Clarksville, TN – On April 23rd, 2019, Bill Powers was elected District 22 Tennessee State Senator and then sworn in two days later. Powers has resigned his Ward 11 City Council seat.
“I am informing the City of my intentions to resign effective noon on May 1st, 2019,” Powers said Wednesday.
“It has been an honor for me to serve on the Clarksville City Council for the past five years. I look forward to serving my community in a new capacity as State Senator,” stated Powers.
Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts, after discussions with the City Clerk and City Attorney and review of the City Charter and Codes, outlined the steps the City Council will take to fill the vacancy.
“The Charter is specific in how we must go about filling the vacancy, so we look forward to the process unfolding over the next couple of months,” Mayor Pitts said. “I’m sure there are some qualified citizens in Ward 11 who will be interested in applying for the appointment.”
The Clarksville City Charter says the City Council shall fill a Council vacancy by a majority vote of the entire City Council. The appointed member will serve until the next City election in November 2020. Since Powers was re-elected to a four-year term in 2018, voters in 2020 would choose a candidate to fill the seat until November 2022, for the remainder of the Ward 11 unexpired term.
Qualifications
Candidates applying to fill a vacancy on the City Council must be qualified in accordance with the Clarksville City Charter and general state law. A City Councilman must be a resident of the City of Clarksville; be at least 18; have resided in the City for 12 months; and reside in and be qualified to vote in the ward to which they seek appointment.
Application process
The City Clerk will publish a notice of the vacancy. Within 60 days of the vacancy, all qualified applicants must appear before the council at a regularly scheduled meeting, which in this case will be June 6th, to make known their intention to apply to fill the vacancy.
Within 14 days of that meeting, the mayor will call a special meeting of the council for the purpose of appointing an applicant to fill the vacancy.
Only those applicants who appeared at the June 6th meeting and made known their intention to apply to fill the vacancy may be considered at the special called meeting.
Voting procedures
The successor will be appointed upon receiving a majority vote of the entire membership of the council. If no applicant receives a majority vote or more of the City Council during the first vote, then a second round of voting will take place.
Subsequent voting rounds, to include run-off votes to eliminate the lowest vote-getters, if necessary, will be conducted until an applicant receives a majority vote.
