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North Plains councilors deadlock on mayor appointment; nomination process paused
Summary
After four rounds of paper ballots produced repeated 3-3 ties among six councilors, North Plains City Council voted unanimously to close the mayoral nomination process for the evening and schedule a work session to reopen applications on Oct. 6, 2025.
North Plains City Council was unable to appoint a new mayor during a Sept. 16 special session after multiple rounds of paper ballots produced repeated 3-3 ties, and the council voted to pause the appointment process.
Council President Aaron Dumbrow called four applicants forward for interview in alphabetical order: Mark DeForge, David Hatcher, Russ Sheldon and Don Weber. Councilor Mandy Hagedorn nominated Mark DeForge and Councilor Michele McCall-Wallace nominated David Hatcher during the first round of voting. City Recorder Lori Lesmeister collected paper ballots and announced that the first tally was a tie: DeForge received votes from Councilors Hagedorn, Dumbrow and Reding; Hatcher received votes from Councilors McCall-Wallace, Papen and Fage.
The council repeated the paper voting procedure twice more on the same two candidates; each time the result was a three-to-three split with the same distribution of votes. After a motion to reopen nominations passed unanimously, new nominations were made: Councilor Papen nominated Russ Sheldon (no second), McCall-Wallace again nominated David Hatcher (seconded by Councilor James Fage), and Councilor Katie Reding nominated Don Weber (seconded by Council President Dumbrow). A fourth ballot again resulted in a 3-3 split: Weber received votes from Dumbrow, Hagedorn and Reding; Hatcher received votes from McCall-Wallace, Papen and Fage.
Acknowledging the stalemate, Councilor James Fage moved "to close the nomination process and appointment of a new mayor" for that night; Councilor Mandy Hagedorn seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously, pausing the selection process without an appointment. The council agreed by consensus to hold a 6:00 p.m. work session on Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, to consider reopening the two-week application period and restarting the selection process.
The meeting agenda included Resolution No. 2320, "Appointing [appointee name] as Mayor," but no action was taken on that resolution during the session. The special meeting adjourned at 9:20 p.m. and the minutes were later signed by Council President Aaron Dumbrow and City Recorder Lori Lesmeister.
What happens next: councilors will revisit the mayoral selection process at the Oct. 6 work session; no mayor was appointed at the Sept. 16 meeting.
