Just two years ago, nine Tracy residents threw their respective hats into the ring to fill five open seats on the Tracy City Council. This was two years after Tracy residents voted to have the council expand from five to seven members.
There will be no such logjam for this year’s election. Not even close.
With three open, four-year seats on the ballot this election year and just two who have filed, the council on Monday green-lighted an emergency ordinance that stipulates all write-in candidates must file paperwork with the City to be considered an official candidate.
“We’re only going to count the votes of the people who file as a write-in candidate,” Tracy City Administrator Erik Hansen said Monday. “We have three (four-year) council seats up, and we only had two people file. There are ways to fill that vacancy, but the State of Minnesota requires there be a write-in line for every office.”
The terms of current city council members Dave Tiegs and Jeri Schons are up this year (they have both filed for re-election), and council member Ron Koopman will be moving out of town, meaning his seat will be open as well.
See more in this week’s paper!