At the elections on Nov. 8, the intense competition for school board seats contrasted sharply with the uncontested city council election.

Although originally nine candidates were running for seven seats in the city council election, the race became uncontested when two candidates dropped due to controversy over their candidacy. Five of the elected council members are incumbent, while Tony Mealy and David Ashenhurst are new.

Of the seven school board candidates, Stephanie Jones, Beth Weiss and Ian Yarber claimed the three available seats, earning 1175, 1147 and 1063 votes, respectively.

“This is a great new board,” current school board member Marci Alegant told the Review.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” Weiss said. “With Stephanie and Ian we’ve got a great group.” Weiss, the 42-year-old associate director of admissions at the conservatory, has two children in the public school system.

Mary Mckee, who came in fourth in the school board election, was equally positive.

“I’m psyched about the new board,” she said.

Voters went to the polls Tuesday knowing that a lot was on the line for the Oberlin School System. With school-related tax levies on the ballot, future funding was uncertain. Langston Middle School was in the “academic watch” category on the Ohio state report card, and there was no foreseeable replacement for Beverly Reep, the much-loved superintendent who is stepping down in three months.

“It’s all about financial solvency,” Mark Jaffe, OC ’67 and former teacher, said as he went in to cast his ballot.

Conservatory music theory professor Deborah Rifkin had similar sentiments. “People are more invested because we’re not in a good market,” she said.

While the tax increases passed, elected representatives will likely continue to exercise fiscal discipline.

Weiss said that if the levy increase passed, she would educate “parents, teachers and community about how district money will be spent.” After she was elected, she followed up, saying, “I think even if we have a lot of money in our piggy bank, we will be responsible in how we spend it.”

The representatives-elect were unsure what issues the board would handle after it found a superintendent. Jones said she hoped that the school board would address discipline in the school.

Weiss hoped that the school board would focus on improving Langston’s report card score. When asked if she would work to implement uniforms — a desire she expressed in her campaign — she said, “when you’re campaigning, people talk about a lot of visionary things. But in reality the job is a lot of paying the bills, making sure the buses are running on time and so on.”

Even with little at stake in the city council election, some voters showed support for their candidates. Ronnie Rimbert, an auto salesman who has served on city council since 2000, received the highest count — 1306 votes. In order of votes received, the other elected city councilpersons are Eve Sandberg, Dan Gardner, Everett Tyree, David Ashenhurst, Charles Peterson and Anthony Mealy.

Many voters expressed apathy over their lack of choice on Election Day. One man raised his hands and said, “I’m going to vote for all seven; all seven will be elected.” For others, the lack of competition was disappointing.

“It’s a shame,” said College senior Jeremie Chetrit, pointing to Sandberg’s statement in the League of Women Voters Voting Guide. “Look, you can see that [she’s] not even trying.”

While the candidates did enjoy the easier campaigning an uncontested race offered, they too regretted that the race was uncontested.

“What you didn’t have was a candidate bringing something new to the discourse,” said Peterson, a reelected city council member and African-American studies professor at the College of Wooster.

Gardner, an incumbent and self-employed financial planner, thought that this was part of an even greater issue.

“[The uncontested race] was the result of this being the nastiest local campaign season I’ve observed,” Gardner told the Review. “Sharon Soucy gets ousted from the ballot for the apparent sin of supporting Wal-Mart. Allegations of candidates manipulating the press, being bought off — you name the mud, I’ll show you where it was slung.”

The race was less remarkable for Tony Mealy, a retired correctional counselor and council veteran of 15 years.

“Soucy did not fill out her petitions properly, and the other candidate’s [William Jindra] candidacy was challenged. It’s what happens,” Mealy said.

Gardner and Peterson both believe that “high-quality” development would be a top priority for the new council.

“We’ll find ways to gain back some of the hundreds of jobs lost several years ago,” said Gardner. Believing that Oberlin has a poor reputation in business circles, Peterson said, “Some new development will show that the town is serious about business.”

Mealy hopes that the new council will take a look at the water utility. “This is one of those basic sanitation issues,” he said.“Things need to be taken care of.”

It is also expected that the city council will continue working on the living wage, an issue that failed to pass in the election. Peterson felt that the failure of the amendment showed that the town wants a more meticulous look at the controversial Living Wage question.

He said, “Nine times out of ten, when something was put on the table, we [the former city council] saw it through. Now that we have some new people on the board we’ll be able to pass a better ordinance.”

Others were less sure of what the amendment’s failure meant and what the city council would end up doing. Rimbert and Gardner both stressed the need for continued input from the townspeople.

School board members will serve a three-year term beginning at the first meeting in January. The new city council representatives will serve a two-year term beginning on Jan. 3.