After a night of close vote counts against challenger Andy Bock, incumbent Riad Mahayni was finally announced the winner of the Ames Ward 4 City Council election race.

A group of a dozen or so friends and family gathered at Mahayni’s home to await the outcome of the election. Mahayni met his election win with hugs and cheers from friends and family. He said the main goal for his new term was to unify the city of Ames.

“I think the overriding goal is we should unite this community,” Mahayni said. “I hope we will be able to do that as soon as possible.”

Mahayni said after the city united, all other goals – specifically land use, economic development and renovation of infrastructure – would be easy to accomplish.

“I have been doing the service of the community for the last 20 years,” Mahayni said.

The group of friends included members of his campaigning committee who thought land use and development was one of the most important issues that determined the election outcomes.

Neala Benson served on his re-election committee, handled advertising for Mahayni, coordinated letters to the editor for the Ames Tribune and has known Mahayni for nearly 10 years. She said she believes Mahayni has a strong background for community planning.

“The leading issue is how Ames is going to grow in the future.” Benson said. “I believe in what he does on the City Council and his background. We need his type of expertise.”

Benson said this was an area where Mahayni differed from his opponent.

Forty-year Ames resident Franklin Trumpy said the residents were going to base their votes strongly on the candidate’s views on growth and progress.

His son, Basil Mahayni, a recent graduate of Iowa State, worked on the campaign doing both computer work and door knocking.

“The thing that came up the most was land use, most specifically, the mall,” Basil said.

Basil remained hunched over the computer during the minutes before the outcomes were announced, watching the precinct results as they were happening. He pointed out the lack of young voters tallied by officials.

“Like it or not, they are residents here and what goes through the council affects them,” Basil said.

He said he thought student-City Council relations have improved in the last couple of years. His father also thought relations were improving.

“I think the city over the last four years have done quite a bit to encourage student involvement,” Mahayni said.

Ames Mayor Ann Campbell was present at the party but wouldn’t comment on the election because she didn’t want to show any preference.

Mahayni has been a supporter of proposed new Ames’ mall, as well as business expansion near Campustown.

Mahayni is a professor in community and regional planning at Iowa State. He received his B.S. in civil engineering from Oregon State University, his master’s in urban planning from the University of Oregon, and his Ph.D. in regional planning from the University of Washington in Seattle.

Mahayni has served on the City Council for the previous five years and has acted as mayor pro tem since 2006.

Mahayni acted from 1983 to 1985 as a technical coordinator in Mecca, the holy city of Islam. He was appointed to serve on an international board that evaluated design projects for the University in Abha in Saudi Arabia. Mahayni has lived in Ames since 1979. He has two children who attended Iowa State.