The Centralia City Council will hold two interviews this week to consider candidates to fill an opening on the city council.
The City of Centralia announced late last week that it would interview Meri Bretthauer and Cameron Bluhm to fill the vacant District 1 Centralia City Council seat.
The council will interview the two candidates in the council chambers on Tuesday evening starting at 6 p.m. ahead of the council’s regularly scheduled business meeting that evening starting at 7 p.m.
The District 1 council member represents northeastern Centralia including a small portion of the Edison District and areas north and east of the old downtown corridor around Tower Avenue. To see the Centralia City Council district ward map, visit https://tinyurl.com/bddbnz5n. The new city councilor must reside within this district.
The city’s District 1 councilor seat has been vacant since the beginning of March. The vacancy came after former city council member and Centralia Mayor Norm Chapman announced his resignation from the council and his role as mayor at the beginning of February. At the time, he stated he would serve out the rest of the month, opening up his seat at the beginning of March.
Chris Brewer has since been chosen by the council to serve as mayor.
Local government vacancies in Washington state are filled by appointment from the governing body itself. The governing body must appoint a qualified member to the council within 90 days. If it fails to do so, the relevant county authority, in this case the Lewis County Board of Commissioners, is called upon to appoint a qualified candidate to the seat.
The City of Centralia opened the application portal for the available city council seat on Monday, March 2, and stopped accepting applications about two weeks later on Tuesday, March 17.
For previous reporting on the city council and mayoral vacancies on the Centralia City Council, visit https://tinyurl.com/mpvuyh7k.
