Gazette file photo Bob Backon at an August. 2024 Houghton City Council meeting. Also shown is Houghton City Council member Robert McGowen, right and Clerk Ann Vollwrath.

HOUGHTON — The Houghton City Council will stay at six members until the November election. 

Council members said it was too short a time before the election to fill the seat of Mayor Pro Tem Joan Suits. In a short letter to City Manager Eric Waara and Mayor Brian Irizarry on Aug. 16, Suits “regretfully” submitted her resignation from the council. Suits had already stepped down from the Planning Commission, for which the council appointed another member at its Aug. 14 meeting. 

Leaving the council seat vacant is the “logical, common sense, practical solution,” Waara said. He added a caveat: It technically violates the city charter.

He showed the council a chart with the “strange little nexus of dates.” Suits’ letter came 82 days before. The council is not required to fill a vacancy when it occurs less than 60 days before the next election; the cutoff date would be Sept. 6. 

Outside of that window, when vacancies occur, the council must appoint someone within 30 days — in this case, Sept. 15 — to fill the position until the next regular city election. If an appointment is not made by then, a special election will be called no sooner than 90 days after the vacancy, but no more than 120. 

That deadline comes after the council’s next meeting on Sept. 11, leaving one September meeting and two in October before the election on Nov. 5. 

The council must also advertise the position. After getting responses, Waara said, they would also need to review the responses, schedule a meeting if necessary — and would also need to agree on a person. The previous council vacancy remained unfilled from November 2021 until a special election the next May after councilors deadlocked on several applicants.

“Honestly, it is up to the council if they want to appoint someone for basically what’s going to amount to three meetings before the general election,” Waara said.

Councilor Virginia Cole backed “the common-sense notion of looking forward,” but asked if the city would be overstepping any bounds. Waara said for someone to bring a suit against the city, they would need to show harm. 

Councilor Mike Needham endorsed leaving the seat vacant, which was immediately echoed by Councilors Robert Megowen and Bob Backon. 

“I’m going to propose that the six of us can be mature enough to run three meetings at six instead of seven folks,” he said. 

Needham also suggested the deadline issue be revisited as part of amendments the city will consider to the city charter.

Backon said filling the council seat should be left to the public. Four candidates have filed for three seats: incumbents Cole and Brian Irizarry, former council member Buck Foltz, and new candidate Brendan Leddy. 

Leddy, who spoke during public comment Wednesday, recommended that if the council appoint someone, it should be someone who was not a candidate in November. 

The council also appointed Bob Backon to fill Suits’ role as mayor pro tem. Councilor Craig Waddell, who nominated Backon, had contacted him ahead of time to see if he would accept the nomination. 

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Needham jokingly asked Backon, a longtime councilor and the city’s former mayor. 

“I’ve got plenty of people on this council I can go to to make sure I’m doing the right thing,” he said.