What really changes in Jamestown’s elected politics if Democrats keep their slim majority on the City Council after absentee ballots are counted in the at-large race between Democrat Daniel Gonzalez and Republican Michael Zanghi?

Likely not much.

In our opinion the issues the city faces are less about direction and more about resources. Many of the candidates – both Republican and Democrat – agree on many of the issues facing city residents. Many want to see more housing demolitions. Many would love to add police officers. They want increased code enforcement. Additional development was a common theme, too. The Democrats and Republicans running for office a couple of weeks ago agreed on a lot.

The problem is one of resources to carry out those plans. Federal stimulus money is gone. The city is lobbying for additional state aid in the upcoming state budget but doesn’t yet know if it will receive that money. Jamestown’s tax base is shrinking, which means growing city costs are being spread over a smaller pool of people and businesses to pay the bill. The question isn’t what to do, but how to pay for it.

There is another issue that has reared its head in the wake of the Nov. 4 city elections that will be interesting to watch. Not many of the new candidates have been at City Council meetings. We’ve only noticed Doug Scotchmer at meetings, though we don’t know if other candidates have been watching via video from home. We give Scotchmer credit for being at council meetings in person even before he won his seat, because with so many fresh faces there is a leadership void on the council.

Republican incumbents remain, but aren’t guaranteed any leadership positions. That includes the City Council presidency, which has been held by Tony Dolce, R-Ward 2, for the past few terms since Republicans took control of the council. None of the newly elected Democrats has experience on the council, including some of the arcane points of running and keeping control of a meeting. So how the Democratic majority, if it holds, decides to handle committee assignments and the council presidency will be interesting.

Just as important will be the four new Democrats getting a handle on the issues facing the city. Come January they won’t be able to simply watch videos on the city’s website because they’ll be in the hot seat. This next City Council will have a different energy and way of doing things than we’ve seen over the past few years. We will certainly hear some different opinions on city issues than we’ve heard over the past few years. But there are some decisions to be made between now and January – so it’s time for this group of new council members to get to work. There’s a steep learning curve when one goes from campaigning to governing.