Published: January 12, 2009 12:37 am      

Fairmont council set to elect new mayor

District 1 seat will be filled

FAIRMONT — At the start of the Fairmont City Council’s first meeting of the new year, the first order of business will be the election of a new mayor and deputy mayor.

Every two years, an organizational meeting is held to elect reps to these positions by way of majority vote of seated council members.

And with one council member not seated yet and both the former mayor and deputy mayor no longer on council, the election process during this year’s organizational meeting will be a little more unique than it has been in the past.

Under the Fairmont City Council’s Rules of Order and Procedure, the city clerk, who is currently Janet Keller, will preside over the meeting until a mayor is chosen in this situation.

Keller actually ran the organizational meeting two years ago after the election of six new council members, four of whom are still on council and serve as the most veteran members.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday, Keller will first call the meeting to order and submit the oath of office for the two newly elected council members. These members are Dan Weber in District 6 and Rob Garcia in District 7.

Roll call will then be taken for all of the present council members, which can only equal eight with John Dahlia’s District 1 seat to be filled after the regular meeting starts.

Keller will then call for nominations for the office of mayor from among the eight seated members, with no limit to how many members can be nominated and no second motions necessary. After all of the nominations are received by Keller, a council member will make a motion to close the nomination, which must be seconded and voted on.

Then Keller will start calling roll on each nominee in the order they were received and the first council member to receive a five-vote majority will be elected and sworn in as mayor. If none of the nominees receive a majority of votes at the end of the list, the process will be repeated for each nominee until someone receives five votes.

The new mayor will then repeat the same process for the deputy mayor and once the deputy mayor is chosen, the regular meeting will officially begin with the new mayor presiding.

The eight council members involved in the process will be Bob Sapp, Debbie Seifrit, Bill Burdick, Chuck Warner, Weber, Garcia, Robin Smith and Matt Delligatti.

Seifrit, Warner, Smith and Delligatti are the most veteran members, having served on council for the past two years. Burdick has served for more than a year, and Sapp was elected just this past summer.

Keller has said that city code does not require council members to be seated for any length of time before they can be elected to serve as mayor or deputy mayor.

As one of the first orders of business at Tuesday’s regular meeting, council members will choose a new representative to replace Dahlia, who resigned Dec. 16, making the deadline to find a replacement Jan. 15 before a special election was required. Council will be holding a work session at 5 p.m. before the organizational meeting to interview the six applicants who filed for the position before they make a decision.

The applicants are: Chris Smith, 802 Market St.; John M. Criado, 815 Broadway Ave.; Robert “Bob” Gribben, 326 Cole St.; Michael Foy, 344 Lincoln St.; George Crosby, 1101 Morgantown Ave.; and Marcella Yaremchuk, 506 Pittsburgh Ave.

E-mail Mallory Panuska at mpanuska@timeswv.com.