December 8, 2005

Chase named to Council, filling week-old vacancy

Kathryn Chase was appointed to Council Monday, replacing Mary J. Alexander.

By Robert Mihalek

Village Council used the Nov. 8 election to determine who will fill a vacancy on the five-member governing board.

Council during its meeting Monday voted 4–0 to appoint Kathryn Chase, who finished fourth in the Council race last month. Chase will serve the remainder of Mary J. Alexander’s term, which expires in November 2007.

Chase will be sworn in at Council’s next budget workshop, on Dec. 8, the clerk of Council, Deborah Benning, said.

Alexander resigned last week for health reasons, seven days after a new Council was sworn in, following the Nov. 8 election.

Council accepted her resignation during Monday’s meeting.

Alexander told Council that she must have back surgery in late January, and soon thereafter she and her husband, Bill Alexander, plan to move to Louisville to be closer to family.

Elected to Council in 2003, Alexander had two years remaining on her term in office.

Council members appointed Chase to Council after discussing the vacancy in executive session, which was not open to the public, at their meeting Monday.

Council president Jocelyn Hardman said Council members agreed that because of their “tremendous workload” they wanted to appoint someone “who’s as qualified as possible.” Therefore, she said, they looked at last month’s election results and selected Chase, who finished fourth out of seven candidates.

The top three candidates, Judith Hempfling, Karen Wintrow and Bruce Rickenbach, were elected to Council.

According to official results of the Nov. 8 election from the Greene County Board of Elections, Chase received 604 votes, or 13.32 percent of the votes cast. The fifth-place finisher was Frank Doden, who received 582 votes.

Hardman indicated that the Council campaign has put Chase in a position to immediately participate in Council matters. She also said that the “community has vetted the candidates” through the campaign, including public forums.

She said Council members decided that voters were in a better position than they to decide who should replace Alexander.

Council members do have a busy two months ahead of them. First, they have to interview and select a Village manager. Council also has to approve the 2006 Village budget, a process that will involve four workshops in December and January. They also have scheduled the annual goal-setting meeting for the end of next month.

On Tuesday, Chase said she was grateful for the opportunity to serve on Council.

“I’ve worked very hard to prepare myself to serve,” she said. “I’m honored to have the support of Council and the community members” who voted for her in the election, she added.

Since she placed fourth in the Council race, Chase said, she was staying up on Council business by attending meetings, including Monday’s. Still, she said, she was surprised by the appointment this week.

She said the main issues facing Council are the Village manager search and the 2006 Village budget.

In response to a statement by Al Schlueter, who during Monday’s meeting urged Council to appoint someone who would bring a diverse viewpoint to the board, Chase said, she thinks there “will be many differences of opinion on Council. But the pleasant and professional atmosphere will make those differences constructive.”

Chase, who has a bachelor of science in chemistry from the University of Dayton and who was an analytical lab technician for a pharmaceutical company, is now a stay-at-home mom. She and her husband, Brian, have been married for 13 years and have lived in Yellow Springs for 12 years. They have four young children.

During Monday’s meeting, Hardman described Council’s discussion of Alexander’s vacancy as a “hot topic of debate.”

She said that Council members initially differed on how to fill the vacancy. Hardman said some Council members lobbied for an open process in which Council would ask villagers to apply for the seat and select someone out of those who applied, while others wanted to select someone who already had expressed interest in the position and was available. She compared the latter approach to how Council selected Jeff Singleton to replace Tony Arnett on Council in September. Singleton had applied for a vacancy on Council earlier in the spring that was filled by Rickenbach.

Last week, Hardman said that she was going to recommend that Council solicit interest from local residents willing to serve on Council. However, after the meeting, she said other Council members persuaded her to change her position.

Contact: rmihalek@ysnews.com