In a four to three vote, Mitchell Wayne Smith was appointed by the Alexander City Council to fill the vacancy in the Ward-1 Position-2 seat. The two other candidates were Ross L. Lawhon and Jo E. Shell.
The seat was declared vacant by the council, that existed at the time, during the December, 2022 council meeting. A resignation letter was sent, by E-mail, by now former Council Member Elizabeth Bland. Bland resigned after the November election. She had moved to Little Rock and did not seek re-election. Also, no one filed for that position to run in the November General Election.
Under normal circumstances the vacancy would have been filled one month later at the next meeting, providing a candidate could be found. Appointing someone was on the January agenda but Mayor Crystal Herrmann was able to get it tabled for one month.
“I was notified by the election commission that it was done incorrectly and that I had to contact Municipal League, which I have,” Herrmann claimed during the January council meeting. “And I'm waiting on the email and writing on how to move forward.”
Council Member Tony Staton asked, “What clarification?”
“They just notified me that it was handled incorrectly and it had to go through the court,” Herrmann responded. “I'm waiting on writing on if we can move forward without having to go to the court. So we will have to table that one.”
This was Herrmann’s first meeting as mayor.
Prior to the vote at the February 27 council meeting, council members listened to comments by the three candidates. Each gave their reasons why they should be selected to fill the vacancy.
Ross Lawhon, a resident of the Knollwood Mobile Home Park, was first to speak.
“I've lived here for 17 years and four months, and ... I would be honored to represent Ward-1,” Lawhon said. “The former person that was here, Elizabeth Bland, had been a neighbor of mine, and I would like to do what I can to bring honor and respect from two of Ward-1 to the council meeting and support the council meeting in whatever way I possibly can, God willing.”
“I'm also an ordained minister,” Lawhon added.
Next was Jo E. Shell. Shell has lived in Alexander since November 1989 and resides on Kelli Place.
“I've been here for 33 years,” Shell said. “I'm interested in, because I know there are children who are hungry, some on my street that sometimes they get food that's sent home with school teachers and especially with weekends. I want to be able to do whatever I can do to help our community, whatever it takes.”
“I will be retiring from my full time job, and I'm less than two years,” Shell continued. “Whether I get to [sic] honor holding this position or not, I still want to help.”
Mitchell W. Smith, who goes by Wayne, is a long-time resident of Alexander. He is the brother of City Recorder Sharon Bankhead and the son of former city council member, the late Dortheria Smith.
“I do like to help the community,” Smith said. “I would like to do that.”
He says he’s “prudent” and “then I do the effort.”
Unfortunately, when it came time to vote the voting procedure was not explained to council members. Under state law, to fill a vacancy, the majority vote is based on the number of council members minus the vacant seat. In this case eight seats becomes seven and the majority changes from five to four.
Council Member Joe Pollard made the motion to appoint Mitchell W. Smith to the council and Council Member Joy Gray seconded. In a roll call vote Joe Pollard, Joy Gray, Harold Timmerman, and Juanita Wilson voted “Yes.” Gina Thomas and Angela Griffin voted “No.” Council Member Tony Staton was absent due to illness, which also counts as a “No” vote.
Even though the final vote was four to three, due to the misunderstanding, Council Member Angela Griffin nominated Jo E. Shell to fill the vacancy. Council Member Gina Thomas seconded. As expected the vote was two “Yes” and five “No.” Staton again was counted as a “No” vote.
Once council members were made aware of the error the second nomination was rescinded. Mayor Crystal Herrmann then swore-in Smith to fill the vacant seat.
During the interim time between the January and February meetings Council Member Joy Gray researched the process required to fill a vacancy on a city council. Prior to the February 27 meeting Gray released E-mail threads that were developed during her research. The first thing she did was to send an E-mail to the mayor asking for the response from the Arkansas Municipal League (AML).
