Crystal City Ward 2 Councilman Tony Becker will resign his seat this month because his family is moving out of the city.
Residency in the city is required to serve on the City Council.
Becker’s last meeting as a councilman will be July 24, Mayor Mike Osher said.
Becker, 46, has served on the council since 2011 and was re-elected to his seventh two-year term in April.
He said he, his wife, Hadas, and their three sons soon will move to Webster Groves to reduce his wife’s commute to work.
“A 45-minute commute before and after a 12-hour nursing shift was not fair to her when I could walk next door to go to work,” Becker said at the June 26 City Council meeting.
Osher said Becker will be missed.
“It’s a big loss for the city. He is a great councilman. He’s what you want a councilman to be,” Osher said. “We have a great council right now. Every councilman here has their strengths. He is a great addition and I hate to see him go.”
Osher said anyone interested in filling the open seat on the Crystal City Council may fill out an application, which is available at City Hall.
He said he will review the applications, interview candidates and appoint someone to the seat, subject to council approval.
Becker, currently the longest serving council member, said he has seen a lot of progress in the city during his tenure, including the construction of a new water treatment plant, passage of a use tax collected on internet sales to fund road improvements, a commitment for a James Hardie manufacturing plant to be built in the city, and the completion of a salary study which led to the city providing employees with market-competitive wages.
“It’s been really rewarding for me over the years because you get to participate in a lot of things that maybe people don’t notice or see,” Becker said. “But it’s like any service work; if you do the job right, a lot of people never notice that anything has been done.”
Becker also has served as the mayor pro-tem and has been the council’s Planning and Zoning liaison and the finance committee chairperson. During his years on the council, he earned chancellor’s certificates in planning and zoning and economic development from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Becker, like all the Crystal City Council members, is paid $100 per month for serving on the council.
“You don’t do a job like this for fortune and glory,” Becker said. “I did it because it looked like it needed to get done.”
Becker, a Crystal City native, graduated from St. Pius X High School in 1994. He attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., from 1994 to 1999 and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. He worked in several software development positions before returning to Crystal City in 2002 to work as an insurance broker at Custom Insurance Services, a business his father, Don Becker, started in 1975. Tony Becker and his business partner, Grant Bowen, purchased the agency from Becker’s father in 2020.
Becker said he will continue working at the agency but may reduce his time in the office from six days a week to five.
Becker also served on the 2008 Jefferson County Charter Commission, was a co-founder of the Jefferson County Municipal League, has been part of the Jefferson County Merit System Commission and served twice as president of the Festus-Crystal City Rotary Club.
He said he is uncertain of his future in city government once he moves to Webster Groves, which he said has an application process for those interested in volunteering for boards and committees.
“I expect that eventually after we get settled, I’ll make one of those applications and say essentially, ‘If you can use me, I know a lot about city government. If not, I’m happy to just be a private citizen,’” Becker said. “I don’t have any ambitions to run for other offices at this point.”
However, Becker said he still is interested in helping Crystal City move forward.
“The city is moving in a very positive direction, but there is a lot more work to do. I will continue to make myself available to the mayor, the council, and the staff in whatever capacity I can to continue improving Crystal City,” he said.