MORGANTOWN — It’s common for office holders to talk about what they’d like to accomplish during their first 100 days on the job.
Deborah Bergen is going to have the job for about 100 days, total.
Bergen received unanimous support from Morgantown City Council on Tuesday to fill the body’s vacant 3rd Ward seat for the remainder of the council term, which ends June 30.
Bergen said she does not intend to seek the position beyond the current term by adding her name to the list of write-in candidates from which the city’s voters will choose in the upcoming April 27 municipal election.
Of the five individuals that initially applied to fill the vacancy, three — Bergen, Paul Liller and Athena Freedlander — made it to Tuesday’s interviews.
Julie Beck pulled her name from contention in recent days and Lukaas Hendrix asked to be removed moments before the interviews were set to begin due to potential time conflicts.
Additionally, Liller, one of two write-in candidates currently seeking the job come April, appeared to face an uphill climb for the interim role as council seemed hesitant to be seen, “effectively publicly endorsing a candidate,” as Mayor Ron Dulaney put it in describing his personal thoughts on the situation.
Ixya Vega is also running as an official write-in candidate in the ward. There will be no official candidates on the ballot. April 13 is the deadline for write-in candidates to file.
As for Bergen, the five-year resident of Wiles Hill said she’s early retired after a lifetime in child psychiatry and is ready to play a support role for council during her short time with the body.
“I think I would be most successful if I would be most invisible, to make things go as smoothly as possible … and to be able to prepare for either Paul or Ixya, whoever’s coming in next,” Bergen said. “And to leave the relationship between city council and the ward as positive as possible.”
After the three, 20-minute interviews, an initial polling of council netted four nominations for Bergen, with Councilor Dave Harshbarger nominating Liller and Dulaney backing Freedlander.
The subsequent motion to appoint Bergen went 6-0, with council’s compliments to all three applicants.
“I had a hard time with this decision,” Councilor Jenny Selin said, adding “We just had three of the best candidates I could possibly have hoped for. So I’m just very pleased Paul Liller is running. I’m pleased that Athena is interested in government, and I’m pleased that Deb sounds like she’s likely to be the interim.”
Former Councilor Zack Cruze resigned the 3rd Ward seat on March 5 due to an employment-related move to California.
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