City starts search for Ward 2 member

Talk about it

The search is on for who will be the new Ward 2 Alexandria City Council member.

Incumbent Sara Carlson will be leaving the post on January 2 to serve as Alexandria mayor as a result of her election win.

At Tuesday’s Alexandria City Council meeting, council member Owen Miller made a motion to advertise the opening, encourage interested residents in Ward 2 to apply and to form a committee that will consider all the applicants and make a recommendation to the council.

The committee will include Carlson, City Administrator Jim Taddei and Ward 4 council member Dave Benson.

Council member Virgil Batesole also asked to serve on the committee and Miller was going to amend his motion to include him but City Attorney Tom Jacobson noted that having a third council member on the committee would constitute a quorum, which would require all the meetings to be public.

Batesole said he thought that having the meetings open would be a good idea and he suggested having all the council members on the committee.

Miller ended up making a new motion, which did not include Batesole on the committee. Batesole made an amendment to include himself on the committee but it failed to get seconded.

Jacobson reminded the council about the sequence that must take place to fill the seat: Carlson has to officially resign her position, stating a specific date so the council can declare a vacancy. After that, it can consider recommendations from the committee and vote on who will serve the remaining two years of the term.

The committee, meanwhile, can start the process before then by screening and interviewing applicants.

Tags: local news, ward 2, news, council