Bittner, Warden win seats on Jacksonville City Council

Editor's note: This story has been changed to correctly attribute quotations.

The voting public of Jacksonville apparently was not satisfied with the status quo.

Two new faces were voted onto the City Council alongside two familiar faces during Tuesday’s municipal elections, according to unofficial election results.

Newcomer Bob Warden led the balloting for the council’s two at-large seats with 1,520 votes followed by incumbent Randy Thomas who garnered 969 votes.

Following the announcement of his win,Warden was momentarily speechless.

“I’m very humbled by the outpouring of support and love that everybody gave me,” Warden said. “I know it means I need to roll my sleeves up and get to work.”

First and foremost, Warden said he hopes to see more unity on the new council.

“I want to make sure that we’re all pulling together and working for the common good,” he said. “We need to pull together and remember we’re working for ya’ll — we’re working for the citizens of Jacksonville.”

Bittner said he believes he was voted into office because “people want change.”

“I think they’ve been disgusted with some of the shenanigans of the existing city council,” he said.

“I’m just so happy that people have supported me, and we can all say that the gang of four is no more,” Bittner said. “We have to get the city back away from petty politics.”

Warden and Thomas beat out five other candidates for the at-Large seats including Hunter Hadley Jr. (787 votes), James Bryan (187), Lori Ready (465), Kevin O’Connor (248) and incumbent Alva Williams (891), according to the unofficial results.

Williams trailed Thomas by 78 votes.

Thomas said he is less than thrilled with the outcome of the election but somewhat pleased with voter turnout.

“The citizens rejected a council that held the line on taxes and reduced the budget,” he said. “I can only assume they want something different — they will get it.”

Jerry Bittner, a former Jacksonville city manager who lost the Ward 2 seat to Reva Sullivan in 2007 by 14 votes after sitting on the council for six years, won the seat back Tuesday bringing in 698 votes to Sullivan’s 386.

In Ward 1, Jerome Willingham ran unopposed and garnered 126 votes. He could not be reached for comment.

The winners will join Ward 3 representative and Mayor Pro-Tem Michael Lazzara who is currently serving a four-year term,  Ward 4 representative Fannie Coleman who is also serving a four-year term and Mayor Sammy Phillips whose term expires in 2011.

Election results will be official following a canvass on Tuesday.

Contact Molly DeWitt at 910-219-8455 or mdewitt@freedomenc.com.