Pocatello’s new mayor says his ‘actions will speak louder than words’
Published at | Updated at
POCATELLO — For the first time in 15 years, Pocatello has a new mayor.
On Thursday evening, Mark Dahlquist was sworn in as mayor of Pocatello and took his seat at the city council dais.
“I’m both humbled and honored to be the new mayor of Pocatello,” Dahlquist said.
He later continued, “We, all together, will make this community rise and be the very best it can be. So, please be involved. Be kind. Help your neighbor.”
The City Council also welcomed two new members, Stacy Satterfield and Ann Swanson. The women swore their oaths of office to join the Council’s ranks, as did one incumbent member, Councilman Dakota Bates.
Bates was originally appointed to his City Council seat to fill the vacancy left by former member Josh Mansfield when he resigned in April. Swanson takes the seat formerly held by state Rep. Rick Cheatum, who did not seek reelection, and Satterfield won the election against former Council President Linda Leeuwrik.
When Former Mayor Brian Blad stepped off the dais, someone in the audience said, “Thank you, Mayor Blad,” and he was met with applause.
RELATED | Voters oust Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad; runoff now set between two challengers
The first and only action item on the agenda was to elect a new City Council president. Council Member Brent Nichols nominated Council Member Corey Mangum for the position, which the rest of the council approved unanimously.
And while the new mayor won the December run-off election with a majority of the votes, it wasn’t unanimous. To people who didn’t vote for him, Dahlquist said, “My actions will speak louder than words, and I’m a mayor for everyone, regardless of their political affiliation or who they voted for.”
Mayor Dahlquist’s 3 priorities
In an interview following the council meeting, Dahlquist laid out three of his top priorities for the next four years. The first, he said, is to encourage economic development, putting it in “high gear.”
Dahlquist said that in recent weeks, he’s met with business and economic development officials in Pocatello. “Economic development, growing our economy, is of the utmost importance,” he said.
The mayor’s second priority is to increase the supply of housing in order to lower home prices and make homeownership more attainable for prospective buyers.
“Simple economics tells you, if you increase supply … hopefully prices stabilize or even go down. So if we want to grow our economy, we need good, attainable housing for folks,” Dahlquist said.
Some ways Dahlquist says the city can increase the housing supply include taking a look at the current zoning and building development codes, while also speeding up the permitting process and expanding the variety of available housing options.
“If you go back in the day, there was a lot of character to our neighborhoods: You had small homes, you had town homes, you had courtyard apartments, you had a good mix there,” the mayor said.
Dahlquist’s third priority is fiscal responsibility and creating an open-book city hall. “And that means things like dashboards that the public can see, and putting that more out in the open; a treasurer’s report — not on the consent agenda, but maybe (making it) more part of the meeting,” he said.
To conclude the meeting, Dahlquist opened it up to an “Items from the Audience” period, during which any member of the public could sign up to speak for three minutes. The only person who signed up to speak was Morgan Hansen.
“I’d like to congratulate you guys,” Hansen said. “I’m personally excited — I mean that from my heart. Voters voted for change.”
