Refresher for Vacancies on Council

The following is the procedure to be taken for filling vacancies on council, as found in the 2011 Rules of Council.

Filling Vacancies on Council
When a vacancy arises on council either through a council member vacating an unexpired term or because no one ran to fill a 4-year term, there will be an immediate call for citizens to indicate their interest in filling the unexpired or vacant term. Such call will be made through announcements in the village newsletter, phone calls from council members and others knowing of the vacancy, and announcements placed at appropriate
places in the village. Such announcements will include the deadline for citizens to indicate their interest. The deadline will be within 30 days of the first date the vacancy was announced to the public.

To indicate interest, a citizen must submit a resume and letter of intent to the mayor or any of the council members. Once the mayor or council member receives the resume and letter, he/she will immediately see that all members of council receive copies. If no regular meeting is scheduled, a special meeting will be scheduled immediately after the deadline in order for the interested citizens to appear in person before the mayor and
council to both ask and answer questions.

Every effort should be made to have all council members present to interview and select a new member. At least four members* of council must be present in order to call the meeting to order and select and vote to fill a vacancy. Filling the vacancy will be the first order of business on the agenda.

All candidates would be interviewed and a vote taken. Voting is to be done by secret ballot one position at a time with the vacancy of shortest duration filled first. Because there might be multiple vacancies (one, two or even three vacancies) on council at one time, there must be at least three council members present to proceed with the voting.

Whether there are three, four, or five members of council present to select a new member, at least three votes must be cast in favor of any one individual for that person to be selected. In no instance would a person be voted to council with fewer than three votes.

Once the vote is taken and an applicant has received three or more votes, that person can be placed on council by resolution and sworn in by the mayor and can begin his/her duties immediately. If there are still vacancies and still interested applicants for the positions, the voting can continue until all positions are filled. All members of council are required to vote unless there is a conflict of interest (see section on Voting), and , if a member feels there are no qualified candidates among those interested, that council member can cast a blank ballot that indicates "NO VOTE.”

If council is unable to select a replacement within the 30 day period, the mayor shall appoint a replacement or the mayor can decide that the position will be re-advertised and there will be another 30 days to fill the position.

Unless otherwise decided by the mayor and council, the person filling the vacancy will serve on all the committees as the person being replaced until the end of the year, however, if the person being replaced was chair of the committee, the mayor and council may appoint one of the existing committee members to serve as chair for the remainder of the year.

*In the unlikely event that there are three vacancies on council at one time, a meeting can be called to order with only three members with appointing a new council member being the first and only item to be acted upon with three members. In the case of three vacancies, if any one person receives all three votes of the council members present, that person is immediately placed on council by resolution and sworn in by the mayor. At
that point there are now four on council, the new member may vote, and there is a quorum to conduct business.

I should expect to see notification of this vacancy immediately. Even if the legal requirement of notification is met, I doubt it will be in an effective manner, considering very few people I have spoken with are aware of the previous resignation of the Clerk-Treasurer that occurred last week, though that position is not covered under Rules of Council.

Update: The resignation this was in reference to has been rescinded. The council member still holds this position.