Batavia officially has a new 7th Ward City Council member, following former Ald. Sarah Vogelsinger’s resignation from the council last month.
Of six candidates who were interviewed at a Committee of the Whole meeting on Sept. 30, Robert White was selected by the Batavia City Council to fill the seat.
He was officially sworn in at Monday’s City Council meeting.
The 7th Ward seat was left vacant in September, when second-term City Council member Sarah Vogelsinger resigned for family reasons, according to past reporting. Her term was set to extend through 2029.
The city sought applications from 7th Ward residents, and then conducted interviews with candidates to select the person to fill the seat, according to past reporting.
White told The Beacon-News he was born in Joliet and spent much of his life living in the Chicago suburbs, but he’s only been living in Batavia for about 18 months. He’s married with two sons, an eighth-grader and a kindergartener, and said he works in sales for original equipment manufacturer hydraulics.
In his interview with the council, he noted that he was already serving on the city’s Active Transportation Advisory Commission.
“It was a way of meeting more people in Batavia and kind of starting to give back,” White told The Beacon-News. “I’m an active guy. I like to bike. I like to mountain bike. I like to run. I go on hikes.”
He said active transportation and parks and recreation are some of his priorities as he joins the council.
He also pointed to compromise as something he hopes to bring to the role.
“Somebody that’s willing to step back and say, ‘Guys, there’s a middle ground here,’” White said of the role he hopes to have. “Someone that’s going to push for that compromise, and maybe push in a different direction.”
In his interview for the seat, White also noted that his parents were involved in local government in their communities.
He thinks he can provide a different perspective to the council, he told The Beacon-News, as someone who’s “not as rooted in the area,” and someone who can bring “a little bit of a technical spin” to council matters given his career background.
In his interview with the council members, White said he has “a lot of pride” in the city, although he’s only lived there for a short time, and that he appreciates its “small town feel.”
That small town feel, he said in his interview to fill the vacancy, is also something he wants to preserve.
“The challenge we will have,” White said, “is holding onto that, keeping that as we grow, as we expand.”
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