{"id":51824,"date":"2020-09-02T15:17:02","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T21:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-city-council-to-appoint-member-to-replace-betts\/"},"modified":"2020-09-02T21:17:02","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T21:17:02","slug":"cortez-city-council-to-appoint-member-to-replace-betts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-city-council-to-appoint-member-to-replace-betts\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez City Council to appoint member to replace Betts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Cortez City Council has an unexpected vacancy, which it is required to fill by Oct. 16. Interested Cortez residents who are 21 or older and registered voters are encouraged to submit a letter indicating their willingness to enter the position.<\/span>The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Cortez City Council is seeking a new member to fill a recent vacancy until the next municipal election in April 2022.<\/p>\n

Councilor Sue Betts died Aug. 13 after serving her city for two years on the council and for 29 years in law enforcement. She was elected for a second term and served until her death last month.<\/p>\n

The City Council can fill the vacancy through an appointment process, given the urgent need for a full council of seven members. An odd number of people allows the council to avoid a tie vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have so much to do,\u201d Rachel Medina, mayor pro tem and councilor, told The Journal<\/em>. \u201cWe need another perspective, another voice, another vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents of Cortez who are 21 years or older, who have lived in the city limits for at least one year and who are registered voters are eligible to apply for the position by submitting a letter indicating their interest to the Cortez City Clerk\u2019s office at City of Cortez, 123 Roger Smith Ave. Cortez, CO 81321, or by email to lsmith@cityofcortez.com<\/a> by 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all impacted by the decisions local government makes,\u201d Medina said. She encourages everyone who is interested to apply, because it is \u201cimportant for citizens to be involved in the decision-making process.\u201d<\/p>\n

To appoint a new member, the City Council needs at least four votes for a candidate. The councilors will use their meeting Sept. 22 to interview applicants and ask questions. A decision must be made by Oct. 13 by law, 60 days after the vacancy became open.<\/p>\n

The City Council meets on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month, beginning with a work session about 5:30 p.m., and the official council meeting at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

The appointed position \u201cgives community members a chance to have a voice in their government,\u201d said Mayor Mike Lavey.<\/p>\n

Medina recommends that applicants watch videos of previous meetings and work sessions online to learn about what the City Council does and how it works.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re willing to learn and put the time in, that\u2019s what we\u2019re looking for, and what the citizens deserve,\u201d Medina said.<\/p>\n

ehayes@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recent vacancy requires applicants for open position<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-51824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51824"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=51824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}