Former Crestwood Ward 2 Alderman Justin Charboneau’s three terms on the board were undoubtedly successful.
Elected in 2015 at the age of 31, Charboneau helped turn Crestwood into the municipality it is today.
Nearly a decade ago, though, Charboneau was unsure if he would even run.
“I was involved with the police board. I’ve always had a passion for being involved and giving back to the community,” Charboneau told The Call. “Ultimately, the current elected official (at the time) had done some things that I didn’t particularly care for. I didn’t have a problem with him personally, but I thought, ‘You know what, maybe I should run,’ but then (I thought) ‘well, I’m still a newcomer, I could wait.’”
As the weeks went by and no one else had signed up to run against the incumbent, Charboneau decided to plunge head-first into the world of local government. However, this was almost impeded as he nearly missed a crucial step in the election process.
“I didn’t realize I had to have 25 signatures, I missed that part,” Charboneau said. “I realized that I had until noon on Tuesday to do it, so I took off work the rest of the afternoon, and went around my whole neighborhood and got signatures.”
But the knocking on doors did not stop there. Once Charboneau was officially in the race, he visited every home in his ward “at least once, most of them twice, and the ones that we were really targeting about three times.”
“I had to buy new shoes afterwards,” he said with a laugh.
The hard work paid off, though, as Charboneau came out victorious with approximately 70% of the vote – an especially impressive feat as the incumbent, Tim Trueblood, had served 12 years on the board.
“We were all excited, but it was just nerve-racking,” Charboneau said.
Fast forward nine years and a lot has changed in Crestwood. Multiple propositions have been passed by voters to better the city, the Crestwood Mall has been redeveloped into Crestwood Crossing and new city staff was hired – with Charboneau at the helm of every hiring committee.
“Those hires have been outstanding,” Charboneau said. “What Kris (Simpson) has done to turn around the city has been phenomenal. And then taking it a step further, what (Police) Chief (Jonathan Williams) has done to make sure that our department is modernized, and that we have a department that has a lot better morale – that’s just been phenomenal.”
The morale has also been greatly improved amongst the aldermen.
“It was a very contentious board in the beginning, the year prior to coming in,” Charboneau said. “I think one thing that made all my time serving with all the individuals I did serve with, no matter our political opinions or opinions on issues, no matter maybe how terse we would be to each other on the board or at a board meeting over an issue if we disagreed on something – we’d still ask each other how our families are doing and make sure that it was at least a good experience. To me, that was so important … being a decent human being.”
Though not on the board anymore, Charboneau will still be attending meetings at city hall as he recently accepted a nomination to the Planning and Zoning Commission.