Thursday, November 10, 2011

Newly Elected Council Member No Longer In Ruston

Dorothy Bailey, who was elected to the Ruston Town Council on Tuesday no longer lives in Ruston. It appears the council will have to appoint someone to fill the 4 year term in January. Ms. Bailey responded to my email asking if she was still a resident this morning (below), announcing that she has moved out of state.

Ruston has seen many different seasons, from intense political battles to quiet ignorance. In my time here, this is the norm; where it is a struggle to find someone willing and able to give their time to serve. The political quiet does come with some cost...      Karen
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It is accurate. I'm now living in Chicago. I found out we were moving after it was too late to remove my name from the ballot so I will be contacting the mayor to officially resign from my new position. I regret putting the town in this position, but I tried everything I could to get my name off the ballot an wasn't able to do so.

Dorothy

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

what cost

Ruston Home said...

I was refering to the challenge of keeping people on the council.

Anonymous said...

I noticed Dorothy received about 30% less total votes than Jim (even though they were both running unopposed). I thought that was a little peculiar so I called the Pierce County Auditor's office and they said there were some write-in votes for Ruston Council Position #5. The lady that answered the phone couldn't tell me for whom the write-in votes were cast. She said that information is normally available, but her computer was acting up.

I don't know Ruston's election laws, but technically, wouldn't the person getting the second most votes (even if they are a mile behind) be the person that would win the election? Or does Ruston require a majority?

I think this warrants a little investigation before the council makes an appointment without the proper authority.

Anonymous said...

what are the challenges in Ruston of keeping people on the council ?

Ruston Home said...

I have a call into the Elections office, but they are closed today. My guess is that whoever wins the election takes the seat, and if they cannot fulfill the requirements the council appoints someone. But I'll share the response from the elections office as soon I can.

Ruston Home said...

As to the challenges, resignations are common and finding folks willing to run for vacant positons can be hard. It is a great deal of work with little thanks and lots of complaints - all for $30 a month!