NORTH MANKATO — Former North Mankato City Councilman Kenny DeWitte is attempting a comeback, filing for one of the two open council seats on the Nov. 6 general election ballot two years after he was beaten in a re-election run.

This is DeWitte's fourth attempt for a city position. In 2004, he ran for mayor but was unable to campaign after a motorcycle crash on Sept. 25 left him in a coma until just days before the general election.

By 2006, DeWitte was back at his job at Crown Beverage Packaging, back on his Harley and back on the ballot Ñ this time for a council seat. He ran that year as a strong critic of the city administration, promising to "rein in" City Administrator Wendell Sande.

After four years on the council, his opinion of Sande and city operations had changed dramatically.

"Everybody says I sold my soul to Wendell Sande," DeWitte said Wednesday. "No, I didn't sell my soul to Wendell Sande. I found out what kind of an individual Wendell Sande is. And if it wasn't for Wendell Sande, North Mankato wouldn't be what it is today."

Whether or not his transformation from skeptic to booster played a role, he lost his re-election bid in 2010 -- finishing third in a tight four-way race for two council seats.

DeWitte blames his campaign work more than his council performance for his loss.

"I was a little lax two years ago," he said. "My health was holding me down a little bit."

Sande has since retired as city administrator, but DeWitte isn't tempering his praise for the work he and the rest of the city staff have done. And he doesn't hold back his criticism of Councilman Bob Freyberg, who knocked DeWitte off the council two years ago and is perhaps the council's biggest fiscal hawk, and North Mankato resident Kim Spears, a regular critic at council meetings who is running for a seat this year.

"You've got Mr. Spears, who questions every single thing, and then you've got Mr. Freyberg on the council and he's as bad as Kim Spears," DeWitte said.

With state aid stagnant, DeWitte said property tax increases are necessary to maintain North Mankato's quality of life.

"The cost of everything's going up," he said. "You just have to swallow hard and take it as it is. ... The taxes go up 100 bucks, it's no skin off my back."

The alternative is the loss of the city swimming pool, lower quality snow plowing, fewer services such as yard waste pick-up, according to DeWitte.

 "All of the small things that make this an enjoyable community are going to go away," he said.

Along with DeWitte and Spears, 16-year-Councilman Billy Steiner filed his candidacy on Tuesday, the first day of the two-week filing period.

Mark Dehen filed Tuesday for a second two-year term as mayor. No other mayoral candidates filed in the first two days.

The two council seats, which carry four-year terms, are at-large with the top two vote-getters on Nov. 6 winning the seats. Incumbent Councilman Bill Schindle is not seeking re-election, choosing instead to run for the Nicollet County Board.