Bennett, Sprague Elected to Edina City Council

Joni Bennett and Josh Sprague won seats on the Edina City Council in last week's election, according to unofficial results from the Minnesota Secretary of State's office.

The results will not be certified until Nov. 23, but with nearly 3,000 votes separating Bennett from her challengers and another 300 between Sprague and other candidates, no changes are expected.

Unofficial results show Bennett received 10,419 votes - around 28.6 percent - while Sprague received 7,889 votes - 21.6 percent. Todd Fronek and Steve Brown were nipping at Sprague's heels with 7,555 and 7,435 votes respectively, with Daniel Azar finishing with 1,708 votes and Timothy Kehr winning 1,210.

After missing a council seat by a razor-thin margin two years ago, Sprague said he was relieved to earn the support of Edina residents. That 2008 race was a bitter pill to swallow for Sprague, who said he went to bed on election night thinking he had won the race only to wake the next morning and find some precinct numbers had been mistakenly swapped.

This time around, Sprague said he was enjoying dessert at his campaign manager's house when the results came in.

"After going through that experience, I was absolutely elated to squeak it by," Sprague laughed. "I've gone through two hard-fought battles now. I appreciate people sticking with me and giving me the opportunity to serve."

Sprague has several goals for his tenure, including whittling the Edina city budget down to create a zero percent levy increase and getting Edina residents more actively involved in the decision-making process.

"How can we be acting on behalf of residents when we haven't asked them what they think lately?" he said. "I would like to present options to a sampling of residents, then try to build a consensus through those survey results. I think it could really help council avoid making such contentious decisions."

Bennett has said she wants to continue providing high-quality service to Edina residents while at the same time allowing a large degree of transparency in all city actions. She sees voters returning her to Council as a sign Edina residents "look for and appreciate information about the issues."

"I am honored by the trust the voters placed in me and very grateful for the opportunity to continue to work on behalf of Edina residents for the next four years," Bennett said. "People told me that they appreciated my advocacy for residents, emphasis on fair process and consideration of all the facts in council decision-making."

Making sure spending reflects the community's priorities and getting the levy as low as possible remain Bennett's key priorities, but she also wants to work to get City code brought up-to-date and ensure constructive, consistent use of citizen input.

Mayor Jim Hovland said he is happy to see Bennett return to Council for a second term, noting she "has done good work and I think people recognize it even if they don't agree with her."

"They know she is always prepared and does a good job of representing her community," Hovland said. "For Joni, it's community first and no personal agenda."

Hovland was not surprised to see Sprague win, but said he would not have been shocked if it had gone to another candidate as well.

"I thought the second seat would be unpredictable," he said. "It honestly could have gone to any of those gentlemen. That said, Josh came really close last time and it helps when you run once and build some name recognition."

Bennett and Sprague's terms on Council will officially begin on Jan. 4, 2011.