Lewiston council elections topic of open house

How Lewiston residents elect city council members after the town’s conversion to a strong-mayor form of government is the subject of an open house set for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The event, organized by the city of Lewiston, will be held at the Lewiston Library at 411 D St.

It will be followed by a monthlong survey of Lewiston residents to see which system of government they prefer.

Previously, Lewiston’s registered voters elected seven city council members at large. The mayor was selected from the council by its members.

A city manager handled the town’s day-to-day business. The total annual compensation to Alan Nygaard, the town’s most recent city manager, was $218,040.

With the switch, Lewiston residents elect a mayor, who supervises city operations and earns $80,000 a year.

Dan Johnson, Lewiston’s first mayor under the new form of government, has said he is considering adding a new position, assistant to the mayor, next year.

That possibility surfaced after the position of Dan Marsh was eliminated. Marsh’s last day was Thursday, and he will receive his full salary through the end of September. Marsh was the city’s administrative services director, chief financial officer and city treasurer.

Besides the mayor, city residents also elect six council members, who earn $700 a month.

The city council is considering three options about how its members will be elected in the future, which are all based on four-year terms for city councilors, said city spokeswoman Carol Maurer in an email.

The next city council election will be in November 2023, regardless of the structure selected, she said.

One option is keeping the existing system where council members are elected at-large by all registered voters living within Lewiston’s city limits. The three with the most votes win office.

Under that structure, councilors Jim Kleeburg, Luke Blount and Rick Tousley would serve through Dec. 31, 2023. Councilors Hannah Liedkie, Kassee Forsmann and Kathy Schroeder would be in office until Dec. 31, 2025.

“The reason some are serving four-year terms and some are serving only two-year terms is based on the number of votes they received in the November 2021 election,” Maurer said. “The three candidates with the highest amount of votes received four-year terms … and the three with the lowest amount of votes received two-year terms.”

A second possibility is numbering the seats and requiring candidates to specify what seat they are seeking. If that structure were chosen, there could be instances where some councilors were unopposed while others had several challengers.

The third option would be to elect city councilors by district. Each district, as much as possible, would contain about the same number of residents based on federal census numbers. Council members would have to live in the district they represented. “Only people living in the district (would be able to) vote for the candidates running from their district,” according to an information sheet from the city of Lewiston.

If the council chooses to have elections by seats or districts, the city council could by ordinance require that a majority of the votes for any candidate running for a council seat or district would be needed to be elected to the office.

The decision about how to select city councilors won’t have any impact on how the mayor is elected. All registered city of Lewiston voters cast ballots for mayor.

If none of the candidates wins a majority vote, a run-off election is held between the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.