Campaign
November 13, 2002;
City Councilman Brad Cole formally announces his bid to become Mayor of
Carbondale, Illinois, following the previous day's announcement of
Mayor Neil Dillard's retirement after 16 years in office.
A comprehensive position
paper is released, outlining Brad's record of
accomplishments and future goals.
Election
April 1, 2003;
Brad Cole is elected Mayor by defeating City Councilwoman Margaret
"Maggie" Flanagan.
Hundreds of friends
and supporters gather at Copper Dragon Brewing
Company, in Carbondale, to celebrate this landmark victory in the
closest-known election in the city's 150-year history.
Inauguration
May 6, 2003; Brad
Cole takes the oath of office as the youngest-ever Mayor of the City of
Carbondale, Illinois, at the age of 31.
Administration
 Day 1; the
Mayor
convenes his first regular meeting of the newly elected and expanded
Carbondale City
Council.
Day 2; assembles his first weekly staff meeting with the city manager
and all department heads.
Day 5; attends Spring Commencement
exercises for
Southern Illinois
University.
Day 8; attends his first Carbondale Chamber of Commerce board of
directors monthly meeting.
Day 9; welcomes Ms. Jan Kostner, newly-appointed Director of the
Illinois Bureau of Tourism, as part of the 2003 Illinois Tourism Road
Show, and provides a brief walking tour of historic Woodlawn Cemetery.
Day 12; attends his first Southern Illinois Mayors' Association
meeting, held in McLeansboro, Illinois. Mayor Cole is elected to serve
on the board of directors.
Day 15; attends his first Heads of Government meeting, a monthly
discussion group comprised of representatives from the community's
school districts, park district, library and other public bodies.
Day 16; presents certificates of achievement to students at Carbondale
Middle School for completing the D.A.R.E. program, as sponsored by the
Carbondale Police Department.
Day 18; attends his first C-C-U (City-Chamber-University) monthly
meeting, held at Stone Center on the Southern Illinois University
campus.
Day 21; presides over annual Memorial Day ceremonies at Carbondale's
historic Woodlawn Cemetery. This location is the site of Illinois'
first, and perhaps the nation's first, official recognition of Memorial
Day; ordered in 1866 by General John A. Logan, Commander in Chief of
the Grand Army of the Republic.
Day 22; attends his first Carbondale Business Development Corporation
board of directors meeting, joining this group of private business
representatives in an effort to attract and retain commercial and
industrial development.
Spearheads the community movement to find possible future uses for
downtown's historic Varsity Theatre, by calling a town hall meeting on
the topic just twelve days after its owners announced the venue's
immediate closing.
Day 25; attends graduation ceremonies for Carbondale's Brehm
Preparatory School, the only boarding school in the Midwest designed to
meet the needs of students with complex learning disabilities and
attention deficit disorder issues.
Day 28; joins Marion Mayor Robert Butler in the first-ever,
mayor-to-mayor discussion of regional goals and cooperative activities
between the two neighboring communities.
Day 31; holds meetings of the Lower Mississippi Delta Development
Center board of directors. Mayor Cole is Chairman of the seven-state,
LMDDC partnership focused on economic development in the impoverished
Delta region. Illinois' sixteen southern-most counties (including
Carbondale, Jackson County) are recognized in the federally-designated
Lower Mississippi Delta region.
Day 36; meets with Senator Emil Jones, President of the Illinois State
Senate, in conjunction with events in Mount Vernon, Illinois.
Day 37; hosts a visiting delegation of Philippine elected officials, as
part of a five-day international exchange program sponsored by the
American Council of Young Political Leaders, in conjunction with the
U.S. Department of State.
Day 43; meets with Dr. Eric Whitaker, the recently-named Director of
the Illinois Department of Public Health, in conjunction with a visit
to the Jackson County Health Department offices.
Presents certificates of appreciation to the Carbondale
Sesquicentennial Celebration Committee members in recognition of their
year-long efforts to organize and sponsor various community events.
Day 45; speaks at the Semi-Annual Membership Meeting of the Carbondale
Chamber of Commerce, unveiling a general blueprint for City affairs
during the final six months of calendar year 2003.
Day 53; speaks to the graduating class of minority youth in the
Southern Illinois Regional Career Preparatory program, a year-long
effort to assist African-American students to excel through
interpersonal and educational training.
Day 58; assembles all Carbondale-area real estate agents for a
first-of-its-kind discussion on the status of community housing markets.
Day 63; announces new municipal office hours, eliminating the lunch
hour closure period and opening all Carbondale City Hall/Civic Center
departments continuously from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. during the regular
work week.
Day 64; outlines a progressive tax increment financing proposal to
redevelop more than 26 acres of blighted commercial property situated
in the heart of the downtown business district.
Approves the elimination and consolidation of boards, commissions and
committees that were deemed unnecessary and/or ineffective, as a key
step in streamlining the functions of city government.
Day 65; presents testimony to the Illinois House of Representatives
Task Force on Rural Economic Development, speaking of the need to
promote economic development activities throughout the entire southern
Illinois region.
Day 66; attends his first quarterly meeting of the Carbondale
Convention and Tourism Bureau board of directors, presenting a plan to
increase revenues for the hotel/motel industry in Carbondale.
Day 74; visits
with U.S. Senator Richard Durbin, in conjunction with events on the
campus of Southern Illinois University.
Day 75; welcomes attendees to the biennial Black Alumni Group reunion
as sponsored by the SIU Alumni Association, in conjunction with noted
civil rights activist Dick Gregory and Illinois Congressman Danny K.
Davis.
Day 76; officially greets Iraqi undergraduate students participating in
the 2003 Fulbright Institute for American Studies Program, jointly
sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and Southern Illinois
University.
Day 83; attends his first meeting with officers of the Carbondale
Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People. Mayor Cole is a "Silver Life - Subscribing" member of the NAACP
local branch.
Day 92; joins scores of mayors from throughout the region to protest
new fees and charges being imposed on municipalities by the State of
Illinois, in a forum organized by the Southern Illinois Mayors'
Association.
Day 93; assembles local liquor licensees and bar/tavern managers to
present an overview of regulations and city policies affecting their
industry.
Day 96; attends Local Officials Day at the Illinois State Fair in
Springfield, joining nearly a thousand other elected officials from
throughout Illinois.
Unveils "Carbondale's Shawnee Mist" bottled water at the Illinois State
Fair, as part of a program encouraged by the Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency to promote safe drinking water from municipal water
sources.
Day 99; Greets U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald to the area, as part of
his tour of the Coal Research Center on the campus of Southern Illinois
University.
Approves numerous appointments to serve on city boards, commissions and
committees, bringing all members and their terms of appointment
up-to-date for the first time in memory. Nearly four dozen new
appointments and re-appointments have been made thus far.
Day 100; presents an overview of his first 100 days in office,
detailing events, actions and appearances central to the mission of the
new mayor's Administration.
Brad Cole, Mayor
City of Carbondale
200 South Illinois
Avenue
Carbondale,
Illinois 62901
phone 618-457-3229
fax 618-351-5766
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