Centralia City Council set to interview two candidates for vacancy

May 1-Centralia officials will take another swing at filling a vacant city council position starting next week with another round of public interviews.

The Centralia City Council announced Thursday afternoon that it will hold a special meeting next Tuesday to interview two candidates - Meri Bretthauer and Jan Nontell - both hoping to become the new Centralia District 1 councilor.

According to the announcement, the council will begin the interviews at 6 p.m. in the council chambers.

Bretthauer participated in the last round of interviews but missed out on the nomination to now failed candidate Cameron Bluhm, whose appointment was subsequently withdrawn by the council last month.

Nontell is the owner of the Rectangle Gallery and Creative Space in downtown Centralia.

After establishing new criteria and a new process for appointing council members last month, the Centralia City Council also cemented a timeline for its next appointment process during a Tuesday evening council meeting.

According to councilor discussion during the Tuesday meeting, the council will decide on which candidate to appoint to the empty seat during its May 12 business meeting, one week after the upcoming interviews. The council will then seat, or swear in, the new councilor at the following council meeting on May 26.

During discussion, Deputy Mayor Kelly Smith Johnston echoed a talking point from a previous meeting and stressed her desire to allow more time between candidate interviews and an official appointment by the council.

"I would like to see us establish a best practice of a gap between reviewing and sharing publicly who those applicants are and making our decision," Smith Johnston said. "Because these folks aren't elected. They're not going through a campaign. I think that does help to get their names out into the public sphere."

In the council's most recent attempt to fill a vacant seat, members entered into an executive session immediately after holding public interviews and announced the new appointee that evening. The council ultimately vacated the seat once again, only stating publicly that the selected candidate was not qualified for the position.

Mayor Chris Brewer offered support for Smith Johnston's proposal and added that he would like the public to be very involved in the vetting and appointment process while vaguely referencing the failed appointment process from March.

"Obviously, we have sensitivities with what happened previously," Brewer said. "And I just want to make sure that everything goes in front of the public as best as possible so the public gets to see all the steps of this process."

Brewer and city staff added that they intend to seat a council member by the end of the month, which would put them safely within a 90-day time period from the time the seat was first vacated by former Centralia Mayor Norm Chapman.

Under state law, local governments like the city council are required to fill vacant positions within 90 days of the vacancy. If they do not, the appointment duties go to the relevant county government. In this case the Lewis County Board of Commissioners.

The deadline for the current process, however, is murky. After previous reporting, city staff and members of the council said they believed their 90-day appointment deadline had extended after officially nominating Bluhm and subsequently vacating the seat.

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