There are four candidates for three At-Large positions on the Jamestown Council: Republicans Jeff Russell, Randy Daversa, Russell Bonfiglio and Democrat Alyssa Porter.

Democrat Isaiah Rashad is on the ballot but suspended his campaign months ago.

The best of the bunch, by far, is Russell. The former Jamestown police officer is finishing his second term on the council and has shown, quickly, a good handle on city issues. He has worked to solve problems and taken it upon himself to seek out answers to questions like the colored lights under the railroad bridge on North Main Street or the parking meter battery fiasco earlier this year. He’s active, voices his opinion, asks good questions and brings up constituent concerns on a regular basis. He should absolutely be returned to the council by voters.

Daversa has also earned another two years after serving the past two years as chairman of the council’s Public Works Committee. Daversa has worked well with both Jeff Lehman, former public works director, and Mark Roetzer, the interim DPW director.

That leaves two candidates – Bonfiglio and Porter – for one position. Bonfiglio is retired from the city Public Works Department, but not much else is known. A family emergency kept Bonfiglio from a recent meet the candidates event at the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts, and questions submitted to the candidate by The Post-Journal haven’t been answered yet.

Porter, who is also chairwoman of the city Democratic Party, acquitted herself well during the meet the candidates event. But something she said earlier this year in an op-ed to The Post-Journal sticks with us as the election nears. During the debate over accepting a $1.8 million federal SAFER grant, Porter said the council’s unwillingness to accept the grant until there was an agreement with the firefighters’ union not to reopen an impact arbitration case “illustrates a significant deficit in their ability to be proactive public servants.” There are instances in which we would agree with Porter – but the SAFER grant is not one of those times. Withholding a vote until the union agreed not to reopen the impact arbitration case was a necessary bit of due diligence by the council, in our view, because if the council is forced to shrink the size of the fire department in the future, the sign-off should protect taxpayers from an increase in impact arbitration costs. It was worth waiting in order to protect taxpayers from tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars in future costs.

Council members have to see many sides of an issue, not just the partisan one. So while we endorse Russell and Daversa, we have no endorsement for the third at-large position.