There will only be one open seat on Columbus City Council on January 1st when Eileen Paley leaves to take on her new position as a Judge at the Franklin County Municipal Court, but officials at City Hall confirmed this afternoon that 32 people have submitted applications for it.
The list of applicants include several names that will be familiar to anyone who has followed the Council appointment process in recent years. Weinland Park Civic Association President Brandyn McElroy and Yay Bikes! Director Catherine Girves both applied after confirming their intentions with Columbus Underground last month. Former Mayoral Candidate James Ragland also applied, after an apparent change of mind, as he told CU in early November that he was not interested at this point in time.
Three candidates who ran and lost during the elections of 2015 have applied, including Ibrahima Sow (Republican), Keith Hatton (Independent) and Kiwan Lawson (Democrat).
Additional applicants include Larry Druggan, Marian Harris, Michael Schilling, Colman Hickey, Marcus Deloney, Robert Thaxton, Monica Hawkins, Eric Duffy, Ronald Balser, Tiffany White, Mark Harper, Michael Miles, John Lathram, Jerry Pierce, Kristen McKinley, Michael Aaron, Marc Gofstein, Mitchell Sex, Bryan Rhoades, Densil Porteous, Daniel Woodley, Khalifa Cochran, Christopher Wyche, Mitchell Brown, Emmanuel Remy and Samuel Sarkodee.
While several local political insiders have previously stated that former Councilmember Kevin Boyce may be interested in the position, his name did not appear in the list of applicants. Instead, The Dispatch reported today that Boyce may be petitioning to run for a seat as a Franklin County Commissioner in 2016.
Reviews and interviews of applicants will take place through December 18th, with a narrowed list of finalists expected to be completed by noon that day. Public interviews with finalists will take place on January 5th and 6th. A vote is expected to be called during City Council’s scheduled public meeting on January 11th, where the new appointee would be approved and sworn into office.