Paul Shaffer (l); Alan Crone
Even as the race for the Super District 9, Position 2 City Council seat, which has been vacated by Shea Flinn, remains in the early, petition-gathering sage, the race to hold the Position 2 seat on an interim basis is about to heat up.
Candidates for an interim appointment for the seat may pick up qualifying packets from the Council office beginning on Friday, May 1, and will have until May 14 at noon to submit them to the Council for consideration.
On Tuesday, May 19, the 12 remaining members of the Council will decide on appointing someone to hold the seat until a permanent seat-holder is elected on October 8. The person ultimately named o May 19 will need 7 votes.
Nothing yet on whether the Council, in selecting an interim Council member, will express a preference for candidates renouncing any wish to run for the seat on a permanent basis. For the record, Berlin Boyd, who was selected as interim Councilman in Lee Harris’s District 7 seat when Harris vacated it to be a state Senator, will also be seeking election to the seat in October.
That may or may not be a precedent for the May 19 decision. Boyd’s previous service as an interim candidate on another occasion made him something of a known quantity and might have rendered the distinction moot.
In any case, lawyer Alan Crone, who will not be seeking election in October, and union official Paul Shaffer, who will be, have both already signaled an active interest in pursuing the interim appointment. And Shaffer’s active candidacy for the interim position will surely encourage others running for the permanent seat to seek the interim one as well — if any encouragement was needed…
In fact, all those who have so far acquired petitions to run for the Position 2 seat will doubtless also be seeking the interim appointment before the Council.
And Crone will likely not be the only person outside the circle of active candidates to seek the interim position. Fran Triplett, an activist heavily involved over the past year in protests against changes in city employees’ benefits package, is said to be actively considering seeking the interim appointment.
