AUBURN – After spending the day side by side – greeting Ward 3 voters as they entered Auburn Hall – city council candidates Joseph DeFilipp and Dan Herrick agreed to be nice when the vote was over.

“I’ll wish Dan all the best,” said DeFilipp, 60, who served four terms on the city council before leaving in 2004.

He may be held to his pledge.

On Tuesday, Herrick won the Ward 3 seat in a vote of 447 to 360.

During the campaign, Herrick, who had never before held political office, garnered a reputation as someone fighting for the common folks in the city.

His contention is that too much of the city’s economic development is costing taxpayers.

“Of course, everybody feels the taxes in this city are too high,” Herrick said during the campaign. “I have a problem with the tax base growing larger and larger, but at the same time, it’s not reducing our out-of-pocket expenses. The problem that I have is, why should the citizens of Auburn that are on fixed incomes and retired, loosen up their livelihood just to benefit the wealthy and the select few?”

Herrick, 49, said he’d grown optimistic about his chances as election day went on and by the way folks greeted him and talked as they came through the doors.

Sounding like Mayor John Jenkins, with whom he celebrated Tuesday, he said he considered his victory to be a win for Auburn common people.

His first duty as city councilor?

“It’s to start working for the public who put me here,” he said.