City Council to fill Ward 1 vacancy with November election winner
Martin Kidston
(Missoula Current) The voters of Ward 1 will choose their next City Council representative this November rather than having council members appoint a replacement prior to the election.
The City Council's Committee of the Whole approved the approach Wednesday on a nearly unanimous vote, saying it was the fastest way to fill the vacant seat with a publicly elected representative and not tip the scale of favoritism toward any single candidate.
“We feel this is a good democratic way to get things done faster” said council member Amber Sherrill. “We're trying to get that clear winner in as quickly as possible.”
Ward 1 council member Jennifer Savage recently moved to Ward 3, making it unlawful for her to continue serving the district. She is now running in Ward 3 and will face Ward 3 incumbent Daniel Carlino this November.
With Savage no longer in Ward 1, two new candidates are vying for the now-vacant seat, including Elizabeth Craske and Lucas Moody. The winner of the November election will be sworn in that month once canvassing is completed and begin serving Ward 1.
Typically, the winner wouldn't be sworn in until January. The approach selected Wednesday expedites the time frame for the Ward 1 winner to join council as a voting member.
“I feel like suspending the rules to allow for the democratically elected candidate to fill the vacancy is the best way to do it, rather than us picking someone,” said Ward 1 council member Eric Melson. “That ensures our own biases don't influence this body, and I think that's critically important now.”
City rules typically require that a vacancy is filled within 30 days. If taken as law, it would require City Council to begin the appointment process now and fill the vacant seat in early October, even as the election process was playing out simultaneously.
While several members of the public said the city should follow the rule regardless, a majority of council members said the rule didn't consider a vacancy opening so close to an election, when voters would make the decision anyway.
“Laws can't predict every possible scenario,” said council member Stacie Anderson. “This is actually the fairest. We're letting the people of Ward 1 pick their next elected. We're trying to get that person in as soon as possible to set them up for success and do a good job of representing their constituents.”
Another portion of city law also calls on council to begin the appointment process when it's first known that a vacancy will occur. While Savage stated her intent to move, she didn't actually do so until early September.
“We did know Savage was planning to move, but an official vacancy of that seat is what triggers the clock in terms of how and when we start appointing someone,” said council member Mirtha Becerra. “Until an official vacancy of that seat was received by the clerk's office or council president, we didn't know when that would happen. As soon as that official vacancy was sent to us, we began looking at how to get a publicly elected person into that seat as quickly as possible.”
City Attorney Ryan Sudburry said the decision to wait until the election to fill the vacancy would be hold up in court.
“There are times in law where there's a required deadline to do something,” he said. “But recognizing that this is an unusual situation not strictly provided for in the law – that's what I see here. I feel confident that if there were some judicial review of this resolution that we'd be able to defend it.”