Brighton election date announced

BRIGHTON — Washington County has announced an Aug. 6 date for a special election in Brighton to replace resigned Council Member David Pratt. The vacancy is an at-large position, as are all seats on the Brighton City Council.

The news comes after a monthslong stalemate between decision-makers, who were divided over whether the position should be filled by appointment or by election. While appointment is faster and cheaper than holding a special election for the town of 600, recent controversies over issues like fire department funding have led some to call for a decision from constituents instead.

But with 60 calendar days passed by since Pratt’s resignation, state law has kicked in and required the city hold an election for the vacancy. That’s a win for pro-election holdout council members Chuck Emry and Scott Hughes, and a source of frustration to skeptics Rose Jaynes and Dick Green.

In a news release issued Wednesday morning, the Washington County Auditor’s Office said interested candidates could stop in for their campaign paperwork, which includes an affidavit of candidacy and nomination petition, both of which are required to get one’s name on the ballot. The deadline for candidates to file in the election is Friday, July 12, no later than 5 p.m., according to that news release.

It’s not entirely clear who will run for the vacant position. Former Council Member Cathy Rich was endorsed by Pratt in his resignation letter, but she’s expressed hesitation about running another campaign after a separate special election loss to write-in candidate Scott Hughes in March.

Other contenders are anyone’s guess. The city saw a whopping six names in the running for last November’s regular election, but only Rich and Hughes stepped up to the plate in March’s race just a few months later.

JUNE 17 MEETING

The Brighton City Council did not manage to appoint a member at their meeting on June 17. Council Member Rose Jaynes made a motion at the meeting to post a public notice of the vacancy — an administrative requirement to appoint a new member — which was seconded by Council Member Dick Green. That motion failed with council members Chuck Emry and Scott Hughes voting it down for a 2-2 tally, according to the city clerk.

Similar motions failed with identical outcomes at the council’s May 6, May 20 and June 3 meetings, according to minutes published in The Southeast Iowa Union.

The dispute started in mid-April, when then-Council Member David Pratt resigned from the office after missing several meetings in a row. Pratt said his career as a trucker kept him out of town more than he’d hoped when he ran for the office, a race he won last November by less than 10 votes according to Washington County election officials.

City officials said the last special election — between Hughes and former Council Member Cathy Rich in March — cost around $1,100. Mayor Melvin Rich, as well as Council Member Jaynes have criticized plans for an election, saying the city was already short on cash and lamenting the expected months of operation with one less decision-maker, making it harder to reach a quorum at meetings and easier for decision-makers to reach deadlocked tie votes.

“It’ll be September before you have anybody seated, if you have an election,“ Melvin Rich said at a meeting in April. ”What’s the right thing for the town … Where are you going to find the money?“

Hughes and Emry, however, have held out in favor of an election to replace Pratt.

While Emry has voted in favor of a vacancy-filling appointment in a previous term on the council, he’s argued that municipal fights since then — like a funding dispute with the volunteer fire department spanning 2022 and 2023 — made public input necessary this time around.

“Let the citizens vote, that’s why we have elections,” he said in April.

Also at play is the question of who would get the position, if the city followed through on an election or appointment. Pratt formally endorsed Cathy Rich to take his place in his resignation letter. She’s credited by some for balancing budget books in her previous terms, but blamed by others — namely firefighters — for last the string of tense funding disputes, from which some hostility still looms over the city.

Rich, for her part, has said she’d accept an appointment, but was unlikely to run for office if it came to another election.

“I would be interested, for the good of the taxpayers,” she said in an interview in April, adding that, “It is very difficult to run for a position, and to have people … criticize the work that you’ve done.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com