Mayoral rematch: West challenges Champlin
Kate West, a local organizer and former school board member, has filed to run for mayor, challenging the incumbent who won comfortably two years ago.
The move creates a rematch from 2023, when then-city councilor Byron Champlin, with the endorsement of 16-year incumbent Jim Bouley, won 75% of a citywide vote. West finished second with roughly 20%.
Two years later, the Heights resident sees little progress made on the issues that defined the last campaign: West said it remains a challenge for many in the city to attend meetings or to address leaders openly, city leadership still lacks diversity, and residents increasingly struggle to afford their housing and taxes.
...Specifically, West is pushing for city meetings to include an open public comment section, where residents could speak directly to the council about matters not included in the agenda. Whether or not that occurs is up to the mayor.
“I really want the people in my community to feel like they have the opportunity to address their representatives and be heard in a public forum,” West said in an interview. “If you want to know what the community cares about, you have to let them speak to you.”
Champlin has previously said he’s against including an open comment period, and has confined public input during council meetings strictly to the issues subject to hearings. The mayor has argued that a public comment period would inappropriately consume time at monthly council meetings. He also suggested constituents could reach out to their representatives directly to share their thoughts, but the city considers such correspondence not public unless it is shared with a majority of the council.
While West has served as a member of the Concord Board of Education, she has never served on the city council.
“I plan to lead by listening,” she said. “I fully recognize that I don’t do this alone, and I don’t have to. What I may lack in direct experience when it comes to being a city councilor or being a mayor, I definitely make up for tenfold in the community members around me that support me.”
As a single parent and a renter – more specifically as someone currently living at Royal Gardens who has previously experienced homelessness – West believes the council needs a broader perspective.
“I don’t know everyone’s barriers, but I know mine,” she said. “There are some simple, low-hanging-fruit ways to improve the lives of a lot of folks that live in the community, and the reason that it hasn’t happened is because people that have decision-making power don’t really know what it’s like to face those barriers.”
One example of this is transportation to council meetings – an issue West focused on two years ago. The City Council meets on the West side of the river after the bus stops running. For those living on the Heights – the city’s most racially diverse and lowest income area – no free form of public transportation exists to get to City Hall.
“I don’t know how many city councilors or if the mayor has ever been in a position to have to take our current public transportation as their only means of transportation,” West said, “but I sure have.”