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HomeMy WebLinkAboutResolution No. 2021-20JC1 KENAI CITY OF KENAI RESOLUTION NO. 2021-20 Sponsored by: City Clerk A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF KENAI, ALASKA, ADOPTING POLICY NO. 2021-01, PROCEDURES FOR SELECTING AND APPOINTING A QUALIFIED PERSON OR PERSONS TO FILL VACANCIES ON THE CITY COUNCIL. WHEREAS, from time to time due to resignations and other reasons set out in Kenai Charter and Kenai Municipal Code, vacancies occur in the City Council; and, WHEREAS, Kenai Charter Section 2-9 provides that the City Council, by a majority vote of its remaining members, shall fill a vacancy; and, WHEREAS, to provide for transparency in filling Council vacancies, it is appropriate for there to be an adopted procedure in place. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF KENAI, ALASKA: Section 1. That Council Policy 2021-01 Procedures for Selecting and Appointing a Qualified Person or Persons to Fill Vacancies on the City Council, as attached hereto, is adopted. Section 2. That this resolution takes effect immediately upon passage. PASSED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF KENAI, ALASKA, this 711 day of April, 2021. ATTEST: i i t vL �itCENA/ Heinz, MMC, City aEl Attachment A for Resolution No. 2021-20 POLICY NO. 2021-01 — PROCEDURES FOR SELECTING AND APPOINTING A QUALIFIED PERSON OR PERSONS TO FILL VACANCIES ON THE CITY COUNCIL. A. Declaring the Seat(s) Vacant 1. The City Council, due to a resignation or for reasons prescribed by Kenai Charter or Kenai Municipal Code, must declare a City Council seat vacant, set a timeframe for advertising the vacancy or vacancies, set a deadline for applications to be submitted, and direct the City Clerk to administer the procedure. B. Advertising and Application Procedures 1. The City Clerk shall advertise the vacancy or vacancies, together with the deadline, at least two (2) times by publication in a newspaper of general circulation, by posting on the official bulletin board of the City at City Hall, and by posting on the City's website. 2. For consideration, each interested person will be required to submit a letter of interest and their resume by the deadline set by Council. 3. Each applicant's residency and eligibility to serve on the Council will be confirmed by the City Clerk and the resumes and letters of interest will be included in the Council packets for the work session or meeting set for conducting interviews. 4. The Mayor and the City Clerk will work together to schedule necessary meetings and/or work sessions depending on the number of applications received. 5. Each applicant, in addition to the City Council, will be provided with the packets of the meeting(s) in which the interviews and appointment(s) will take place. C. Conducting Interviews 1. When conducting interviews, each candidate will have five minutes to make a statement and then additional time to answer questions from the Council. D. Appointment Procedures 1. At the Regular or Special Meeting after the interviews are conducted, Appointment of a City Council Member or Members shall appear on the agenda. In the event of the appointment(s) taking place at a Regular Meeting the matter will appear after Unscheduled Public comments and before Public Hearings. 2. In the event multiple appointments are being made at the same meeting, one appointment will be made at a time. The Mayor will announce which seat is being considered which can be identified by the term expiration of that seat. Any candidates eliminated during the first appointment process may be considered for subsequent appointments in the same application process / meeting. Steps D.2. through D.S. will be completed for each seat. Attachment A for Resolution No. 2021-20 3. At the Regular or Special Meeting, at the appropriate time on the agenda, the Council will make and pass a motion to begin the voting process by secret ballot. a. In the event there is only one candidate for an open seat, Council may skip all secret ballot voting and make a motion to appoint the candidate. 4. Council Members will be given a ballot and asked to vote for two candidates. The votes will be read out loud and tallied by the Clerk. The candidates that receive one or fewer votes will be eliminated and Council Members will again be given a ballot and asked to vote for two of the remaining candidates. In order to provide for a fair and transparent process, Council Members will not vote for the same candidate twice on one ballot. Council Members may vote for an individual candidate once, on multiple ballots, until the candidate is eliminated or appointed. This process will take place until there are two candidates remaining. Once two candidates remain for the identified seat, Council Members will be given a ballot and asked to vote for one candidate. The votes will be read aloud and tallied. The outcome will be determined by a simple majority of the remaining Council. If at any time during the voting process there is a tie, and the tie isn't broken after two votes, the tie shall be broken by lot, as provided in Kenai Municipal Code in the case of a tie in an election. If more than a two-way tie, straws may be drawn to eliminate an appropriate number of candidates and in a two-way tie, a coin may be tossed. a. In the event there are only two candidates for the open seat, step 4 may be skipped and the voting process can begin with Council Members voting for one candidate in step 5. b. The Council, by motion, could decide to not appoint any candidates and start a new recruitment period or extend the existing recruitment period. G. In the event the number of Council Members remaining pursuant to Kenai Charter 2-9(a) is such that candidates receiving one vote need to be retained, the elimination of candidates receiving one vote may be disregarded. 5. Once one of the candidates receives a simple majority of votes, or the outcome is decided by lot, Council will make and pass a motion to appoint that person to fill the vacant seat. E. Oath and Term 1. After the motion(s) to appoint the candidate(s) has passed, the winner(s) will be sworn in and take their seat(s) on the Council immediately. 2. The person(s) appointed serves until the next regular election pursuant to Kenai Charter 2-9. Effective Date: April 7, 2021 Established by Resolution No. 2021-20 v ,�tiv K I N A I City of Kenai 1 210 Fidalgo Ave, Kenai, AK 99611-7794 1907.283.7535 I www.kenai.city MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor Gabriel and Council Members FROM: Jamie Heinz, City Clerk DATE: March 17, 2021 SUBJECT: Resolution No. 2021-20 After the recent exercise to select and appoint a person to fill a vacancy on City Council, I was asked to bring forth a policy for adoption, utilizing the procedures that were followed. This resolution and associated policy accomplishes that and I attempted to write the procedures in a generic way that would work for appointing a single candidate or multiple candidates. As a reminder, this process is very similar to the process followed in Soldotna, Seward, Palmer, Bethel, and Ketchikan in recent history. The one change made in this process which is different from the process followed in December is that any candidate with one or fewer votes would be automatically removed. This would prevent ties with candidates receiving one vote and move the process along more effectively. There is a clause that waives this in the event the number of Council Members remaining is small enough that retaining candidates that receive one vote is beneficial to the process. Your consideration is appreciated.