As president of Lima City Council, I would like to respond to Robert DeVita’s letter published Sunday, Dec. 19, on the Opinion page of The Lima News.
The following was explained during City Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Nov. 29, due to a vacancy of the 3rd Ward Council seat as the result of “non election” as there were no candidates with certified petitions.
The City Charter does not specify what process Council must use to select a representative for a vacancy other than to say in Section 24: “If at any time, the office of a member of Council is vacant by reason of non-election, death, resignation, removal of residence from the ward or City represented or from any other cause whatsoever, except when the vacancy is caused by a recall election, such vacancy shall be filled by the Council for the unexpired term.”
Also in Section 24 is a paragraph which states: “Commencing with the Municipal election held in November, 1973, all Councilmen to be elected from a ward designated by an odd number shall be elected for a term of four (4) years and shall serve until their successors are chosen and have qualified.”
Previous vacancies on Council were due to other reasons; this is the first known situation of “non election” that anyone could recall and certainly has not occurred during my 32 years on Council.
Council discussed taking applications and interviewing residents of the 3rd Ward for the position – a practice (not a rule) that has been used in the other situations we have encountered.
• Some members aptly pointed out that if anyone else had shown an interest in filing petitions to run, and successfully filed petitions, that person would have run unopposed as Ms. Thompson’s petitions were not certified.
• One member also pointed out that, in effect, the last vote on record indicated that Ms. Thompson had the support of the residents of the 3rd Ward.
• It was also pointed out that holding interviews would be disingenuous — and cruel to applicants not to mention a waste of time — when the majority of members had expressed they would select Ms. Thompson.
• Finally, if Council were to take “no action” for up to four years, the charter states that the person holding the ward position “shall serve until their successors are chosen and have qualified.” In such a case, Ms. Thompson would continue to serve as the 3rd Ward Council representative.
All of this was discussed in a public meeting — quite transparently — and Mr. DeVita was present at the meeting on Nov. 29th when this was discussed and explained.
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