Keokuk, IA – Former 4th Ward Alderman Roger Bryant and former 5th Ward Alderman Mike Girard left the Keokuk City Council in July.
A total of seven people applied for the two seats.
Ward 4
Mark Hoyt
Larry Mortimer
Jason Schmitt
Ward 5
Theresia Harmon
Jack Helenthal
Sandy Pollitt
Steve Rairden, Jr.
The council interviewed five of the seven during a recent workshop.
Schmitt and Rairden, Jr. were not in attendance.
The Keokuk City Council planned to secretly rank the candidates on sheets of paper.
Mayor Tom Marion would have then collected the papers and tabulated the results.
Instead, each council member chose to give the mayor his or her ranking either in person or via email.
Marion says the idea is to keep the candidates from feeling bad about the process. He says the council did not want to embarrass anybody who applied and was not nominated.
Marion says he will contact each candidate to let them know where they ranked.
The council could still select someone other than the top vote-getter during its next meeting.