In an unexpected announcement at the Wednesday City Council meeting, Councilmember Ben Stacks announced his resignation. Stacks served for six years and had two years of service remaining.
“Do to a variety of personal reasons, I am not able to finish my term,” said Stacks from the dais Wednesday evening, reading a statement from his phone. You can view a video of the statement below. Stacks declined further comment.
Stacks made the announcement at the Council’s last meeting of the year and under the last agenda item before adjournment.
Stacks was originally elected in 2017 and then again in 2021. Stacks has been aligned with Mayor Josh Cohn’s Gang of Four (The Mayor, Stacks, Carolina Johnson and Julie Souza) through the tumult of the tree ordinance and the ethics committee drama as well as the Nursery Field turf wars.
The Mayor’s power base was already eroding with Johnson leaving the Council at the end of the year and now the Gang of Four will be two – the Mayor and Councilmember Souza. Councilmember Lori Fontanes is leaving the Council, Stacks’ seat will be empty and Jamie Jensen and Keith Cunningham will be sworn in as new Councilmembers on January 1st. According to city code, the Council will vote by majority to appoint someone to fill Stack’s empty seat until the next election.
The video of the resignation is below.
The current Council and expirations are as follows. As mentioned, Jamie Jensen and Keith Cunningham join in January to commerce their four year terms:
Mayor Josh Cohn 12-31-25
Councilmember Lori Fontanes 12-31-23
Councilmember Bill Henderson 12-31-25
Councilmember Carolina Johnson 12-31-23
Councilmember Josh Nathan 12-31-27
Councilmember Julie Souza 12-31-25
Councilmember Ben Stacks 12-31-25 (now empty)
