Council selects new member to fill District II role

By Riley Funk

The St. Joseph City Council selected Jason Eslinger on Thursday to fill the District II seat.

The seat was left open after former council member Taylor Crouse resigned due to his planned move outside the district boundary.

Eslinger is no stranger to the South Side. He grew up and attended school in the District II area.

During the interview process, he said he wants to work on upgrading the South Side by making it a cleaner area. He also wants to emphasize helping local law enforcement and building up the city in a number of ways to “further St. Joseph.”

“District II is not forgot about. A lot of people down in the South End feel that they’re forgot about and they’re the ones that nobody thinks of. Hopefully, we can get that change and other areas of town and get everybody on the equal playing field,” Eslinger said.

A total of six candidates applied for the council seat: J.L. Robertson, Jason Eslinger, Breanna Bland, Michael Cox, Michelle Traster and Richard Bolton.

Michael Cox withdrew his name from consideration before the interview process.

After council members narrowed the decision down to two candidates, Eslinger and J.L Robertson, they then had a second vote between the two candidates. This vote ended in a tie.

According to rules that the council established in a work session on Monday, in the event of a tie, the winner would be the candidate who had the most votes at the end of the first session.

Council members unanimously approved the nomination of Eslinger. He told News-Press NOW that he is excited to get started.

As for what he will do to celebrate, he replied with a grin.

“I haven’t really thought about it yet, but it will probably (be) doing stuff with my kids,” Eslinger said.

Eslinger will be sworn in before the next city council meeting slated for April 15.