A. The council shall meet in a regular or special meeting to appoint a qualified person to fill a vacancy. The council may request that persons interested in filling the vacant seat write a letter of interest to be submitted to the city clerk by the specified deadline in the public notice of a council vacancy. The person submitting a letter of interest to fill a vacant council seat may attach any relevant information such as a resume to their letter of interest. The council shall nominate a qualified person to fill the vacant seat. If there is not a person qualified out of those persons who submitted a letter of interest to fill the vacant council seat, the council may nominate a qualified person who has not applied for the vacant council seat. Nominations for the vacant seat shall be made by a motion approved by the council. Once all nominations are made, councilmembers shall cast votes simultaneously by written ballot for persons nominated. All of the ballots will be collected by the city clerk who shall thereafter publicly announce the vote of each councilmember. The person who receives a majority of the votes shall fill the vacant seat.

B. If none of the persons nominated receives a majority of votes in the first (1st) round of balloting, the procedure provided for in subsection A of this section shall be repeated no more than twice. If none of the persons nominated receives a majority of votes in the third (3rd) round of balloting, the vacancy shall be filled by a drawing of straws by the two (2) nominees who received the highest and second (2nd) highest number of votes. The nominee who draws the longest straw shall fill the vacant council seat. The mayor may designate a person to draw straws for any absent candidate.

C. If it is not possible to determine the nominees with the two (2) highest vote counts because of a tie in votes between the nominees who have the second (2nd) highest number of votes in the third (3rd) round of balloting, the seat shall be filled by a drawing of straws conducted in accordance with subsection B of this section by the person who received the highest number of votes and the persons who tied for second (2nd) place. If there is a tie vote between the nominees who have the highest number of votes in the third (3rd) round of balloting, the seat shall be filled by a drawing of straws by these nominees conducted in accordance with subsection B of this section.

D. The mayor shall publicly announce which person drew the longest straw and that person shall fill the vacant council seat. [Ord. 21-61 § 2, 2022; Ord. 02-08 § 5. Formerly 2.04.105.]