GREENFIELD — Precinct 2 will need a new councilor for the next year, after all.
Councilor John Lobik has withdrawn his withdrawal of his resignation, bringing him back to his original plan of just resigning at the end of 2018.
“Sorry for all the trouble,” Lobik said in an email to Greenfield Clerk Kathy Scott.
The back-and-forth decision process saddled the dramatic potential vote to build a new public library. Ultimately, a split council decided to table the library vote until January, when it was expected a councilor who was more likely to be a “yes” on the library would replace Lobik, who was seen as a swing vote.
At the end of November, Lobik announced he was going to resign at the end of the year, following the anticipated library vote, for health reasons.
Lobik has one year remaining on his four-year term. The November elections, which include a mayoral race and six council seats up for grabs, would include an election for his seat, regardless of who is appointed by the council president and approved by two-thirds of the council.
Last week, following the decision to shelve the library talk to the next month, Lobik issued a withdrawal of his resignation, triggering the Mayor’s Office to seek an opinion from the city’s attorney on whether Lobik could take-back his resignation. His decision also came a day after a press release from the city went out seeking interested Precinct 2 residents for the position.
With a Christmas break, no opinion was immediately available by the city lawyer. By late Thursday afternoon, Lobik alerted city officials he no longer was going to try to stay on the council. This called off any more hours spent by the attorney researching whether this was plausible, in the first place.
At the moment, there are three applicants in for the open position.
Current City Council President Karen “Rudy” Renaud has said she plans to fill that open seat as soon as possible, which would likely be at the full council meeting on Jan. 16, right before the library vote.
Renaud has said she wants someone who is experienced with budgets, since the council, with many first-timers on it, will be entering budget season shortly.
The decision of who to appoint might not be Renaud’s though, if she is not voted to continue as the council president at the legislative body’s annual restructuring meeting, Jan. 2. Renaud, if she wants, should have the votes to carry on as president.
While Renaud will likely appoint the next councilor for Precinct 2, the council could block the nomination. A two-thirds majority of the present councilors need to vote in favor of the appointee. Without approving the person, it could leave the council with 12, instead of a full 13-member body.
With 12 councilors, eight of them would need to say “yes” to approve a $19.5 million library, of which $9.4 million of it could be covered by a state grant.
Currently, there are seven strong “yes” votes, with one or two potential swing votes. If there is a full council, there would need to be nine “yes” votes. Either way, it likely results in one swing vote needed to go in favor of the library project for its approval. These numbers could also play out similarly for the plastic bag ordinance, which is also set to come back to the council in January.
You can reach Joshua Solomon at:
jsolomon@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 264