Albion expediting process to fill city council seat; former councilman now working in D.C.

By RJ Walters / For the Jackson Citizen Patriot

Thorland Bradley is officially no longer a member of the Albion City Council and a successor to his Precinct 3 seat should be in place by sometime next month.

On Tuesday the council unanimously approved Bradley’s resignation from a term that was set to last until 2012.

Bradley was absent from the last three council meetings after discretely disappearing to Washington D.C. for what City Manager Mike Herman said he understood to be “job-related training of some sort.”

Herman said Bradley’s wife said “it looked like they would be moving” when she stopped by the city office the second week of August and Tuesday councilmember Ron Gant verified Bradley has relocated to the nation’s capitol.

“He wasn’t sure he was going to get the job…but they called him for a couple of interviews…and now he has a job that has to do with homeland security,” said Gant, who is close to the family and recently spoke to Bradley and Bradley’s mother.

According to the Albion city charter, council has 60 days to appoint someone to his vacant seat, but Herman and his colleagues are trying to expedite the process.

Herman said four applications have already come into his office and the city will accept applications until Sept. 29.

On Tuesday council agreed the Oct. 4 meeting will include a forum for candidates to speak and answer questions from the public.

Herman said council will soon come to terms on the specific details of that meeting, something Precinct 3 resident Joshua Eldenbrady would have liked to see happen Tuesday.

“When you’re doing it at a city council meeting you’re dealing with an audience of the entire city, instead of a community forum held in the precinct,” he said. “I definitely want an opportunity for precinct residents to ask questions and an opportunity after questions to give feedback and comments to the council about what we’d like to see.”

Eldenbrady said he’d like to see Bradley’s old seat filled by someone “who just has connections and is available enough to see what’s going on.”

“Even if my council person doesn’t agree with me I want someone who will listen and speak up and make council aware of an issue,” he said.