By Armchair Mayor

Prof. Rothenburger’s intro to By-Elections 101

May 20, 2017 | 5:00 AM

KAMLOOPS — (With apologies to The Paper Chase)

Good morning, class. Welcome to By-Elections 101. You come here with a skull full of mush; you leave thinking like a politician or, at least, a City Hall procedures wonk.

Today, we’ll talk about the arithmetic of by-elections. Let’s take a hypothetical example.

A mayor decides to move on. Instead of leaving right away, he waits a couple of weeks to “clear up some administrative details.” His leave will start June 1, but he doesn’t say when it will end.

Meanwhile, on May 16, a veteran council member announces she will resign, due to medical reasons, as of Friday, June 30. At the urging of some of her fellow councillors, she agrees to think it over — if she wishes, she could take an unpaid leave of absence until Jan. 1 next year, avoiding a by-election.

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At that same May 16 meeting, the council gives three readings to a bylaw providing for a by-election, should it come to that. It will have to come back later for adoption.

It must be adopted six weeks (42 days) before nominations open for the by-election.

The mayor also announces that he’ll keep an eye on things for the next six weeks and if it looks like everything is hunky dory, he’ll extend his leave, thereby not being the one to trigger a by-election. On the other hand, if the councillor goes ahead with her resignation, he may as well, too.

Regulations say there must be at least one day between the first three readings of a bylaw, and adoption. In practice, it really means waiting at least until the next meeting.

So, say the by-election bylaw was adopted at the next meeting of the council, May 30. Six weeks from then would be July 11. The mayor’s proclaimed six-week review period from June 1 would end on July 13.

Mr. Hart — that is your name, isn’t it? Are you following so far?

In other words, if the mayor chooses to resign at that time, a by-election would be required to choose his successor. If he doesn’t choose to resign, but the councillor does, a by-election would still be needed.

Happily, the bylaw allowing for a by-election would now be in place.

The council could then decide when it wants to hold an election. It must be on a Saturday within 80 days of the appointment of a chief election officer. And that has to happen “as soon as is practical.”