Rosenbeck picked to fill vacant ML council seat

Elizabeth Rosenbeck is right back where she started from a year ago - a member of the Medical Lake City Council.

Rosenbeck was the unanimous choice of the council in a vote at the June 19 meeting to replace John Merrick who resigned in April after job commitments forced him to miss a number of early meetings in 2018.

Ironically, it was Merrick who defeated Rosenbeck last November for the Position 2 seat, 56.4 – 43.1 percent or by a 528-403 margin in votes. She finished second in the August 2017 primary in a three-way battle with Merrick and Monica Manza.

"I'm pretty excited to be back and when I left. I felt like I was just getting me feet wet and really understanding a lot of what I was learning and then I'm not there anymore," Rosenbeck said.

Despite defeat at the polls, Rosenbeck was a regular attendee at council meetings as an interested citizen. "I knew I was going to run again, I enjoyed it that much, I really enjoyed being on the council," she said.

After the November loss, Rosenbeck said she had a great deal of ongoing support from people who asked if she would continue her pursuit of a position in the future, to which her reply was, "Not just yeah, but heck yeah."

Manza and Don Kennedy made up the group who also applied for Merrick's seat. Each had run unsuccessfully last November. They went through a state-approved application process that began in April and concluded May 25.

"Per our policy, they were all invited to the City Council to make a statement," City Administrator Doug Ross said. Manza was ill and unable to make it to the meeting, but Rosenbeck and Kennedy did before the group adjourned to executive session.

There they discussed qualifications but did not make a recommendation. They reconvened and then gave a 5-0 vote to Rosenbeck. She will complete the four-year term of Merrick.

What made her the choice is unclear, but Rosenbeck said she thinks it was her previous time on the council, plus her being regularly in the audience. Rosenbeck was officially sworn in at City Hall on June 25.

She will return July 17 for the next regularly-scheduled meeting. Rosenbeck had been selected through a similar process to fill the unexpired term of Howard Jorgenson who passed away in May 2016.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.