With the election of three newcomers in November, five of the eight members of the College Park City Council are younger than 50, a demographic change that some said could lend a fresh perspective as the body begins work on the city’s next five-year strategic plan.

Still, several councilmembers said any shift in the way the council governs will be less about age and more about an added diversity of personalities and life experiences.

“To me what’s interesting is less [about] the relative ages than the new people coming on the council and bringing different experiences and different perspectives from that vein,” newly elected Councilmember Daniel Oates (District 3) told College Park Here & Now. “Where in College Park we live, where we come from, what we do in our day jobs [results in] different perspectives.”

Newcomer Kelly Jordan (District 2) agreed.

“We’ll all have lots of questions and … when you’re used to something, comfortable with something, new questions can bring new ideas for how you’re used to looking at it,” Jordan said.

Oates, 37, said those questions—even if they’re based on inexperience—“might open a conversation into what the city can do, whatever topic or challenge.”

The prior council included two members younger than 50—Jacob Hernandez (District 1), 33, and Ray Ranker (District 3), 43, who were both re-elected in November—and seven older officials, including the mayor.

“I think having new blood on the council will help us think about the future of the city and where we want to go,” Oates, who works full time in international technology policy, said.

For example, Jordan, 48, pointed out that she, Oates and Ranker, who has served on the council for 10 months, have young children and might be more focused than their older colleagues on rising utility bills, the quality of local schools and parks, and safety.

“That’s a perspective I’m happy to see on the council,” Jordan, who works full time as an information technology consultant, said.

New Councilmember Holly Simmons (District 2) agreed.

“It’s one of those things where new people entering into a position [make] dynamics shift and everyone learns how to work together to learn, build and grow.”

But Simmons, 37, added that issues affecting councilmembers and constituents in their 30s and 40s often touch those who are older as well.

“Child care … I think that really touches folks in their 60s as well if they are assisting with child care for their grandchildren,” she said. “Housing affordability, that’s something that touches folks in all different walks of life. … It’s one of those things that’s different in your 30s to your 60s to being a college student. The type of housing that you’re looking for varies at different stages of life [but] it’s something that impacts everyone [even though] the way that it impacts people of different ages is different.”

Still, Simmons noted, having one-third of the seats on the council chamber dais filled by officials who have never held public office before might come with some challenges.

“I think this is the flip side of the coin,” said Simmons, an urban planner who works full time as the deputy zoning manager for the City of Rockville. “Having so many new people learning at the same time … can present difficulties as well, particularly in a public forum.”

“I’m not going to be worried about that,” Mayor Fazlul Kabir said, noting that all three of the newly elected councilmembers have been involved with the city through committees or neighborhood civic associations. “It’s not like they just came last year. They know the community. They know the issues.”

Kabir, who served as a councilmember for 12 years before becoming mayor in 2023, predicted that the younger councilmembers could boost the energy level of official meetings.

Seating councilmembers from a variety of age groups, he said, “is called diversity. We all celebrate diversity of age.”

Oates agreed.

“College Park is an intergenerational community,” he said. “One of the benefits of the city is there’s a lot of young people [as well as] people who have lived here their whole lives.”

Electing councilmembers of various ages, Oates added, shapes a council that represents “more of the types of people who are in the city.”