The Chehalis City Council’s first meeting of 2022 saw new and incumbent Chehalis City Council members officially sworn in and a new mayor selected, but Chehalis residents will have to wait until at least February to see a full city council as council members continue seeking applicants to fill a vacant seat.
The City of Chehalis initially opened the application for a two-year term in the at-large Position 2 seat on Dec. 21 after a motion to reappoint former councilor Terry Harris failed earlier that month.
Harris, a former Chehalis city councilor of 16 years, had been appointed to that Position 2 seat in early October to finish out the term vacated by former councilor Michael Bannan, who was appointed to replace former Councilor Chad Taylor in March but resigned in September.
Taylor’s term expired at the end of 2021, so Harris’ appointment officially ended when the election results were certified on Nov. 23. Bannan, who was the only candidate on the ballot for the seat, was elected and immediately resigned, leaving the city council to appoint someone to serve out the two-year term.
The application period closed at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 7 with zero applicants.
Harris did submit an application via email — but his application came in several days after the deadline, said City Manager Jill Anderson.
“The council is provided wide latitude in the law in how you’d like to fill a vacant seat on the city council with one exception: and that is there is a 90 day deadline,” Anderson said.
That countdown began when election results were certified, Anderson said, so the council has until Feb. 23 to appoint someone to the Position 2 seat before the decision goes to the county.
The city council voted unanimously Jan. 10 to reopen the application period, setting a Feb. 2 application deadline with the intention to hold a special meeting on Feb. 7 to make an appointment so there will be a full council in time for the regular Feb. 14 meeting.
“Obviously, Terry and I ran together, I would love working with him. … I hope that he is still interested. I know this is a very difficult thing, but I know that we put a deadline and it was set in stone, so I just like to see transparency and consistency in what we’re doing,” Councilor Kate McDougall said at the council’s Jan. 10 meeting.
McDougall was sworn in for a four-year term in the Position 1 at-large seat earlier that evening.
“I hope to do a good job,” McDougall said when she took her seat on the bench for the first time Monday. “It’ll be a learning curve. I just count on all of you guys to listen to me ask a million questions, so I appreciate all of you, and let’s get to work.”
Councilor Bob Spahr, who was re-elected to a four-year term in Position 3 at-large in the November election and was sworn in Monday evening alongside McDougall, echoed McDougall’s sentiment when asked if he had any comments going into his new term.
“I like what Kate said: Let’s get to work,” he said.
The first item up for the new, mostly-full city council to complete Monday was to select a new mayor.
The council’s first two attempts to do so ended in tied votes split on either side of the vacant mayor’s chair, with councilors Jerry Lord, Isaac Pope and Spahr voting in favor of electing Spahr mayor, and councilors McDougall, Daryl Lund and Tony Ketchum voting in favor of electing Ketchum.
“Under the law this is the meeting where a mayor does have to be selected and it does have to be by a majority,” said City Attorney Sam Satterfield, later adding, “I understand, I think everybody watching can understand the awkwardness of this. Obviously you guys are all going to be working together for a very long time.”
The councilors were asked to engage in a discussion to try and break the tie, and while the few who did talk said either candidate would be good for the position, no one was willing to change their vote.
McDougall was the only one to offer the reasoning behind her vote, saying that Ketchum was the only council member to approach her prior to the meeting to have a discussion about wanting to be mayor.
“I think showing the want to do something and also having the experience to do it is how I’m making my decision on that because that was the only person that I heard from on it, so I think that’s a reasonable vote,” she said.
After the second vote also ended in a tie, Spahr withdrew his nomination for mayor.
“It can go either way as far as I’m concerned, too. I don’t want to disappoint you guys,” he said, referring to Lord and Pope, “but I’d rather get on with this and say let Tony go.”
Ketchum thanked Spahr and was unanimously elected mayor. Spahr was later elected mayor-pro-tem.
Ketchum and Spahr will serve as mayor and mayor-pro-tem, respectively, for the next two years.
