Diane Marlin proved victorious in the Urbana mayoral race against Rex Bradfield on Tuesday. She accumulated 86 percent of the vote in all 23 precincts, according to the Champaign County clerk’s office.

A total of 428 votes were cast on campus.

As mayor, Marlin said she’ll work for a more effective government, hospital property tax exemptions, economic development, safe neighborhoods and engaged citizens.

“I have several goals,” Marlin said. “One is to fill the vacant city administrator position. It’s been vacant for about 10 years, and it’s very important for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the city.”

The city administrator would have the qualifications and experience of a city manager. They would be important in implementing the policies passed by the council.

The city administrator would also be in charge of Urbana’s city employees, roughly 250 people, and $55 million budget.

“Cities these days are complicated operations, and even in communities like Urbana with a mayor-council form of government, the trend across the nation is to have a professional city administration,” Marlin said, “So I just view this position as being essential.”

Marlin said she also plans on appointing a permanent police chief and that she would like to finalize a timeline for implementing a facilities plan for the city.

She announced her mayoral candidacy last summer and has served as an Urbana alderwoman since 2009.

In the February democratic primaries, Marlin won 57 percent of the vote, defeating the incumbent mayor Laurel Prussing and the third candidate Evelyn Underwood.

As mayor, Marlin said that the most important public safety issue she would continue to address is that regarding gun violence.

“We’ll (also) start laying groundwork for rebuilding relationships with our community partners such as the U of I and Carle hospital and start meeting with the business community to look at the challenges facing people doing business in Urbana and how we can address those issues,” Marlin said.

Marlin expects a budget to be passed by June 30 and said that they are in the middle of contract negotiations with all of their bargaining units. The next six months will be busy for Marlin and her team.

Marlin said that it is imperative to stay accessible to the people, listen to them and respond to their concerns.

“A lot of the platforms I developed along the campaign were based on what I was hearing from people as I went door to door talking to them,” Marlin said “It’s really important for elected officials to maintain those channels of communication and spend a lot of time listening instead of talking.”

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