Millbrook's November elections explained

MILLBROOK — The lengths of Millbrook’s mayoral and trustee terms are complicated by the change in the terms of elected officials under law 3-302(5)(a), approved by village residents in March 2009. The surprise resignation of Mayor Andrew Ciferri in March and the appointment of Laura Hurley as interim mayor until the November special election brought this law to light in recent weeks.

Village Trustee Hurley served as mayor in her position as deputy mayor, which she was appointed to by Ciferri. She did not automatically become mayor when he resigned, because the deputy mayor merely fills in for the mayor if the mayor is unavailable for any reason. In the case of resignation or death, unlike the vice president of the United States, the deputy mayor does not automatically become mayor. He or she only fills in until the Board of Trustees selects one of its members, or some other village resident, as the next mayor. Hurley was officially elected by her fellow trustees in April and then appointed Stan Morse as replacement deputy mayor. The mayor and the board must now decide on another trustee to fill the vacancy left by Hurley.

A special election will be held this November to elect a mayor to serve in 2011, the remainder of Ciferri’s term. Also to be decided in this year’s November election will be the trustee seats for Hurley’s replacement and also for Buddy Cox, who was elected in a special election last November. These trustees, but not the mayor, will serve four-year terms; the seats will be up for election again in 2014.

In 2011 the mayor’s position and remaining two trustee seats (now held by Stan Morse and Tom Whalen) will be decided and those elected will serve for a term of five years, until 2016. By 2016 the election terms for both the mayor and the trustees will be four years.

Asked whether she will seek election as mayor in November or re-election as a trustee, Hurley said she is “reserving her decision about running until she has been in the mayor’s position longer.�

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