Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1878-04-11
A Esitch i'm the municipality.

On Monday afternoon last the Council
of our Town met as usual, and the prin-
cipal business to be transacted, as we are
informed, was to fill Il vacancy in the
Council which had occurred by the resig-
nation of Councilman John B. Koontz.
Five of the members of the Council were
present, and a majority of this number
claimed that the Council had the author
ity to fill the vacancy, and the Mayor not
feeling willing to yield the prerogative
given him under the municipal code,
claimed that he had the right to make the
appointment and fill the vacancy, by and
with the consent of the Council. But
three of the Councilmen persistently
claimed the right to nominate the person
| to fill the vacancy, and demanded of the
Mayor that he should put the question of
confirmation or rejection. The Mayo
failed to entertain the question. The
| Councilman who made the motion asked,
in no very mild terms, that the clerk re-
cord his motion, but the Mayor ruled the
motion out of order, and instructed the
clerk that it was not necessary to enter it
upon the minutes.
In order to satify ourselves as to the
manner in which vacancies are to be filled
in the Council, we have hunted up the
Statutes and find the following, from the
Session laws for 1869, page 1GO, section 64,
to be law:
SEC. 81. All appointments of officers of
municipal corporations, created by law
or ordinance, shall be made by the Mayor,
! by and with the advice and consent of the
| Council, and the concurrence of q maj iOr-
| ity OF all the mem bers elected shall be re-
| quired to confirm any such appointment
and the names of those voting, and fof
whom they voted, on the vote resulting
in an appointment, shall be recorded.
We quote also another section, defining
the manner of filing vacancies in munich
pal corporations, as follows:
Sec. Sc. All vacancies in offices filled
by appointment, and all other vacancies
occurring within 60 days prior to the an
nual corporation election, shall be fillet
by appointment us in other cases, anC
such appointment shall be for the unex
pired term and until Il successor is elect
ed and qualified; and all elections to fl
vacancies shall be for the unexpired term
All vacancies in any of the offices createt
by this act shall be filed in the manne
! above provided.
the mayor proceeded to perform the du
) ties of his office. Six appointment
were made in succession and each reject
5 ed by majority of the Council. Thos
t who voted yea, were A. L. Reid and Jo'
/ n. Wilson; those who voted nay, were
t D. Brad ley, Joseph A. Williams and
Fl. Burnett.
5 The appointments were: 1st, Georg
s Melvin; I'd, James Straley; Sd, J. Light
f 4th. H. L. Hadley; 9TH, Eli Craig; 6tl
). Milo Rockwell. These gentlemen a
3 among our most competent, reliable al
J. responsible business men, and the may'
i could not have made an appointment tn
would have been more acceptable to Il
business men and the friends of law al
.. order, than either of the above named a
0t pointments. The great wonder is, can
"a be that these appointments were reject
because they are the class of men we ha
- represented them to be? If not, wi
as were they rejected? That is what t
- good citizens of the town should kno