Already we feel the void left by Jimmie Cates, but his shoes we must fill.
He would not want us to delay. Filling vacancies of council members is dictated by state statute in pertinent part to wit:
Utah Code Section 20A-1-510. Midterm vacancies in municipal offices.
...... if any vacancy occurs in the office of a municipal executive or member of a municipal legislative body, the municipal legislative body shall appoint a registered voter in the municipality who meets the qualifications for office established in Section 10-3-301 to fill the unexpired term of the office vacated until the January following the next municipal election.
(b) Before acting to fill the vacancy, the municipal legislative body shall:
(i) give public notice of the vacancy at least two weeks before the municipal legislative body meets to fill the vacancy; and
(ii) identify, in the notice:
(A) the date, time, and place of the meeting where the vacancy will be filled; and
(B) the person to whom a person interested in being appointed to fill the vacancy may submit his name for consideration and any deadline for submitting it.
(c) (i) If, for any reason, the municipal legislative body does not fill the vacancy within 30 days after the vacancy occurs, the municipal legislative body shall vote upon the names that have been submitted.
(ii) The two persons having the highest number of votes of the municipal legislative body shall appear before the municipal legislative body and the municipal legislative body shall vote again.
(iii) If neither candidate receives a majority vote of the municipal legislative body at that time, the vacancy shall be filled by lot in the presence of the municipal legislative body.
Our expected Public Notice to be published in the near future, with important dates included follow: Download notice_of_council_vacancy___cates_1_1.doc
The appointment for the interim council member to serve until January 2008 will be made by the 4 council members; Ricky Storrs, Dale Gunther, Heidi Rodeback and Shirl LeBaron. For those interested in submitting your name for consideration for the vacancy, your Letter of Interest should include the following:
- Your full name, residential address and contact information; phones inc. cell, email, etc.
- A statement that you are U. S. citizen, a registered voter in AF and have been a resident of American Fork or annexed portion for the last 365 days (prior to June 14, 2007);
- The reason(s) for your seeking the position of Interim City Council member;
- Your qualifications; i.e. education background, prior civic involvement and other professional and volunteer experience;
- Your basic philosophies with regard to local municipal government, including your personal skill set applicable to meet the needs of American Fork City.
A short "tutorial" on council time committments, activities and other tidbits can be found in Council Member Heidi Rodeback's blog. (Incidently, someone said "Great Minds Think Alike" or was it "Flaky Minds.... anyway, our latest blog postings crossed cyberspace about the same time and reflect uncannily somewhat the same theme and flavor). eewwwww...Twilight Zone moment here.
For your brief presentation on June 12th; do not repeat what your Letter of Interest said, (we will have read that). Do as an Appellate Judge told me once during oral argument, "Counselor, tell me some things that are not in your brief. You took the time to draft a well reasoned brief and I took the time to read it."
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