Councilor Mike Roth will not seek re-election

Washington City Councilor Mike Roth announced at the council meeting Wednesday that he will not seek re-election this fall. Roth has represented Ward 3 on the council for the past eight years.

?I?ve deliberated for several months about my future on the council,? Roth began. ?I?ve come to the conclusion that it?s time for me to step away. The reason I am making this announcement now is to give someone in the Third Ward an opportunity to file papers. Whoever steps in has challenges ahead.?

Aug. 29 is the first day city council candidates can file papers for the election. The deadline is Sept. 22 at 5 p.m. The papers are filed with the city clerk. A candidate must fill out nomination papers and obtain 25 signatures on the nomination petition before the deadline.

Mayor Sandra Johnson thanked Roth for his time on the council.

?You have put in an overwhelming amount of personal dedication,? Johnson said. ?Folks, eight years is a lot of meetings, research and contact with the community. Thank you, Mike.?

?I did it for the pay,? Roth joked.

Councilors are paid $50 for each council meeting they attend but are not paid for the committee meetings they attend.

Roth said he ran in 2003 partly because nobody else submitted papers to run in the Third Ward.

?My wife told me to go for it, so I did,? Roth said. ?I wanted to make a difference. Nuisance abatement was at the top of my list of priorities.?

Roth said that the council has since adopted ordinances to clean up long, unsightly grass, junk vehicles and a host of other nuisances.

?We?ve changed two or three ordinances to put more teeth in the abatement process,? he said.

Roth is on three committees ?the sanitation committee, the finance and personnel committee and the ordinance committee, which he chairs. He said he sometimes writes the ordinances and then gives them to City Attorney Craig Arbuckle to review, and at other times Arbuckle is the one who writes them.

?Craig helps us weed through the legal mumbo-jumbo,? Roth said.

Roth said the toughest vote he ever had to make dealt with the Washington Police Department splitting off from the Washington Sheriff?s Office, which Roth voted for. He said he received by far the most e-mails and phone calls on that issue than he has on any other.

One thing Roth realized after assuming the position of councilor was that it is an ?all-day, everyday job.?

?Whether it?s on the golf course, at the grocery store or at church, people come up and ask you questions all the time,? Roth said. ?You have to know quite a bit about each area of the city?s operations. Sometimes people ask me questions I don?t have the answer to, but I tell them I will find the answer for them.?

Roth said he won?t have any trouble keeping busy after he steps down as city councilor. He works full-time at Sitler's Supplies in Washington. When he?s not working, he referees high school football games and occasionally referees junior varsity basketball games.

?I like to play golf and I love being around my grandkids,? he said. ?I?ve got plenty to do.?