The Jefferson City Council recently made an appointment to fill a vacancy on the council.

At their most recent meeting, the Council voted 3 to 1 to appoint Darren Jackson. The appointment was from Mayor Craig Berry’s recommendation. Berry says the Council appointed him to review the submissions of those interested in filling the vacancy and for him to make a recommendation to the Council for an appointment. However, at the most recent city council meeting, Berry said he didn’t conduct any interviews with the six individuals that submitted interest. He says his main reason for choosing Jackson was that he wanted someone who had experience with how bonds worked, since the Council was going to be possibly issuing $2.6 million in general obligation bonds soon.

“I wanted the person to hit the ground without too much of a learning curve. Knowing that Darren Jackson had had experience over in Grand Junction when he lived there, which was being appointed to the (City) Council and then running for the Council and winning. I believe he was apart of that G.O. (general obligation) bond issue that they had over there for their community center. I knew he could come up fairly quickly up to speed. Where the rest of them, we had one had spent some time on the City Council in Paton, I think for one term, and the rest of them had no experience in city government.”

The appointment would only fill the vacancy until the November general election, where voters would then choose who would fill the rest of the term until 2021. However, if residents want to petition for a special election, they must get 32 signatures submitted to City Hall by May 7th. A special election could then be set as early as June 11th. Candidates would then have 25 days prior to the election to submit nomination papers to be on the ballot. Whoever is elected in the special election would fill the rest of the term and not have to run in the November election. However, Berry says the cost for the City to do a special election is estimated between $4,500 to $5,000 for this fiscal year.

The vacancy was created following the resignation of Larry Teeples. The longtime council member resigned in lieu of being charged with a felony for extortion. The charge was dismissed once Teeples resigned.