The East Lansing City Council unanimously appointed Kathleen Corkin Boyle to fill the council’s vacant seat during its meeting Tuesday night at the Union.
After former Councilmember Don Power left his position Aug. 22, the council had 30 days, as outlined in the city charter, to choose a fifth member to take his place.
Power said he felt his vote was becoming obsolete, and thought council members were not adequately addressing a variety of regional issues.
As a part of the process, the council chose his replacement out of 14 applicants. Each council member stated their top two choices for the position at Tuesday’s meeting.
The applicants interviewed in front of the council Saturday morning.
Council members followed the same procedure the city used in 2006, when former Mayor Mark Meadows left to run for a seat in the state Legislature.
Councilmember Kevin Beard, Mayor Pro Tem Nathan Triplett and Mayor Diane Goddeeris included Boyle among their top two choices.
Councilmember Vic Loomis cited applicants Ruth Beier and Douglas Ripley as his top picks.
Boyle has served on both the East Lansing Housing Commission and the Red Cedar Neighborhood Association, and she also has a legal background as an attorney.
Her legal background played a strong factor in the council’s unanimous decision to appoint her.
Mayor Pro Tem Nathan Triplett also mentioned her as
one of his top choices because of her work on lesser-focused areas of the community, such as the Trowbridge corridor and the Red Cedar community.
“Frankly, one of the things that struck me most about Kathleen … is a perspective that’s different than one currently represented on this council,” Triplett said. “(She has a perspective) that looks at East Lansing in its totality and recognizes there’s an entire portion of our community that can sometimes go unnoticed.”
Boyle expressed a strong interest in working on financial issues and neighborhood preservation, as
well as working with the Community Relations Coalition, a program that aims to improve relations between students and permanent residents.
“I’m overwhelmed. I expect that will happen a lot over the next couple of weeks until I get my sea legs,” she said. “But I’m looking forward to working with the council.
I think everybody knows we have some big challenges in front of us, but we have a bunch of dedicated people to … collaborate.”
Boyle will take the oath and start her term Tuesday, and she will
serve a partial term until November 2013.
Once her partial term is over, Boyle said she plans to run for the remainder of the term, which expires in 2015.
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