“Well, I’m not surprised,” said at-large City Council candidate Pat Brown of her loss to incumbent Matthew Goodman.

In the election Tuesday, there were 2,149 votes tallied for Brown and 2,291 votes for Goodman. The tallies are still unofficial.

“It was that close? Wow,” she said after being told the tally of the votes.

Brown, who was talked into running five days prior to the deadline to declare, said she didn’t mind if she won the race.

She was in good spirits at the discovery of falling behind the incumbent. She said this would be her “last hurrah” in the political process.

Brown wanted to clean up Campustown and bring in more of all types of jobs to help the growth of the community. She delegated K-12 students from lower schools into better, wealthier schools to have a better integration of the students here in Ames.

Brown said the integration of ISU students into the community could be and should be beneficial to everyone in Ames, but the community and university need to come to an agreement.

Brown was a member of the Ames City Council from 1985 to 1995. In a time of controversy for Mary Greeley Medical Center, which was having issues with “trust and credibility” in the community, Brown resigned her City Council seat before her term ended and was elected to the hospital board of trustees.

During her tenure she helped the medical center re-establish trust and credibility with the community. Brown supported increasing the reserve fund rather than spending to increase market share.

Brown’s community involvement began in 1979 when she led her neighborhood in filing a lawsuit against the city of Ames, asserting that the storm sewer system was not up to code. She won not only the court case, but also praise from the Ames city manager.

Brown’s council leadership achievements include initiating a program to legalize thousands of conversions of single family houses to rental units; establishing an ordinance requiring safety inspection of rental properties; supporting a controversial ordinance making discrimination against sexual preference illegal; organizing the Ames 2000 community forum – which brought diverse elements to agree on a new sewer plant; and initiating the Story County Mayor’s Association to establish communication among Story County communities.

In 2004, Brown organized a not-for-profit organization, Housing for Sustainable Neighborhoods, to encourage owner-occupied homes in older neighborhoods. The organization identifies sound homes of modest price, locates potential buyers and assists with down payments and/or remodeling costs. Buyers agree that they will only sell the house as a single-family unit.

Despite its relative newness, the organization has received several large grants and contributions.