Columbus City Council issued a release this afternoon noting that the the list of seven candidates that had applied for the currently vacant seat at City Hall, had already been whittled down to two finalists: Fran Ryan and Tom Dillard. The process for filling the vacant seat is being expedited due to the fact that the appointee will only be serving a total of 96 days in office, from September 28th through December 31st.
Interestingly, the two finalists chosen by City Council are also the oldest of those who applied for the position. Tom Dillard, 71, cited his age on his application, noting that it allowed him to “bring a maturity needed to make input into sound decisions that have long term impact”. Fran Ryan, 81, previously served on Columbus City Council from 1971 and 1977, prior to the birth of several existing Councilmembers.
As was noted during our recent interview with City Council Candidate Liz Brown, the current slate of five Democratic candidates running for council are all under the age of 40, with several Republican Candidates falling under that age demographic as well.
City Councilmembers will host a public meeting tomorrow, September 15th at 4pm to discuss the finalists and to vote on a candidate to fill the vacant seat.