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There are eight parties running lists for City Council in the upcoming elections;
There is anglo representation with whom I am acquainted running on lists in 3 of the parties.
- B’Yachad — Shalom Lerner, although running for Mayor, is listed as #1 on the list and David Morris is slotted at #5.
- Chen — Zvi Wolicki is #1 on the list as is Ephrayim Naiman who is neatly slotted at #2.
- (Y’Hi’Yeh) Tov — Ari Rosenstein who I believe is 7th on the list.
In this author’s humble opinion, the parties to vote for are either B’Yachad or Chen and here’s why;
My understanding is that the Mayor also holds a seat on city council. A vote for B’Yachad insures that Shalom Lerner has a strong voice in the running of the city, and the more votes cast for B’Yachad, the better shot that Founder and Amutah Chairman of Lema’an Achai David Morris can bring his business and non-profit experience to bear in helping to run city government efficiently. I do not know the others on the B’Yachad but Shalom tells me that the other slots are manned by individuals with recognized professional backgrounds and disciplines who are well-suited and qualified to be on city council and to head city departments.
In terms of Anglo representation, qualifications and quality, Chen boast a one-two punch second to none of the other parties.
Zvi Wolicki, who has a long and recognized reputation as being among the top Go-To people in the city. Be it sewage problems, trash removal, infrastructure and more, Zvi is always available to help facilitate and expedite to resolution even thorny problems where residents have met with city bureaucratic roadblocks.
Zvi is joined on Chen’s slate by Ephrayim Naiman who is widely known his work with the Ramat Beit Shemesh Choir as well as with Olam Sport and other Beit Shemesh facilities.
For more on Chen, check out Rafi’s Life in Israel blog.
(Y’Hi’Yeh) Tov, although well-represented by Ramat Beit Shemesh residents, the Y’Hi’Yeh that the party hung to the left of its name is
sufficient reason for concern. While there are those that may have thought that Y’Hi’Yeh Tov was a catchy sort of campaign message, to this author, it sounds very much like the typical israeli expression; Y’Hi’Yeh B’Seder — everything’s okay — the recipe for complacency. Tov is a new party and chances are, it has not picked up sufficient support to push it over the 1,200 vote threshhold to give it a seat on city council.
This author is not sufficiently familiar with the slates of Shas, UTJ, Dor Acheir and Labor. And there is no way that this author would have anything to do with Likud on any local governing level in Beit Shemesh.