On Aug. 7, 2024, 35 minutes into the Page City Council meeting, there was a visible shift in mood on councilor faces. They were all too familiar with the events leading up to Councilor Brian Carey’s resignation. It was time to accept, document and move on. It was time to find someone to fill the seventh seat on the dais, the empty seat between Vice Mayor John Kocjan and Councilor David Auge.

“In respect to Brian's resignation letter of Aug. 1 it is with regret that we accept it,” said Auge. “Thank you, Brian, for your service. You always knew where Brian stood on a subject and his outspoken desire to develop a more desirable and aesthetically pleasing downtown for citizens and tourists alike was probably his election downfall, but we as a council and citizens of Page have issues before us such as housing, water, etc., greater than any two lanes of any street. We have a general election before us that will set the tone for the next two years. Let's work together for the betterment of our city.”

When Page City Council accepted Councilor Mark Cormier’s resignation March 11, 2020, they requested staff to publish a request for Letters of Interest to fill the vacancy with a deadline of April 1, 2020. Council chose David Auge. When Council accepted Councilor Theresa Lee’s resignation May 22, 2024, the deadline for Letters of Interest was set to June 10. Council appointed Kenna Hettinger to Lee’s seat.  When Council accepted Councilor Brian Carey’s resignation Aug. 7, 2024, the deadline for applications was set to Aug. 8, 2024. Council voted to give applicants 24 hours to submit Letters of Interest to complete Carey’s term ending in November 2024.

Kocjan, reading from a prepared statement, said, “I move to make the process to appoint Steve Kidman to fill the vacant Council seat and place it on the Monday special meeting agenda.” Immediately after reading the sentence, Kocjan looked toward City Manager Darren Coldwell and City Attorney Josh Smith. Coldwell and Smith appeared caught off guard by the unusual motion, both snapping their gazes toward Kocjan, then at each other.

Mayor Bill Diak said, “You want to read that again? Please.” Kocjan repeated the prepared, one-sentence motion.

Smith told Council, “Because of the way that the agenda is written, you can't vote to appoint Steve Kidman tonight, but you could talk about a process and then make a motion to bring it back next time.”

“I want to save the process of the city of going to all the recruiting names and then putting somebody out there for two months,” said Kocjan. “I think it's in the city's best interest that Mr. Kidman spend some time on the dais before he takes office.”

Newly appointed Councilor Hettinger agreed with Kocjan’s logic. “I agree with what council member Kocjan is saying. I think there's a lot of value in Steve Kidman specifically being on the dais prior to becoming mayor,” said Hettinger. “So could we say that we'd like to put this on the Monday special agenda for City Council to discuss and determine and we don't have to submit letters…”

 “You could make the appointment on Monday,” injected Smith. “I would just be careful about binding yourselves tonight to a specific person given that we didn't agendize filling the vacancy tonight; we just talked about the process. So, if the process is to come back on Monday and to not collect letters -- if there's a discussion about, you know, ‘We don't need to collect letters; we have someone who's been elected to be the mayor who will be seated in a couple of months; we'd like to get him up here; let's just move forward with getting that on an agenda so we can appoint him then.’”

“Every vacancy on a council has specifics about it,” said Diak. “This one here is very unusual in that we have an election in process. I agree with the direction that we're kind of moving in that it would make good common sense to bring somebody in here that is going to be [here] and help them learn the job in the process and not put somebody on there and they're gone in four months.”

Coldwell argued that appointing Kidman without looking at others wouldn’t be fair to other candidates seeking a council seat. The following day, Coldwell told the Chronicle, “Everyone should have an opportunity for that chair.”

Councilor Mike Farrow also called for fairness in the process. “I understand what the councilors are saying.” said Farrow. “I would like it to be the same process. Open it up for fairness for all people, other people running for councilors. Let's just compress the time the letters have to be in. If they already have a letter in, so be it. Let's say that letter has to be in by Thursday, end of business.”

Council went with Farrow’s recommendation, giving applicants 24 hours to submit Letters of Interest. This made it possible to agendize and potentially fill the vacant seat at the following Monday ‘s special meeting.

“My point and what I said is that we have to follow the process that we did with Kenna, and we did with others, and that people are able to submit their request,” Farrow told the Chronicle. “And then those submittals will be reviewed and then we'll make our decision. I'm going to make the best decision for the council serving the citizens.”