Election warranted

Coun. Tannis Drysdale’s abrupt resignation Monday (she cited “personal repriorizations” in an e-mail to the Times this morning) leaves town council with a decision on how to fill her seat.
No doubt everyone remembers the mess the previous council created when it faced such a decision after Coun. Struchan Gilson’s sudden passing in 2005. It opted to appoint someone to fill the vacancy rather than hold an election, but instead of simply naming John Albanese, who had the next highest votes from the 2003 election, councillors chose a convoluted process to rank all the failed candidates still interested in the seat in a secret ballot.
Adding to the controversy was the inclusion of Sharon Tibbs, who had lost the mayor’s race to Dan Onichuk, on the ballot.
So what’s this council to do? The easiest course of action would be to appoint Ken Perry, who finished seventh last November. But what happens if he declines? Offer it to the eighth-place finisher, and so on down the line, until someone accepts?
Or council, as was done two years ago, could choose from among all the failed candidates still interested, which would have to include Mr. Onichuk, who lost to Roy Avis in the mayor’s race.
Yet another option would be to open the seat to applications and then appoint someone from that list. What makes this choice more attractive than the other two is that someone now interested in having a seat on council could be in the running.
That also opens the door to having another woman on council (which wouldn’t be the case under either Option #1 or Option #2).
The biggest drawback, however, is that it is six people (the mayor and five remaining councillors) deciding who should fill the seat—which can open the door to accusations of cronyism or the like.
That’s why the best choice facing council this time around is to hold a byelection. It’s the most expensive and time-consuming route, but with three years still left in the current mandate, it’s the people who should choose their next representative from the widest field of candidates, not council.