The past eight years have been great for Jake Parks.
That's the span in which he served on the Ripon City Council.
On Tuesday, he presided over his last meeting.
"I'm proud to be part of history, and helping craft the future of Ripon," said the outgoing mayor.
Parks, who opted against a third term, will soon be replaced by CPA Tim Wheeler, who received enough votes at last week's election.
Vice Mayor Daniel de Graaf, who is scheduled to be the next mayor based on the rotational selection of officers at next month's organizational meeting, and Leo Zuber were respectively the top vote-getters.
Both were congratulated for their successful re-election campaign by their colleagues during the staff comments,
"It's been a pleasure working with you," said de Graaf to Parks,
Mike Restuccia echoed that, saying: "Jake, it was fun working with you,"
Added City Administrator Kevin Werner: "Jake, you will be missed."
Parks was thankful for the support that he received during his time at the elected position, especially from city staff.
"They showed me how a city runs and how it functions," he recalled from his earlier days.
Parks acknowledged the comradery and civility of his colleagues.
"There were a lot of 5-0 votes. But there were also 3-2 votes — yet no one took things too hard," he said.
Parks pointed out that "at the end of the day, everyone just tried to do what was best for our town."
de Graff, Zuber &
Wheeler lead vote tally
de Graaf and Zuber appear well on their way towards a successful re-election campaign based on the latest numbers in the Ripon City Council race.
According to the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters, de Graaf continues to be the top vote-getter among the five candidates with 3,272 votes.
Zuber has collected 2,910 votes and Tim Wheeler, who is a local businessman and CPA, holds down the important third spot with 2,669 votes. If the numbers continue to hold up, Wheeler will be the newest member to the City Council.
His closest challenger is former Ripon Chamber of Commerce and current Tracy Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tamra Spade. She trails by 319 votes, collecting 2,350.
Richard W. Kohl received 1,618 votes after the latest updated count on Tuesday.
Thus far, the Registrar of Voters offices in Stockton has counted up to 186,155 votes – that’s 35,673 more ballots cast in the March 4 primaries – and 168,437 Vote-by-Mail ballots since last week’s election night.
