Local realtor makes bid for Dist. 5 City Council seat
Should local realtor Mischa Angel win the Bossier City Council District 5 seat, she’ll follow a very short list of women who’ve served on the council.
The most recent women representatives were Coy Cooper (At-Large) and Faye Rawls (District 1), who were elected in 1997 – and then defeated in their 2001 re-election efforts. Previous to Cooper and Rawls, current Bossier Parish Police Juror Wanda Bennett served on the Bossier City Council.
Angel said she believes it’s a good time for a woman to be on the Council, and that she’s had “a lot of encouragement from clients to run for the seat.”
She discussed a 35-year realtor career from the aspect of being part of Bossier City’s growth, along with her community commitments including work for Habitat for Humanity.
“I feel like you have to give back to the community,” Angel said, “and because I’m a businesswoman, I think I could bring new ideas and synergize with the folks on the council.”
Angel also noted that her experience as a realtor ensures that she’s very familiar with Bossier City and the city government’s work to improve the city, saying, “I think Bossier City is headed in the right direction. We attract enough business to keep property taxes down … I know people are concerned about traffic, and the city is addressing that.”
Angel didn’t mention her fellow District 5 contenders, Larry Hanisee and Tommy Harvey – saying she didn’t have any particular issues in the district.
“I’ll listen to constituents,” Angel said, “I’ll always listen. I’m going to be available (to constituents. And I’ll always vote with a conscience.”
Finally, the rarity in Bossier City elections is Council District 4’s Jeff Free, who replaces David Jones on July 1, 2013. Jones chose not to run for a fifth term, and Free had no opposition at qualifying.
Free, a realtor, has actually been attending City Council meetings since July 2012, and said he’d been watching the Council’s work closely for the last year and a half.
“I’ve wanted to be a council member for the last 10 years, but the timing wasn’t good … but everything is jelling for me now,” Free said.
Free discussed his unique opportunity to speed up the Council learning curve, saying that David Jones had been most supportive with sharing information and coaching Free.
“Someone told me that the first year you serve is a learning curve – you don’t get a lot done, you just learn … I can’t imagine getting sworn in and the next day be expected to know everything going on in the city. I think there’s a lot of stuff as a citizen that you don’t know … you see a news story paragraph, but you don’t know it may have been six months to a year of work to get to that one or two sentences.”
Free said he’s presently taking advantage of the opportunity to review the same information council members are provided and to listen and observe closely the council’s work.
“I’m getting a head start,” he said.
No doubt District 4 residents will be reassured that their next council member will be ready to work on July 1.
Marty Carlson is a columnist for the Bossier Press-Tribune. She may be reached via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
