NCLM.ORG 23 senior technical staff, overseeing teams on five continents. “A very demanding job,” Garimella said. “I loved it.” The journey could have settled there, especially considering how well the career aligned with Garimella’s talent of analytical thinking. “My philosophy is very simple. If I know the answer, I’ll get it done,” Garimella said. Instead, it served to inform his future path as an elected official, which launched at perhaps the most innocuous of public forums: his neighborhood homeowners association. Garimella joined the HOA in 2013, and almost immediately began making a difference. The big issue was a park. Promised by a local developer as part of a rezoning arrangement, the park had not materialized. “It had been ignored for about 15 years,” Garimella recalls. He got to work organizing behind the cause, rallying, conducting door-to-door campaigns, and meeting and building relationships with the Town Council at the time. The result: Northwest Park, which Garimella calls one of the best in Morrisville. His work on that issue gained attention. Shortly afterwards, Garimella was approached and asked to run for an open seat on the Town Council, being told that it was, as Garimella remembers the pitch, just two meetings a month. “I got tricked,” Garimella said. “But it’s a good trick. It takes a lot of my time, but I’m happy.” He ran in 2015 and won handily, receiving more than 60 percent of the vote. Already a fixture in the community at this point, Garimella now began to step into the all-out citizen advocate role he’s since become known for, utilizing a public service approach comprised of the inspirations gathered from his parents’ work and his own problem-solving ability. He’d soon gain another attribute—an addition gleaned through a harrowing ordeal that altered his perspective on people, community and work ethic forever. It started with a spider bite. Shortly after his election, Garimella and the other members of the Morrisville Town Council took a coastal retreat, where they toured the area and reviewed many local success stories. Along that walk, Garimella felt a small, almost painless insect bite, and looked down to see a spider on his leg. “I knew something went in, but I brushed it off,” he said. “Life went on.” He had a scheduled trip to India beginning that next week, so he flew straight from the retreat with still no sign of injury or any sort of harm whatsoever. That status quo began to quickly change about four days into his trip. First, the bite developed into a small bump, but trivial enough to be dismissed by the doctors in Garimella’s family. A few days later, the bump had grown. Then, Garimella’s entire leg inflated. He quickly videoed doctors back in the United States who advised him to take the next possible flight home. He followed their guidance, persevered through an excruciatingly painful international trip, drove straight from the airport to the hospital, and was ushered immediately into surgery. Garimella had been bitten by a brown recluse spider, and his leg was necrotizing. “The doctor said just one thing to me,” Garimella said, recalling the moment he awoke from surgery, “‘I think I’ve saved your life, but I’m not sure if I’ve saved your leg.’” What followed was 14 surgeries, 40 days in the intensive care unit, and four months of bedrest. Garimella narrowly avoided amputation. This is when the parade of visitors, totaling in the thousands, came to see him—friends, family, colleagues, congressional staff, town and county staff, and on and on. His takeaways from that time are many and varied, from the size of his support system to the quickness with which life circumstances can change. Mostly, though, he thinks of the nurses. “I was not exposed to that level of hard work before,” Garimella said. “Understanding them, looking through the lens of them, it has completely changed my life. I learned how health workers work, and how much empathy they have. It changed my life. And from then onwards, I was more committed to public service.” In the nearly seven years since that incident, Garimella has settled firmly into his elected position. He is proud of the big issues Morrisville has addressed during his time, from transportation problems to school and infrastructure improvement, and he sees a bright future for the rapidly growing Triangle town. He is most proud, though, of the smaller issues—the individual stories—and his ability to enact change on a person-by-person basis. “It inspires me,” he said. “There’s nothing better than getting that note from someone that says, ‘Hey, you helped us. It has gone a long way.’ It’s the small changes that make you realize the importance of public service.” And, at least once a year, Garimella goes down to the hospital ward to pay a visit to the nurses and doctors that cared for him during his long stay. Albeit with roles reversed, it’s a small example of the Morrisville councilperson practicing what he preaches: an open-door policy. Morrisville Councilman Satish Garimella is On Call There’s nothing better than getting that note from someone that says, ‘Hey, you helped us. It has gone a long way.’ It’s the small changes that make you realize the importance of public service. » Satish Garimella, Morrisville Councilman Morrisville’s Town Council Members enjoying NCLM's CityVision 2022. Right to left: Council Member Steve Rao, Mayor Pro Tem Liz Johnson, Council Member Vicki Scroggins-Johnson, and Council Member Satish Garimella. Photo credit Ben Brown.
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