Earl Jones has rejoined the Alliance City Council following his appointment at Tuesday’s city council meeting where he was chosen to serve the remainder of Mike Dafney’s term until November 2024.
Council Member Brian Mischnick, who was serving as the Vice Mayor until the council underwent reorganization, made the motion to appoint Jones to fill the vacancy left by Dafney, who announced his resignation in April citing frustration over protocol and chain of command issues.
At the time, Dafney told the Alliance Times-Herald that he has served the city for 23 years on the city council, seeing a number of projects accomplished throughout that time as a result of dedicated staff members and council members.
“One of the things that I’m most proud of is all these years, when I went in 1988, our mill levy was up a dollar or more,” said Dafney. “It came down shortly after that because the citizens of Alliance imposed on themselves a sales tax. That was when it first came on, to pay off general fund debt, which was about $12 million. That got paid off relatively soon. That mill levy that we impose on the citizens has been holding steady in all these years at between $0.33 and $0.34. Your taxes may have gone up, but that’s because the county did reevaluation on it, but the city has held the mill levy steady for years. That’s a big accomplishment.”
Mischnick thanked those who applied to fill the vacancy and encouraged them to run in 2024. The council voted unanimously to appoint Jones. He was sworn in by Mischnick.
The ballots were cast and read during the reorganization, with council members voting 5-0 to appoint Jones as mayor and John McGhehey as Vice Mayor.