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Special Election Will Be Held To Decide Who Will Be Next Mayor Of Estherville

November 16, 2021 Steve Schwaller

(Estherville)– A special election will be held to determine the next Mayor of Estherville. On a four-to-one vote Monday evening, the city council opted to go with that option instead of making an appointment. Councilman Brandon Carlin vast the lone no vote. It followed a lengthy discussion. Councilman Roy Gage was among those supporting a special election being held…

“If this was half way through a term or something I’d be more inclined to appoint someone. And I think we could appoint someone and I think we could appoint somebody that would be good and would do the job. But my feeling is with the full term in front, even though we have the expense of an election, I think that the right thing to do would be to have an election and let the people make the decision. You know, if it was half way through the term, you know I would be inclined to say, well do the appointment. But that’s my feelings.”

Current Mayor Joseph May is resigning effective December 1st. He made the announcement one day before the November 2nd city election. He had previously opted to seek another term and his name was on the ballot. May received enough votes to where he would have been re-elected. Ken Billings was the second highest votegetter with 81 write-ins. However City Administrator Penny Clayton told the council that number would be insufficient to seat him because Estherville is a run-off city. Carlin said it may be time for the city to consider changing that…

“Timing just has not been in our favor in the last few elections and it might be advantageous to our future to look at another path.”

Clayton said she will contact the Emmet County Auditor to set a date for the special election.

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