On Jan. 3, Metro Councilor Robert Liberty, who represents District 6, announced that he will be resigning his position, effective Jan. 15, to become the director of the University of Oregon’s Sustainable Cities Initiative. Since that announcement, questions have been raised about how a vacancy on the Metro Council gets filled.
Councilor Liberty’s successor will be appointed by the Metro Council, as the Metro Charter requires. In the coming days, the Metro Council will announce the beginning of an application process for interested persons to apply for the vacant position. Metro’s code requires that notice of the application period be given at least four weeks before the appointment is made. For this vacant position, qualified applicants must be registered voters in District 6 for at least one year prior to the appointment. Metro District 6 includes portions of Northeast, Southeast and Southwest Portland.
The Metro Council will schedule a public meeting to take place after the application period ends at a location within District 6. Council members will interview qualified applicants and invite members of the public to speak in support of, or opposition to, any of the applicants or to provide council with any other guidance as it considers this appointment.
The Metro Council may vote to appoint the new councilor at this meeting or it may hold the vote over to a later date. Council may, at its discretion, schedule additional public meetings and follow-up interviews before reaching its decision. The Metro Charter requires the council to appoint a new councilor within 90 days of the declaration of a vacancy.
The person appointed to the vacant District 6 position will be able to serve the remainder of Councilor Liberty’s term, ending in January 2013. The appointee, along with other eligible persons residing in District 6, may run as a candidate for a four-year term at the May 2012 election. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote in that election, the top two vote-winners will advance to a run-off election in November 2012.
The Metro Council has not determined when the application process for this appointment will begin or end, nor has a date been chosen by which the council will reach its decision. This information will be announced soon through local news media and the Metro website, www.oregonmetro.gov.