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Council sets deadline, interview rules and coin-toss tie-breaker for mayoral vacancy
Summary
The council set December 5 as the application deadline to fill the mayoral vacancy, approved an interview format (speaking time plus council questions), barred council candidates from asking questions, and adopted a round-robin coin-toss procedure to break multi-way ties.
Midvale City Council set a schedule and a detailed procedure to fill the current mayoral vacancy, including the application deadline, interview format, voting and tie-breaking mechanisms.
City Manager Matt Dole told the council that state law requires the council to appoint a replacement and that several procedural choices remain for the council to define. The council set the application deadline as December 5, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. and confirmed that every qualified applicant will be interviewed publicly before the council.
The council defined the interview format: when there are 10 or fewer candidates, each will be given three minutes to speak; if there are 11 or more candidates, each will have two minutes to speak. After the prepared remarks, council members will have up to an additional five minutes per candidate to ask questions. Council members who are themselves formal candidates for mayor will not be permitted to ask questions during the candidate-question portion, so that candidate-council members do not question their competitors. Council directed staff to record speaking order by the order applications are received.
On voting and ties the council adopted a multi-step approach consistent with state law: the initial vote will include all candidates. If the vote does not produce a majority winner and results in a multi-way tie, the council adopted a round-robin coin-toss procedure performed by the city recorder to reduce the tied group to two candidates. In the round-robin approach each tied candidate’s assigned coin side will be compared in tosses against every other tied candidate so each candidate has the same number of tosses; the candidate(s) with the fewest round wins will be eliminated. If two candidates remain after the rounds they will face a final council vote. The council recorded its motions to publicize the process and to ensure the hearing and voting steps are clear for applicants.
Council and staff also discussed logistics should a sitting council member be selected as mayor: the council expects any selected council member to submit a letter of resignation at the time they are sworn in (the council noted resignations cannot be rescinded) and staff plans to swear in the new mayor on January 10. The council also established that ballots cast during the voting rounds will be collected and tallied by the city recorder and city attorney, and sealed in an envelope identified by round; after the appointment, vote records will be made public.
