EDITORIAL: Your obligation is to fill vacated council seats
When an elected official resigns their council seat, that vacancy is filled by mayoral appointment, requiring confirmation by a majority of the remaining council members.
Despite the rarity of such resignations, in 2024 the two largest cities in Kootenai County each experienced two such vacancies. First was Coeur d’Alene Mayor Jim Hammond resigning for health reasons, and then Council President Woody McEvers was appointed to the mayor’s seat, creating a vacancy of his council seat. Kenny Gabriel was confirmed to fill that vacancy.
A few months later Post Falls City Councilor Kenny Shove resigned his seat midway through his first term after moving out of the city. Shortly after, another first-term councilor, Josh Walker, submitted his resignation due to an employment opportunity.
In November, Ryan Davis was appointed to fill Shove’s seat and next month Mayor Ron Jacobson will bring forth a recommended appointee for confirmation from an unprecedented field of 22 applicants. All appointees will serve until the November 2025 municipal election, when they can choose to, or not, put their name before the voters on the ballot.
How rare are these vacancies? In Coeur d’Alene it’s been 24 years since 2000 when councilor Nancy Sue Wallace resigned after moving outside of the city limits. Ben Wolfinger was appointed to fill the vacancy, and the following November he placed his name on the ballot, earning the seat outright.
In Post Falls, city councilor Todd Tondee successfully ran for a seat on the Kootenai County Board of Commissioners in 2006. Dick Harris was appointed to fill Tondee’s vacated council seat until the 2007 municipal elections but then chose not to run. That was 18 years ago.
Fast forward to November 2024 to the interviews for Shove’s vacated Post Falls city council seat. Three candidates brought forward by Mayor Jacobson were interviewed by the five remaining councilors. All three had established community engagement and were qualified to serve. Some of the questioning of these candidates was contentious and partisan, with two first-year councilors stating they would not vote to confirm any of the three.
Their reasoning was that Shove had been elected as a conservative, as a recommended candidate of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, so there was an obligation to the voters to select a replacement who mirrored his political leanings.
Actually, no. When a duly elected official vacates a seat, the “contract” between the elected and those who placed them in the position with their vote, has been nullified. The good faith obligation, by the also duly elected mayor and council, is to make an appointment to temporarily fill an open seat with a qualified citizen, who’s willing to take on the responsibilities in the short term. In November 2025, once again the people who vote will select a candidate who hopefully will serve out a full term of office if elected.
In January when Mayor Jacobson again brings three names forward to be interviewed, decorum and civility, not partisanship, should be the order of the day in the new year.