Ben Kramer, who recently won an election to stay on as a member of the Clarkdale Town Council, resigned from his seat at a council meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 25. Kramer has expressed interest in applying for the open position as Clarkdale Town Manager once Gayle Mabery steps down in the next year. Since the Clarkdale Town Code bars members of council from being named to positions in the town government, Kramer ended his term on the council so he could be considered for the position.
“I think your insight and thoughtfulness of action has been really apparent all the time you’ve been on the council,” Mayor Doug Von Gausig said to Kramer as the council accepted his resignation. “I will miss your counsel on this council.”
In addition to accepting Kramer’s resignation, the council discussed a process for filling Kramer’s seat. Since Kramer vacated the position before the current term has finished, and will also not take his seat on the coming council meeting, the council is responsible for filling the position both for the remainder of the current term, which ends on Nov. 13, and for the next one, beginning Nov. 13.
Town Clerk Mary Ellen Dunn presented the council with a staff recommendation for the replacement process for the current term, based on the process that led to Kramer being appointed a year ago.
Dunn suggested adding an extra question to the questionnaire that applicants would be required to answer: “If you were appointed to fill the vacant term from Sept. 25, 2018 to Nov. 13, 2018, would you also be willing to be appointed for an additional two-year term beginning Nov. 13, 2018?”
Some members of the council suggested alternatives for the application process besides the one presented by Dunn.
Vice Mayor Richard Dehnert expressed misgivings about a process that gives full power to the council to handle this appointment, as opposed to the voters. He also expressed disappointment that the suggested process, which would not even receive applications before Oct. 10, would require nearly as much time to ll the vacancy as the new member would be on the council.
“I think it would be accepted better by our citizenry if we depended on the evidence that was created by their votes in the primary election in August in making this selection than it would be for us to make our own choice as to who qualifies based on people who applied a year ago for Ben’s job or anybody else who wants to apply,” Dehnert said at the meeting.
Dehnert suggested that the third-place candidate in August’s primary, Eileen Sydow, should be appointed to the seat. Kramer placed second in the primary for two seats on council, following fellow incumbent Bill Regner with 510 votes; Sydow received 403.
But Von Gausig argued that giving the seat to Sydow as third-place winner would be assuming that Kramer’s votes would have transferred to her were he not on the ballot, an argument Dehnert disputed.
In the end, the council agreed with Von Gausig, and voted 3-1 to adopt the process suggested by Dunn and town staff. However, at the request of Councilman Scott Buckley, the council removed the additional question about whether an applicant for the current term would be willing to be appointed for the following term.
Buckley argued that, since Kramer continues to have the opportunity to claim his council seat on Nov. 13, it would be unreasonable for the council to make decisions about the later term at this stage.
According to the finalized version of the process, applications featuring a cover letter, resume and answers to the questionnaire agreed on by the council are to be submitted by Wednesday, Oct. 10. The council will interview candidates in an open meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 16, and the new council member will be seated Tuesday, Oct. 23.
Some in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting expressed frustration at what seemed to some like a closed-off or undemocratic process. A sarcastic comment by Dehnert that the council was trying to claim “superior knowledge” was rebutted by the mayor, only to be met with laughs from the room.
“It’s a muddy mess,” Clarkdale resident Phil Dirksen said after the meeting.
Jon Hecht can be reached at 634-8551, or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
