MORGANTOWN — Any resident of Morgantown’s 3rd Ward interested in filling the recently vacated Morgantown City Council seat has a week to make their wishes known.
Morgantown City Council will accept applications until March 18. Council will conduct interviews March 23 and will appoint the new council member March 30.
The city said Wednesday that it was looking into the matter but failed to respond in time for this report when asked if the interview process would be public.
The individual appointed to this seat will serve the remainder of former Councilor Zack Cruze’s term, which ends June 30.
Cruze won the seat as a write-in candidate in April 2019.
On Jan. 5, Cruze announced that he would resign in March as he had to relocate after accepting a position with FEMA based in California.
A little over a month later, Cruze amended that plan, explaining he intended to stay on until April 6.
Doing so would allow the remaining six members of council to appoint the 3rd Ward winner of the April 27 municipal election to complete the remainder of Cruze’s term before beginning their own two-year term July 1.
This is because Morgantown’s city charter has only a couple stipulations when it comes to filling a vacancy — the appointee must be a registered voter from the ward and the position must be filled within 30 days of the vacancy or it will go to a special election to be held no sooner than 90 days and no later than 120 days from the time of the vacancy.
Cruze’s attempt to ease council’s efforts in filling the vacancy ultimately went by the wayside March 5, when he announced his resignation after questions were raised about his residency.
In this particular instance, it should be noted that anyone looking to fill the seat must reside in the 3rd Ward as currently defined. A change to the city’s ward boundaries approved by council last fall will be recognized for the next term of city council.
Otherwise, there is no formal process for how council goes about receiving the names of interested candidates or making a selection.
There will be no names representing the city’s 3rd Ward on the upcoming April 27 municipal election, but there are two write-in candidates — Ixya Vega and Paul Liller.
The Dominion Post reached out to both Wednesday.
Vega said she did not intend to apply for the vacant seat, but would in the event that any other 3rd Ward write-in candidates did so.
“I believe that in order to have a fair election, city council should not select any candidates that are currently running for election in Morgantown’s 3rd Ward,” Vega said, adding, “Council selecting a current candidate during an election would only serve to dirty the race.”
Liller did not respond in time for this report.
An online application for interested candidates as well as a map of the current 3rd Ward boundaries are available on the city’s website, morgantownwv.gov.
