If a council member does not complete his or her four-year term, the four remaining council members may appoint someone to take his or her place. Then, at the next regularly scheduled village council election, the appointed person may run or not.
This is very unusual but it happened only 8 years ago when Annie Zusy (elected in 2008) died in June 2010 after less than two years in office. The council was entitled to appoint a new council member but decided for various reasons to wait until the general election that November, when the slate of anyone who wished to run for village council (and fulfilled all requirements) could be added to the (already jammed) ballot. That election was expected to attract more voters than the usual village council election because it included a representative to the House (Garrett was reelected to District 5 by almost 2 to 1) .
The village council spent the intervening months with four council members. In November 2010, Stephen Wellinghorst was elected to complete Annie’s term, which he began immediately. When Zusy’s four-year term ran out in mid-2012, Wellinghorst could have run for reelection, but to the surprise of many, he didn’t.
