Four Council Members Elected; One Candidate Eliminated
Trevor Phipps
In the aftermath of the 2026 Woodland Park municipal election, the incumbent city council members emerged as both winners and losers.
In a big victory for current officeholders, all of the candidates who currently sit on the dais were re-elected to their positions. But at the same time, their bid to collect a check for their council duties failed once again. Now, Woodland Park ranks as probably the only community of its size in the entire region to not offer elected leaders any type of compensation for their service.
The April 7 municipal election wasn’t as heated or competitive, compared to previous years. In fact, only one mayoral candidate, George Jones, emerged. Further, only five people chose to run to fill four open seats.
In the end, the big news on the race front is that independent candidate Mary Sekowski picked up the fewest number of votes. As a result, she did not earn a seat on the city council.
Moreover, one of the ballot measures that would have put money in the pockets of the mayor and city council members failed by a rather thin margin.
In the past, voters have been asked several times whether they believe their council members and mayor deserve to get financially compensated for their time. At this point, the city may have broken a record for how many times “pay for elected government representatives” has been denied.
Even though the bid for pay for council members had been rejected in the past, the new ballot question took a different approach and appeared to gain more support. This time, the proposition asked for a set amount of monthly pay for the elected positions. If passed, the mayor would have received an $800 per month stipend, the mayor pro tem $700 per month and the other council members would have collected $600 per month.
However, despite the rather low amount and the different language, 1,113 voters said “no” versus 1,029 voters saying “yes.” Therefore, Woodland Park will remain the only city in Teller County that doesn’t offer some pay for its elected officials. It may even rate as one of the few in the state for a city of close to 10,000 residents, which offers no pay for its elected leaders.
The failure of this proposition may have surprised some political insiders, as the plan was heavily supported by all of the council candidates during a heavily attended election forum, and the pay the council idea appeared to be receiving more support from civic leaders. But in the end, most voters indicated they want to keep council and mayoral service as a volunteer-only situation.
Another ballot question asked voters if the city charter should be amended to permit more time for an incumbent to resign before the city is required to conduct a recall election. The voters also denied this question 1,282 to 902 votes.
Out of the three questions on the ballot, one of them did get approved by voters, and this dealt with mostly technical changes to the city charter. Residents voted 1,512 to 575 to pass Ballot Question Number Two that asked, “Shall section 3.5 of the city of woodland park charter, concerning council vacancies be amended to correct drafting errors, and shall section 16.6 concerning duties of the manager upon initial adoption of the charter, be repealed as outdated?”
Changing of the Guard
When it came to the city council and mayor elections, all but one name on the ballot were elected to political seats. According to the unofficial results, Seth Bryant and Catherine Nakai generated the most votes (1,757 and 1,746 respectively), which earned them four-year terms.
Previous council candidate and planning commission member Don Dezellem was the next best with 1,613 votes. Incumbent Council Member Jeffrey Geer picked up the fourth and final seat with 1,590 votes.
Mary Sekowski was the only one who didn’t earn a seat with 870 votes. Still, the losing council contender expressed gratitude towards those who supported her candidacy, which consisted of many face-to-face meetings with voters. She also had many signs displayed throughout the community.
But from the onset of her campaign, Sekowski got hammered on social media outlets due to her past support for opening the door for short-term rental properties, and with her involvement with the Merit Academy.
Oddly enough, she was not challenged regarding any of these views in a heavily watched candidates’ forum, sponsored by the Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce.
“I want to sincerely thank the voters of Woodland Park for participating in this important election and for taking the time to learn about the issues facing our community,” Sekowski said in a statement.
“While tonight’s (April 7) outcome was not what we had hoped for, I am incredibly proud of the campaign we ran. This campaign was built on listening, transparency, and a commitment to independent leadership. I had the opportunity to meet so many thoughtful, engaged residents who care deeply about the direction of Woodland Park. Your voices matter, and I am grateful you shared them with me.
However, all of the seats on the Woodland Park City Council have not been fully decided. Since George Jones was elected as mayor (with 1,591 votes), his city council seat will now become open once he gets sworn into office next week for the city’s top elected position.
Once Jones officially becomes the city’s next mayor, the council will then be asked to fill an open two-year city council term created by Jones’ move to the mayor position. This situation, which has occurred several times in the past, leaves the new city council with a few options.
The city could choose to give the open council seat to Sekowski, even though she received the lowest number of votes. Or the council could vote to appoint someone entirely different by opening it up to potential applicants.
A third option is that the council could call for a special election to determine the seat. However, this latter option is very unlikely due to the costs involved. In the past, the council has chosen to open the position up for applications and then made a decision following formal interviews with the contenders for the job.
