Pittman, Knighten elected to City Council; Starr receives third term

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescity.com

Charles City voted in two new members and also re-elected a familiar face to serve on the City Council in the election Tuesday.

Keith Starr was elected to a third term and was the top vote-getter among the five-person race for three spots on the council. Starr, who worked as an ag banker since the mid-80s and currently helps farming families in need of financial advice, is currently serving a second consecutive term on the City Council. He netted 764 votes after three precincts and absentee ballots were processed.

“I am so honored that the residents of Charles City would give me another opportunity to serve them. I’ve enjoyed this and really like what direction the city’s going and just want to keep working with it,” said Starr. “There’s so much positives going on right now that it’s almost hard to list them. We’ll just look forward to carrying forward.”

Starr will be joined by political newcomers Phoebe Pittman and Phillip Knighten on the Council. Pittman, a Charles City middle school teacher, was six votes behind Starr with 758. Knighten, an accountant, finished third in the voting with 714.

Craig Hamm was fourth with 655 votes and Ann Teeter accumulated 366 votes.

Pittman and Knighten will replace council members Michael Hammond and Dan Mallaro, who each did not seek re-election after their four-year terms end at the beginning of 2020.

“Mike and Dan have served for seven years and done just a tremendous job. So I will miss them dearly,” said Starr, who was first elected to the council in 2013.

Pittman said she was happy to see the voter turnout and thought that five candidates running for City Council was a good indication that Charles City residents care and want to be involved in local politics.

“Five people running for three seats is an amazing testament to the devotion we have in Charles City by people who want to make the community a better place,” she said. “City government has the potential to impact people’s daily lives the most. Getting involved – through voting or running for office – is just a really crucial thing. We did have some really fantastic candidates running this year. You can see that in some of the vote totals.”

Knighten said he feels he can bring a vibrancy to Charles City and he is committed to making that happen.

“I want to thank the people of Charles City trusting in me to make decisions on behalf of this community,” he said. “I look forward to working with other members of the City Council so we can grow Charles City economically, socially and recreationally. We can make this town thrive and make it a destination location for people of all ages and social backgrounds.”

Pittman, like Knighten, stated she was honored and humbled to be elected to the City Council for the first time.

“I’m really excited to see what I can do and hope that I can serve the people of Charles City well,” she said.

Knighten said he watched intently as each precinct’s final numbers were displayed to the public online. He felt confident as the night wore on that he would be able to garner enough votes to fill out a seat on the council.

“Those first couple, everything was pretty close. As we kind of got back over to across the river on the other side of town – the 2nd and 3rd precinct – that’s when our momentum started to move us on into that pole position,” said Knighten.

Pittman said she is eager to get to work on the council in an effort to be able to shape Charles City for the better.

“The work that our previous City Council has done has really gotten us to a point where we do have some really exciting things on the horizon,” she said. “We need to chart a path forward that maybe looks a little different than how things did in the past, but it allows us to continue to thrive.”