Houston OKs election, seats mayor

HOUSTON — Having found nothing fishy in this month’s election, the city council chose to seat three new members this week.

After the Oct. 5 election, around 13 Houstonians filed challenges to the election, all of them claiming City Clerk Steve Cunningham, who resigned on election day over allegations he’d improperly helped a recall of the mayor last winter, had tainted the results.

“Because the public has an important interest in the stability of election results, the Alaska Supreme Court has held that every reasonable presumption will be indulged in favor of the validity of an election,” Houston City Attorney Richard Payne wrote in a report distributed to the council. “Any malconduct on the part of the City Clerk was not of sufficient magnitude ‘to change the results of the election.’”

Paul Stout, a former councilman, Kathy Barney and military veteran James Johansen then took their seats. Lee Himes and Rosemary Burnett said goodbye.

“Every vote counts no matter what the council votes on,” Himes told the new council members. “I hope you the very best.”

“I hope that when the council decides to hire a new city clerk that they choose someone not only highly qualified on paper but with the highest ethical standards,” Burnett said after thanking city staffers for their hard work.

Having seated the council, the members had to choose which among them would serve as mayor and as deputy mayor. Outgoing mayor Rosemary Burnett took over for Roger Purcell, who resigned on the eve of the recall election. Perhaps not surprisingly, neither the mayor’s position nor the deputy mayor’s proved popular among the council members.

In the mayoral nominations, Stout, Barney, Natasha Schachle and Lance Wilson declined attempts to nominate them. Virgie Thompson was the only one who would accept a nomination.

“I have a lot to learn,” she said at the end of the meeting. “We all need to just work together.”

Wilson also declined nomination for deputy mayor, a position he had held since February 2008. Schachle, Johansen and Stout accepted nominations, though, and Johansen won.

Also at this week’s meeting, the council got a close look at complaints filed in the election. Each candidate who lost filed a complaint, with the exception of Hartley. All of them mentioned Cunningham, some mentioned that he was in control of ballots cast during early voting in the election.

In his report, Payne notes that he spoke with acting city clerk Sonya Dukes, who worked with Cunningham that whole time, and was assured none of the ballots were opened or tampered with.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.