The process for how State College Borough Council will decide on an interim mayor became a little clearer on Monday.
Council members agreed on a plan to provide a list of questions in advance and hear remarks from the 12 candidates still in consideration at a meeting on Dec. 4, with the goal of voting on Mayor Don Hahn’s replacement the night of Dec. 16.
Hahn was elected magisterial district judge on Nov. 5 and has submitted his resignation effective 5 p.m. on Dec. 16. Council has 45 days to vote for a replacement, and if no candidate receives a majority of votes by Jan. 30, it will go to Centre County President Judge Pamela Ruest, who will choose an interim mayor, per the borough charter.
The number of qualifying applicants announced last week was 13, but Council President Evan Myers said on Monday that one candidate, Penn State student Isabella Webster, has withdrawn.
Each member of council will submit one question to the borough secretary, who will compile the list and send it about a week in advance to each of the candidates. Members of the public will have the opportunity to submit questions as well through the interim mayor page on the borough website. Council will review those at the Dec. 2 meeting and decide which should be given to candidates, who will receive them two days ahead of the presentations.
Candidates will be asked to choose several of the questions to answer as part of their remarks, which will be two to five minutes each. The order in which candidates speak will be chosen at random at the Dec. 4 meeting.
Most council members were in general agreement on that format and Councilwoman Catherine Dauler said she believed it was fair.
‘They’ll all have the same questions,’ Dauler said. ‘They can pick a couple or more if they wish to answer. I think it’s a way to really promote fairness in the process.’
Councilman Dan Murphy said he did not want to rush the process and suggested a more expansive forum, with the 12 candidates split up over two nights and facilitators from the League of Women Voters of Centre County, which hosts biannual candidate nights, posing questions provided by council and the public.
Myers said he appreciated Murphy’s suggestion and ultimately said they would consult with the League, but that it is council’s responsibility to manage the process.
‘It’s not an election. It’s a choice council has to make,’ Myers said. ‘I think while all of us up here would have preferred that there be a special election and allow the people to decide, that’s not what happened and that’s not where we are… We’re charged with running the process. That’s what the charter says and I think we have to exercise our responsibility. So we can do some of that in consultation — I have no problem with that personally — but I think we need to run this rather than the League or some outside organization.’
‘This is our job and it’s not an election,’ Dauler added. ‘As much as I’ve always appreciated what the League of Women Voters has done, this is our responsibility and we have to conduct the interviews.’
Murphy clarified that he did not want to suggest council would relinquish responsibility, but that a facilitator might allow council members to be more engaged with candidates’ remarks.
‘What I was simply suggesting was that because we are so involved in this process and us being actively engaged in the conversation [we] might benefit from the help of individuals who already have a structure in place to have and facilitate conversations like this to allow us to be fully present and active listeners in the conversation as part of our dialogue,’ Murphy said.
While Councilman Jesse Barlow said he, too, does not want to rush things and that it needs to be deliberative, several council members said they felt it was important to select an interim mayor as soon as possible after Hahn’s resignation takes effect.
‘We have been considering it for a long time and we have been reflecting on it already,’ Brown said. ‘It is our duty to do that and we had the sense of the council before that we wanted to do that by Dec. 16. I don’t think there’s anything to be gained by finding ways to prolong it.’
Brown added that if the vote is delayed until the new year, there will be a new council and council president and no mayor.
‘I think that’s going to be a potential recipe for not hitting the ground running very well,’ Brown said. ‘In reality most of us know quite a bit about the candidates anyway, notwithstanding that we have 12, and I think it would be quite sufficient if we want to have people give a brief presentation and listen to them…’
Brown and Dauler will be leaving council at the end of the year, with newly elected members Deanna Behring and Peter Marshall coming on board.
For the second consecutive meeting, there was no talk of the controversial proposed criteria guidelines — which included among other things having local government experience, not being a Penn State employee and committing to not run for mayor in 2021 — that generated heated discussion for several weeks before being tabled on Nov. 6.
Brown and Lafer were both previously critical of audience members who applauded and snapped their fingers during an Oct. 30 meeting discussing the proposed guidelines, and last week Brown suggested there be a way to deter audience members from ‘vocal or other audible campaigning’ during the candidate presentations.
On Monday, Lafer encouraged supporters to attend the Dec. 4 meeting but asked for decorum.
‘It’s not an election and it’s not a popularity contest. So try not to bring the hoop-dee-doo we would bring if this was election night and you were counting the votes,’ Lafer said. ‘Fortunately or unfortunately, council has been given the responsibility of making a choice and making it based on our experience of what this means to be sitting up here and making decisions and working with someone… Please have your families and friends come… but remind them that it’s not a campaign speech… it’s sort of a job interview more than a campaign speech.’
When council votes on Dec. 16, rules of order dictate that candidates are nominated by council members and no seconds are required. Once a candidate is nominated, a yes or no vote is taken and the first candidate to receive a simple majority will be interim mayor. So if the first candidate nominated receives a majority, voting ends and that candidate will be interim mayor.
Council member names will be chosen at random by the borough secretary to decide the order for making nominations.
Myers said he consulted with borough solicitor Terry Williams about potential conflicts of interest, noting that he works at AccuWeather with one candidate, Ezra Nanes, and that Murphy and Barlow are Penn State employees as are several of the candidates. Williams said those circumstances are not conflicts that would prevent the council members from nominating or voting on any of the candidates.
