Covey, Pelletier win in Callaway

CALLAWAY — Ward I has a new face for the first time in eight years.

Melba Covey, chairwoman of the Citizens Advisory Committee in Callaway, took the reins of the ward with 656 votes, 306 more than incumbent Ward I commissioner Dennis DeLapp.

“I’m for the citizens and they have put their faith in me,” Covey said.

Covey ran alongside Bob Pelletier, who was elected Ward III commissioner Tuesday night.

The campaigning duo embraced family and friends at Parker United Methodist Church after preliminary results showed they’d won.

Covey said in her term she’d like to see Callaway “move forward and become a more flourishing municipality and more recognizable in Bay County.”

The ward Covey now represents extends from 11th Street to Lake Drive on the north and south sides of Tyndall Parkway. The high-traffic area is considered Callaway’s town center.

As one of the more vocal members of the Citizens Advisory Committee, Covey helped lead Callaway residents to oust the city’s previous city manager. She boasts of having attended nearly every City Commission meeting in the past four years.

“She won,” DeLapp said in a phone interview after results were released Tuesday night. “I gave the city eight years, and I’m done.”

Elected in 2006 and running unopposed in 2010, DeLapp said Callaway is going to be different with the new blood on board and “the people have spoken.”

“I hope the best for the city,” he said. However, “I don’t even want to venture to guess” what it will be like with new commissioners.

“I just don’t know,” he said. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Ward 3

The race for Callaway’s vacant Ward 3 seat was a matchup of the tried and true experience versus a relatively fresh approach to city business.

In the end, the fresh approach won the race for the city’s largest geographical ward.

Preliminary reports of Tuesday’s municipal elections from the Bay County Supervisor of Elections Office indicated Robert Pelletier cinched the seat for Ward 3 with 739 votes over incumbent John J. Malone, who took 256 votes.

About 12 percent of the electorate turned out for the election.

“They came out to vote for change, and I just offered a new perspective,” Pelletier said.

Both candidates sought to shift the power of determining city policy from the city manager’s office into the hands of elected commissioners, and both campaigned for more transparency and extended public comments during meeting. But neither campaigned against the political ideas of the other.

“I’m glad it turned out the way it did,” Malone said. “I’m a little more adept to the workings of local government but we are about the same.”

Pelletier will be taking over the recently vacated seat of Commissioner David Otano, who forfeited the seat by moving out of Callaway city limits.

Otano defeated Pelletier for the seat in the 2012 election, though Pelletier outraised his opponent in contributions. The money favored Pelletier in this election, with Malone not accepting contributions. Cash and in-kind contributions totaled $3,115 for Pelletier’s camp, while Malone had $500 in contributions from himself by the time polls closed Tuesday.

“It’s good when voters turn out and express what they want,” Pelletier said. “This election is an indication the people want continual change.”