Student Jeremy Markley celebrated announcing his candidacy for Chico City Council at Kinder’s Meat & Deli Friday.

The party started at 5 p.m. with appetizers from the deli and chances for guests to talk with Markley.

Markley addressed the crowd around 5:30 p.m, speaking on issues he sees as important in Chico, including crumbling roads, increasing access to legalized marijuana, and rising housing costs and homeless populations.

He said the current city council has failed to address these and other key issues in a case of “toxic partisanship.”

“We have a leadership that no longer seems willing to talk, that no longer seems willing to pay real attention to what the citizens’ concerns are… I’m going to be different,” Markley said.

One attendee, Miranda Lowe said she’s known Markley as a leader of the Chico State Democrats Club.

“I think he’d be great for the council,” Lowe said. “He has enough life experience not to be naive, but he’s still a student, so he understands our issues.”

Before the party ended, Markley spoke to The Orion, imploring students to vote.

“Vote! Freakin’ vote!” he said. “City elections like the ones I’m running for sometimes are decided by less than 100 votes. If students go out and vote, we win. We win every time. We’re a huge part of this community.”

Josh Cozine can be reached at [email protected] or @joshcozine on Twitter.