Medical Lake City Council has an interesting year

In November 2017, Medical Lake voters elected a new mayor, Shirley Maike, who was charged with leading a largely new City Council into 2018.

One new councilman, Tony Harbolt, overtook Don Kennedy for Council Position No. 4 in a wildly close election that required a hand re-count.

Others claiming victory included John Merrick in Position 2, who ousted incumbent Elizabeth Rosenbeck, and Ted Olson in Position 5 who topped Gary Plumlee.

Incumbents John Paikuli in Position 1 and A.J. Burton in Position 4 were reelected.

By the end of 2018, however, two of the vanquished were back with the governing body after unexpected resignations by both Merrick and Paikuli allowed Kennedy and Rosenbeck to return.

When unexpected conflicts of a new job got in the way of regular attendance at Tuesday night meetings, Merrick tendered his resignation and the City Council accepted in a unanimous vote at their April 17 meeting. Rosenbeck would later be selected by council for that vacancy.

Next came Paikuli who had served on the council for years but decided to move the family back to his native Hawaii. His resignation was effective Aug. 1 and was filled by Kennedy in August. He too was picked by council after an application process similar to that in which Rosenbeck went through.

Because of a variety of excused absences, it took until Oct. 16 to have a meeting that featured a complete council.

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