a third opponent as well, Lindsay Ocker, who withdrew well before the ballots were printed, Sanderson said.
Journal Record
October 3, 2008
OKLAHOMA CITY – Although two names will be on the November ballot for the Oklahoma City Council Ward 6 seat, one of the candidates announced his withdrawal from the campaign Thursday.
Clarence Warstler said a death in his family prompted his decision to end his campaign to represent the inner city ward. Warstler said he called his opponent, Meg Salyer, to concede and congratulate her, and to offer his support on City Council.
But Oklahoma County Election Board Secretary Doug Sanderson said the opportunity to remove a name from the ballot passed in mid-September, so Warstler may still receive votes in the Nov. 4 election against his announced intentions.
“I am deeply saddened for Clarence’s loss,” Salyer said. “Clarence and I have served together for about 10 years on the Citizens Committee for Community Development, and I’m really looking forward to working with his neighborhood and other surrounding neighborhoods in the months to come.”S
alyer has been working with City Hall for several years. She currently serves on the Oklahoma City Economic Development trust and the Business Improvement Advisory Committee. She was also the founding board chairwoman of the Automobile Alley district Mainstreet Program. Salyer is president of Accel Financial Staffing and treasurer of Downtown OKC Inc.
She will finish the unchallenged campaign with the endorsement of former Ward 6 representative Ann Simank, who left the seat vacant to avoid potential conflicts of interest after her son became a city employee. “I have known Meg Salyer for many, many years, and she is truly a hardworking, honest individual,” Simank said Thursday. “She has the disposition and personality necessary to help the people in Ward 6 as well as the rest of the city. She has a great sense of economic development of the downtown area.”
Salyer said, “I’m extremely excited about the opportunity to serve the city in this way. I’ve been in Oklahoma City for 24 years now and have been working all of those years on issues I think are important both to Ward 6 and the city as a whole.“
My mission is to forward the initiatives the people have said they want the city to focus on, and in large part that would mean trying to continue the very positive forward momentum the city has experienced for at least the last 10 years,” she said.
Salyer said she will focus on “the three S’s” in her ward and the rest of the city: safety, streets and services. The ward includes most of the downtown district west and on both sides of the Oklahoma River, commonly referred to as the Core-to-Shore area of redevelopment planned with the impending relocation of Interstate 40. It also includes several historic neighborhoods; Salyer lives in Heritage Hills with her husband, Chris. The race initially drew a third opponent as well, Lindsay Ocker, who withdrew well before the ballots were printed, Sanderson said.