Rowan chosen to fill open position on City Council

By Matt Echelberry

Inquirer Reporter

Galion City Coun­cil voted for Steve Rowan to fill the Sec­ond Ward vacancy at the con­clu­sion of its Feb. 12 meet­ing. The posi­tion was pre­vi­ously held by Wal­ter Keib, who abruptly resigned last month. Open inter­views for the posi­tion were held on Feb. 9, to serve the remain­der of the term through May 31. Only two res­i­dents inter­viewed for the posi­tion, Rowan and Jon Kleinknect.

At the meet­ing, Coun­cil entered exec­u­tive ses­sion for 15 min­utes to dis­cuss the two can­di­dates that inter­viewed for the open seat. When the meet­ing recon­vened, Coun­cil mem­bers took a paper bal­lot vote and Rowan received that most votes.

His name was then put into the offi­cial leg­is­la­tion, Ordi­nance 2013–14, for the appoint­ment to the Sec­ond Ward Coun­cil posi­tion. On the vote to pass the leg­is­la­tion, Coun­cil mem­bers Gail Baldinger, Ken Bod­kins, Paul Flan­nery and Cathy George voted in favor, with Coun­cil mem­bers Tom Fell­ner and Roberta Wade dissenting.

After the vote Den­nis Long, a cit­i­zen in atten­dance, informed Coun­cil that a dis­cus­sion should have been opened before the vote to allow for cit­i­zen input. He said Coun­cil did not fol­low proper meet­ing deco­rum by hold­ing exec­u­tive ses­sion and then mov­ing directly into a vote.

Posted by Matt Echelberry on Feb 12 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.