Election authorized for city council seat

The Comanche City Council met last Thursday in a special meeting to discuss the vacancy of the at-large member and the results remained practically the same as the previous week’s regular monthly meeting.

At the Aug. 9 meeting, there was a discussion to fill the seat on the council vacated by Amanda Duke. Two people were nominated to fill the position, Gerald Pate and Dennis McQuinn, but both nominations ended in a 2-2 deadlock with council member Wanda Moore and mayor Smokey Dobbins voting for Pate and council members Sharon Rounds and Austin Myers voting for McQuinn.

With no one being chosen, the vote would go to Comanche residents.

A special meeting was called last Thursday when city manager Chuck Ralls realized that there would not be enough time to get the position legally advertised for November’s election deadline.

At the special meeting, Moore once again nominated Pate to fill the seat but it ended in another 2-2 deadlock.

Ralls said the council had a few options with how to proceed. The first two would involve special elections that would finish out the at-large member’s term, but those would cost the city $1,800 and the person who won would have to almost turn around and file immediately for the April general election. The third option was to keep the seat vacant until the general election in April, which would include wards three and four and the at-large seat.

Rounds currently represents Ward 3 and Myers, Ward 4. Any qualified resident can file for the at-large position but others must live in the ward they want to run in.

Ralls pointed out the main issue with the third option was the seat would be vacant for eight months and asked the members if they wanted to wait that long before filling the seat.

Dobbins made a motion to go ahead with the third option instead of dealing with a special election and the measure passed by a 4-0 vote.