Toby Uecker

New leaders will take the reigns of the Brookings city government as a result of the April 8 city election.

At the helm of the city government will be mayor-elect Scott Munsterman, a current council member and local chiropractor who defeated fellow Brookings professional Michael Bartley for the chair in the mayor’s office.

During his campaign, the mayor-elect targeted the economy and developing leadership within the community as his major plans for his three-year term.

Munsterman garnered just over 60 percent of the vote with 1,665 votes.

Munsterman won in the general tally as well as in the results from the two precincts that contain portions of the university campus.

In a race for a three-year council seat, Tom Bezdichek defeated Zeno Wicks, SDSU plant science professor who was appointed to the council last year by then-mayor Virgil Herriott.

Despite Wicks’ slight edge in the city’s first precinct, which includes much of the SDSU campus, Bezdichek garnered 49.8 percent of the vote to Wicks’ 38.1 percent.

The second precinct, which contains the part of campus west of Medary Avenue voted with Bezdichek.

In the race for two one-year seats, the two SDSU precincts favored the same candidates as the general election, incumbent Mike McClemens and newcomer Julie Whaley.

Precinct One favored Whaley by one vote, while Precinct Two favored McClemens by nine votes. City-wide, McClemens bested Whaley by 276 votes.

The newly elected officials will take office beginning at the first meeting of next month, scheduled for May 6.

As a result of Munsterman’s win, a new council member will need to be appointed to fill the remaining two years of his three-year term.