Bruce Braatan Is Canton's New Mayor

Well, Canton has a new mayor and his name is Bruce Braaten.

For those unfamiliar with the city manager form of government, every year once the three new commissioners are sworn in they then pick a mayor from the group. If the current mayor wanted, I imagine he or she could've run for the position again. But Canton's mayor, Jim Bolin, didn't run for re-election to the city commission (instead, he's running for the state House. Go Bolin!). Commissioners nominate who they think would be a good mayor and if there's more than one nominee, they vote.

A funny thing happened this time though. I talked with someone who was at Monday night's meeting and apparently there were two nominees and they each got four votes. Normally there would be a tie-breaker in the ninth commissioner, but one was missing. When that happened the commissioners looked over at the city attorney for what to do. The ninth commissioner was supposed to come late, so it was decided to defer the vote until he got there. The other option was the re-vote, but only if someone would change their mind. But by the end of the meeting, when the commission went into executive session, he still hadn't shown up. So the citizens who were at the meeting left thinking Canton wouldn't have a mayor until the next meeting two weeks away (though that's not a huge deal since a commissioner mayor has mostly ceremonial powers).

But that last commissioner must've shown up before the meeting adjourned because today's Canton paper says Bruce Braaten was elected. Strangely, it was a 6-3 vote, so someone changed their minds anyway. Oh well, it makes for a funny story.

Congrats to Bruce! I know I was very hard on him last year when he was part of the group wanting to change Canton's government. If I said anything he was offended by I sincerely apologize. From what I've heard and observed, Bruce Braaten has done an excellent job on the commission. So I have faith that he will be an excellent mayor for Canton.