Don Dezellem’s hour finally arrived.

“I’m elated,” Dezellem said from a watch party held at Shining Mountain Golf Course.

Dezellem was one of four elected to the Woodland Park City Council Tuesday evening.

By his own count, he has run for council three times and applied for appointed positions four times. He had come up short in each effort.

The duty of giving Dezellem all of those “sorry, Charlie” calls fell on former City Clerk Suzanne Leclercq, who retired in December.

“I had to retire for you to finally make it,” she said jokingly to Dezellem after news of his election arrived from new City Clerk Monica Mendoza.

“This is awesome,” Dezellem said. “Persistence pays off.”

Seth Bryant, who had been serving on city council as an appointed member, was the leading vote getter with 1,757. Close behind was incumbent and current Mayor Pro-tem Catherine Nakai at 1,746. They will each serve 4-year terms.

“I was surprised honestly,” Bryant said of his vote total. “I serve with some amazing people and to have that support from the community was so encouraging. It does feel validating to be reelected.”

Incumbent Jeffrey Geer received 1,590 votes. Either he or Dezellem (1,613 votes) will serve the council’s 2-year term while the other will serve 4 years. Military and absentee ballots must be allowed time to be received and counted to make that determination.

Coming up short was the fifth candidate, Mary Sekowski.

“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. “While tonight’s outcome was not what we had hoped for, I am incredibly proud of the campaign we ran.

“I also want to emphasize something important: our work does not end with this election. The conversations we started—about transparency, accountability, and respectful leadership—are ongoing and vital to the health of our city.”

There were three proposed changes to the city charter on the ballot, two of which failed. Each had been recommended by the Charter Review Committee.

The first would have allowed incumbents more time to resign when facing a recall election. The other would have provided a small stipend for the mayor and members of the city council.

A third measure that cleaned up some outdated language passed overwhelmingly.

Election judges processed and counted 2,259 ballots, which is a return rate of 36.9%.

George Jones will replace term-limited Kellie Case as the mayor. Jones ran unopposed for the position. His running unopposed and the re-election of all of the incumbents is an indication that the community approves of the direction Woodland Park is headed.

While the acquisitions of the Avenger Open Space and Shining Mountain Golf Course have been popular, Jones cautioned that the work there was just beginning. Those, along with the improvements to Bergstrom Park, must be managed properly to provide the most benefit. He also acknowledged upcoming budgetary hurdles and outlined other immediate priorities.

“We are going to continue on the same path, which is protecting out water, protecting our open space and fire mitigation,” he said. “Fire mitigation is probably the biggest thing facing us right now, especially with this drought condition we have.”