Commission vacancy official

A vacancy was officially declared on the Board of Sweetwater County Commission Tuesday.

After the death of Republican Commissioner Don Van Matre, the Commissioners had to officially declare the vacancy to allow the Sweetwater County Republican party 20 days to present the Commissioners with three names.

Deputy attorney John Deleon said now that the Commissioners have declared the vacancy, the Republican party will have 20 days to obtain a list of applicants and narrow that list down to three. These three names will then go before the Commissioners.

“We need to be cognizant of when the board meetings are,” Deleon said.

If the regularly scheduled board meetings won’t meet the 20-day deadline, then the Commissioners could meet in a special meeting to meet with the candidates, he said. A special meeting was something the commissioners have done in the past to address this issue.

If the Commissioners can’t come to a consensus on a replacement, as it has in the past, the issue could then move forward to the Third District Court. This was the case when the Commissioners needed to replace Joe Oldfield, who also died in office. At that time Commissioners Wally Johnson and Debbie Dellai Boese couldn’t agree on who would fill the position and the matter went to the Third District Court. Third District Court Judge Nena James appointed Randy Walker to the board.

Deleon said in order for the matter to go to court a qualified voter would need to submit a petition to the Third District Court to make a decision.

Last time, Richard Mathey filed that petition.

If the matter goes to court, the judge assigned to the case doesn’t have to pick from one of the three names, Deleon said. In fact, the judge could select any qualified Republican candidate even if they weren’t one of the three forwarded onto the Commissioners.

Johnson wanted to know which judge the case would receive if it had to go before the Third District Court. Deleon said when cases are filed, they are filed on a rotation.

It would be whichever judge was next on the rotation when the case was filed.

With the process explained, the Commissioners gave the Republican Party representative the letter for the vacancy.

Johnson wanted to make it clear the none of the Commissioners have a say in whose names will be forwarded to it. That’s up to the Republican Party. Those who are interested should contact party representatives. The party plans to meet June 8.