CHAPEL HILL -- It wasn't the system that got Donna Bell appointed to the Town Council last year, but "ranked voting" is what Bell is recommending for future appointments.
The council will meet with members of Chapel Hill's delegation to the legislature Thursday to discuss changing state law to allow alternatives such as ranked voting to the current process for replacing an elected town official.
The meeting is sparked by former Mayor Pro Tem Bill Strom's unexpected resignation in August.
Under state law, Strom's seat would have been added to the November ballot, because his resignation came more than 90 days before the election.
But, in 1995, Chapel Hill created its own timeline which dictates that a vacancy must be filled by council appointment if it comes three days before the end of the election filing period or later. The filing period ended July 17, and Strom resigned effective Aug. 1.
As the Town Council debated how to replace Strom, Bell was pitted against Matt Pohlman, who finished fifth in the race for four seats on the council in November.
Pohlman's supporters argued that his fifth-place finish made him the right candidate to replace Strom.
But Bell's supporters said the council needed an African-American member such as her.
Jim Merritt, the only black incumbent, had finished sixth and might have outpaced Pohlman if voters had been voting for five candidates or had ranked each candidate instead of just voting for four.
"[Ranked voting] is a way to say, 'This would have been the next person on the list,'" Bell said. "What we're trying to do is come up with a solution that [voters] would feel better about."
Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt, who has suffered criticism because Bell worked on his campaign before being appointed, said he'd like to hear more about the council's rationale for changing the system back in the 1990s.
Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos said a council member will always have the option of timing his or her resignation to dictate how he or she will be replaced.
"They can choose to resign based on what they know the law is at that time, and that leaves the choice up to the person," he said.
But Kleinschmidt said the town needs to explore ways to prevent another Strom-like incident.
"That's not something that the town deserves to have to go through again," he said.
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