---- On Wed, 25 Jan 2023 12:16:20 -0600 ... wrote ----
Good afternoon Mayor,
I have been thinking about the Municipal League emailing you to state that the council made a procedural mistake in how we handled the vacating of the last position on the council. Which of course led to us not being able to fill the position per the instructions of the League. At the meeting you stated that someone from the League had emailed you and stated they were looking into it and that we could not fill the position until the League provided further guidance. I was wondering if I might get a copy of that email so that I can see where exactly we went wrong so that we don't ever make a similar mistake. It was something I thought of asking for the other night but it was a busy evening so it slipped my mind until my current lunch break. I look forward to seeing what the problem was and what our corrective action should be. Thanks in advance for sending it.
Regards,
Joy Gray
Mayor Crystal Herrmann responded with the following.
From: Crystal Herrmann
Sent: Monday, February 6, 2023 at 02:13:12 PM CST
Subject: Re: Mistake from December meeting
Good afternoon Joy,
Does Elizabeth Bland have a letter of resignation?
If so it needs to be filed at the Election Commission office in Benton.
Without it the city could be at risk for a lawsuit if the vacancy is filled and she shows up saying she didn't agree. It puts the city at risk for lawsuit if that happens.
The vacancy can be filled this next meeting with the resignation letter is on file at Election Commission.
Sincerely,
Mayor Herrmann
It had been stated during the January council meeting Bland had provided a resignation letter. To verify the Mayor’s assertion Gray contacted Caleb Alexander with the Arkansas Municipal League (AML).
From:
Joy Gray
Sent: Monday, February 6, 2023 2:46:54 PM
To:
Caleb Alexander
Subject: Fw: Re: Mistake from December meeting
Please see below. Do we need to get Elizabeth Bland to file something with the election commission in order for this move forward? The vacancy was declared in December if you recall, nobody ran for that seat, and she no longer lives in Alexander. I'm willing to track her down if I need to, but if we can do it without me hunting her down that would be great. Any guidance you can provide is much appreciated. As I said in my prior discussions with you, I have been unable to find much in the way of exact specifications required to declare the vacancy beyond what we have already done. If a letter must be on file somewhere I will get it.
Regards,
Joy Gray
Alexander forwarded the question to Lanny Richmond, another attorney with AML. He responded with the following.
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Lanny Richmond"
To: "lanajoy@*****.com", "mayor@cityofalexander.org"
Cc: "Caleb Alexander"
Sent: Tue, Feb 7, 2023 at 9:32 AM
Subject: RE: Mistake from December meeting
All,
Caleb and I have conferred on this issue, and it seems we are running out of advice to offer. A resignation does not have to be in writing, but would certainly be preferable, particularly if the alternative is only a verbal resignation to one person. However, a verbal resignation is an option.
As an initial matter, the election commission does not have any role in the appointment of municipal officials, they only have roles in regards to the election of municipal officials. Of course, if they have offered some legal advice please forward it over. But, no law requires a resignation get filed with the election commission.
I hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Lanny Richmond, II
Senior Legal Counsel, Arkansas Municipal League
Gray then E-mailed the following to council members and the mayor.
2/7/2023
Please see below. Should anyone have any further questions, I think the Municipal League has been CLEAR on this matter.
What we did in December was fine. There is no threat of legal action and any word otherwise is untrue.
Gray then took it a step further and spoke to Charlie Morris; Election Administration Supervisor with the State Board of Election Commissioners. She followed-up the phone conversation with an e-mail.
Thank you for speaking with me earlier. I wanted to confirm my two questions that I asked.
1. A letter of resignation received by the city is sufficient for a city council vacancy. We do not file resignation letters with the county or state election commission.
2. If no citizen petitions to run for a specific position on the council, and therefore no one is elected to that seat, the seat is by default a vacant seat that can be filled.
Thank you again for taking the time to speak with me today.
Regards,
Joy Gray
Morris responded with the following.
You are correct on both points........… I would advise the letter just be filed with your city clerk or recorder.
Glad to be of assistance...........
Charlie Morris
Election Administration Supervisor
State Board of Election Commissioners
According to Morris not only was the Ward-1 council seat vacant by a letter of resignation and declaration by the council, it was vacant January 1, 2023 due to no one running for it in the General Election.
The next meeting of the Alexander City Council is Monday, March 20 at 6:00 PM in the courtroom at the Alexander Municipal Complex. The public is invited to attend.
No comments:
Post a Comment