A municipal byelection will soon be called to fill the seat of Councillor Rhonda Seidel in North Battleford.
Seidel is leaving her city council seat, confirms City Clerk Debbie Wohlberg. The first-term councillor is moving to Swift Current to take on a new role with her employer, SaskTel.
Speaking to the News-Optimist Monday, Wohlberg said the City has received Seidel's letter of resignation, which she said takes effect "immediately." The focus for the City now is to set a date for a byelection, though details have not been finalize.
Wohlberg said she is reviewing the applicable legislation to determine a time frame for a bye lection, and will bring recommendations forward to next Tuesday's council meeting.
The procedure is not expected to be much different from what is normally seen during the election period, with a nomination period followed by a city wide election. The only difference is that instead of filling six seats on council, as is normally the case during a general election, only one seat will need to be filled.
"Everything that you normally do for a general election, we go through the same process for a byelection," said Wohlberg.
Seidel was one of the three rookies elected to council in the fall of 2009, along with fellow first term councillors Ron Crush and Trent Houk. In her time on council she made her largest impact in efforts towards beautifying the city, pushing to clean the community during the annual United Way spring cleanups or more recent efforts to reestablish Communities in Bloom in the city.
