The World and KCBY are reporting on the interview process last night to fill the seat ‘vacated’ by Kathy Hagen. However, the question has been raised since Hagen was not eligible on the day of election therefore she never won the seat and thus had no seat to ‘vacate’.
Mayor Britton, accepting the interpretations of city attorney, John Trew and city manager, Terence O’Connor, of council rules and the city charter is quoted as saying the council had no choice but to engage in this interview process.
“I would much prefer that the general election would select our next council person but our council rules say that in the event of a vacated position, this is the process we have to go through to select the council person.”
[Emphasis mine]
Nevertheless, it appears that the council might be violating the charter by having accepted an ineligible Hagen as elected to the council.
SECTION 12. QUALIFICATION OF OFFICERS. No person shall be eligible for an elective office of the city unless at the time of the election he/she is a qualified elector within the meaning of the state constitution and has resided in the city during 12 months immediately preceding the election.
Hagen did not reside in the city on election day, (unconfirmed reports state she may have been a part time resident for several months). So was the council remiss in treating Hagen’s ineligibility to serve on the council and resignation as a ‘vacated’ seat? Has the council misinterpreted the charter and state and local election laws to the detriment of the electorate?
Lawyer Matt Muenchrath apparently too busy to run for the election has seized on this opportunity to ease his way onto the city council. Frankly, I was impressed with Muenchrath and certainly hope he will make the effort to run in the next election two years from now but I feel strongly that he should earn his position by working as hard to get elected as Dian has done, including attending city council meetings for the last two years. Where have you been Mr Muenchrath?
There is a comment from The World which bears quoting
What a Shame wrote on Dec 16, 2008 1:47 PM:
My vote would go to John Spencer or for Dian Courtright. There is enough business type on the counsel now. We need someone in there that represents the working person for a change and get away from “that is the way we have always done it” thinking. As a former counsel member myself, sometimes you have to make tough decisions and I think that these two people are the ones to do that for the citizens of Coquille. I think a lot of the voting decisions that some of the city counselers vote on today are made because the counseler tends to have his vote decision go towards how that vote would affect only a small handful of citizens when the vote should go towards how it would affect the entire city or it entire population.
Dian Courtright certainly represents the local working class admirably and her high vote count reflects the public’s confidence in her abilities. More importantly Dian if some interpretations of the charter are correct, won the seat fair and square. If this is true both she and the voters are being disenfranchised.
Meanwhile there is considerable pressure being placed upon the council by City Hall to ignore the votes in this process, in other words, the citizens don’t matter and this is now a personality contest with only five judges.
