Edmonds Council takes 26 ballots to pick president pro-tem

Published 10:32 am Monday, January 12, 2015

The Edmonds City Council last week took 26 ballots to choose a council president pro-tem for 2015.

President pro-tem is a largely honorary position. The president pro-tem’s only duties are to set the council agenda when the council president is absent and to preside over council meetings when both the mayor and the council president are absent.

The council finally re-elected Councilwoman Christiana Johnson to the position by a 5-2 vote over Councilwoman Laura Pet so after Johnson had not been a candidate in ballots leading up to the final vote.

Earlier in its Jan. 6 meeting, the Council elected Adrienne Fraley-Monillas as council president.

Through several ballots for president pro-tem, the Council was split, with three council members supporting Councilman Thomas Mesaros and others supporting various combinations of other candidates.

The number of ballots to pick the council president pro-tem fell well short of the 59 ballots the council took a year ago to select Mesaros to replace former Councilman Frank Yamamoto. That balloting was difficult because the council then had only six members.

The council will be back to six members for at least a month while it seeks a replacement for Councilman Strom Peterson, who has resigned to begin his first term in the state legislature Monday.

Councilwoman Diane Buckshnis, the outgoing council president, said Sunday that she remains hopeful that selecting a replacement for Peterson would not take as long as last year’s process.

“Since the appointed person will have to run an election this year, it might change the mindset of some of the potential applicants,” Buckshnis said.

The appointee will serve through certification of the November general election, when voters will choose someone to fill the last two years of the four-year term that Peterson won in 2013.

Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.