We are less than one week from the special Jefferson City Council election.

Voters will have two choices on the ballot, and one of them is Pat Zmolek. He was born and raised in Jefferson. After high school, he left for 15 years for his career, living in places in Iowa and Wisconsin. He then returned back to Jefferson, where he continues to work in the agriculture industry and his wife is a teacher in the Greene County School District. 

Zmolek sees the biggest concerns facing the City include: the rising costs of running city departments and dealing with future budget shortfalls, along with affordable housing and what kinds of housing will attract more people to live in Jefferson. Other concerns he has are finishing up and having buyers ready for the city-owned downtown buildings and putting housing on some of the city-owned empty lots. 

When it comes to the City’s budget, Zmolek believes more “workshops” need to be held for council members.

“Have several more of those workshops where we can really dive into more of the numbers and see where those are coming from, where the income is beng generated from, (and) where the expenses are coming from. Then again how do we address those shortfalls if we do have those.”. 

Zmolek wants to be a voice on the Council because he believes he can continue to help the City grow. To hear more from Zmolek, listen to today’s Community State Bank in Paton Let’s Talk Greene County program.