After Stalling, Dexter Council Renews Efforts to Fill Vacancy

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By Doug Marrin, STN Reporter

At its June 14, 2021, meeting, the Dexter City Council discussed how to fill its empty council seat.

The process stalled at the Council’s May 24 meeting.

Five Dexter residents submitted letters of interest for the open seat—Cole Miller, Joe Semifero, Rich Bellas, Sanam Arab, and Julie Wilkinson. The selection process outlined in the City Council Rules includes the mayor making a recommendation to the council, who in turn vote for approval. A candidate must receive four votes to be appointed.

Mayor Keough first recommended Joe Semifero, believing Mr. Semifero to have the most experience in city government of the candidates. The six-member council split its vote 3-3. Next, the Mayor recommended Rich Bellas, also citing his experience in local government. Mr. Bellas also received a 3-3 vote. At that point, Mayor Keough ended his recommendations.

In an earlier phone call with the Sun Times News, Mayor Keough explained his reason for stopping the process after two recommendations. “I didn’t want to make a mockery of the process or the candidates, so I stopped with just those two recommendations until the Council can sort out how we’re going to do this,” he explained.

The Mayor reminded the Council of his reason for stopping the nomination process, adding, “I’m not quite sure where to go from here. I’m not sure if we’re voting against the process or the people.”

The eight-step process outlined in City Council Rules is as follows:

  1. Officially vacate the Council Member position, if required.
  2. Provide adequate notification to the public regarding the open position through the city newsletter, a newspaper, the internet, or any other means deemed appropriate.
  3. The applicant will write a letter of intent or fill out an application in accordance with the advertised deadline, a copy of which will be provided to the Council in the Council packet.
  4. At the next council meeting, the Mayor or Presiding Officer will announce all the applicants and provide copies of applications or letters of intent.
  5. The Mayor or Presiding Officer makes a nomination from the applications received.
  6. The nominee is then voted on.
  7. If this nominee received four votes, he or she is then appointed and sworn into office.
  8. In the event this nominee does not receive 4 votes, the process begins again at step 5.

Some on the Council have expressed a desire for a different method in fill vacated council seats. Wondering if this may have been a factor in the voting, the Mayor asked the Council for clarification.

“My votes (at the last meeting) were not a vote against the process,” said Griffin. “I would have expected more names to come forward, but I can see your perspective where if you were feeling like nothing was going to pass, you would have been hesitant to put out more names.”

Griffin observed that there is the chance that none of the candidates could get the four votes needed for approval. “I guess we’d have to come back to the drawing board on that and figure out what that means and what we want to do about that,” she said.

Mayor Keough challenged the Council, asking if they have had conversations with the five candidates. “Where I am going with this is that if you are going to make an educated decision on all five of them, I will hope that you would have talked to all of them before voting. I’m curious as to how you’re basing your decision.”

Councilmember Michels favors a new process but voiced his support for following the one that is in place. “We ought to go through the five candidates,” he said. “There are members from there that I am prepared to vote for.”

In step with Mayor Keough’s point, Michels voiced the opinion that council members should reacquaint themselves with the candidates before another vote occurs.

Michels also shared one of his guiding principle in choosing a council member. “Those of you who know me, or even just listen to me speak know that I love divergent philosophies and positions,” he said. “There’s a lot of strength in that.”

Councilmember Hubbard concurred with Michels. “I think that is a very important way to approach the big issues that we are dealing with,” said Hubbard. “I hope that we can continue to do that because it is important for us to understand where the others on this body are coming from.”

Mayor Keough concluded the discussion by stating he would continue the current process at the Council’s June 28 meeting.

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