Mayor Marilyn John of Shelby is the new Richland County commissioner according to unofficial results from the Richland County Board of Elections. The race to fill a Richland County commissioner seat, which on the Nov. 4 ballot was run against Mansfield City Council President Phillip Scott, began last year when Ed Olson announced his retirement.
“I’m very excited,” she stated simply. “I’m spending the evening the way I spend every evening and that’s with my family and friends. This is my sixth election including primary general and this is how we’ve always spent it. It’s been great. It’s been an exciting year.”
John thanked her team, her family, and her supporters.
She said what she’s looking forward to is coming together as a county.
“We face a lot of challenges from safety issues when it comes to flooding and drugs, and economic development issues, workforce development, job creation—a lot of those issues that I think we are so much better at dealing with together,” said John. “And so that’s my number one goal: Whatever issue we’re dealing with…that we can come together as a county, city, village, government, county government, state government—that we work on those issues together.”
“Shelby will be left in good hands,” John said, “and I’ll still be working for the residents of Shelby, just from a different office.”
John will continue to be involved in some organizations she was previously involved with. “I will also be going on different board as county commissioner. A lot of the board I serve on now are in some capacity because of my position as mayor, but we’ll work on that over the next few months. A lot of my involvement will continue in leadership groups. It’s what I do; it’s who I am,” she said.
She will continue her involvement with LeaderRichland. “This year I’m so excited,” she said, “I just found out today that 12 schools, over 1,100 students are involved. We’re very excited.”
That exceeds the hope that eight schools would join the program. John established the leadership program in 2012 to assist middle school students in interacting with community and business leaders around the Richland County area. John worked closely with Richland County Development Group (RCDG) to further develop the program.
John will take office as commissioner on Jan. 1, 2015.
