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Kerala immigrant is on US town city council
Jifi Jacob has been elected to Kewanee city council with fewer than two dozen NRIs among its 13,000 people.
He has been elected to the city council of a town with fewer than two dozen Indian Americans among its 13,000 people. But Jifi Jacob thinks an "outsider" is just what the place needs.
Healthcare professional Jacob, who came to the United States from Kerala when he was seven years old, was elected to the city council in Kewanee, a town 241 km southwest of Chicago.
The 36-year-old, who is also vice president of Peterson Healthcare nursing homes, said he did not feel "out of place" despite the fact he belonged to a minority within a minority in a small town in middle America.
Asked how he managed to reach out to the mainstream population, Jacob told IANS: "In the end it is always about what you can deliver and not about what your ethnicity is.
"I think my involvement with the community through the church, Rotary Club and Salvation Army got me the reward. One has to operate at the grassroots level to succeed."
He has just begun serving a four-year term.
"My issues were very local. A cleaner city, police and fire department issues and so on. People recognised my work over two years in the community."
Asked if the city council was a launching pad for a career in public office, he said: "One always has aspirations but I have just been sworn in for the City Council for a four-year-term. Perhaps two years down the line I might think but not now."
