The sudden resignation of Mayor Jim Albright and Councilwoman Sharon Gieras resulted in mixed public comment during Tuesday night’s council meeting.

In the wake of last week’s contentious and volatile three-hour public hearing, Albright and Gieras submitted their resignations the next day.

Gieras, whose term ends in December, said she had already decided not to run for re-election.

However, when Albright submitted his resignation, she followed a short time later.

“For the past six years I have proudly served on the City Council,” she wrote to City Manager Joan Phillipe and the council members. “The first four years were wonderful. The council, staff and employees worked as a team and we achieved a lot.

“The last two years the council has been extremely dysfunctional and it is impossible to get any constructive work done,” she continued.

The public’s treatment of city staff and consultants over the past few weeks, particularly during the public hearing, contributed to their decision, she said adding, “The disrespectful treatment of our staff and consultants is unacceptable.”

Albright, whose term of office is up in two years, declined to comment on the reasons for his resignation.

Sherrie Blackmun took over as mayor and Suzanne Roberts was named mayor pro tem on Tuesday night.

The council then discussed how to fill the vacancies.

City staff informed the council they could legally operate as a three-member board until the Nov. 4 general election.

Council member Joshua Alpine expressed concern that attempting to conduct city business with just three council members was risky during a critical period when the council had such pressing issues to resolve as the sewer rates, the city budget and the general plan.

The risk is the council could lack the needed quorum if one member missed a meeting.

While pledging to attend every council meeting, both Roberts and Blackmun concurred that unforeseen events could prevent a quorum.

The discussion then turned to appointing at least one new council member to serve until November.

By law, the city has 30 days to appoint someone. Otherwise, the replacements would have to be elected in a general or special election.

Alpine suggested appointing someone to fill Gieras’ seat because her term expires at the end of the year.

Roberts, however, advocated appointing someone to finish the remainder of Albright’s term.

Feedback from the audience clearly indicated they favored Alpine’s alternative, so the council unanimously agreed to appoint someone to finish Gieras’ term.

City staff was directed to prepare a procedure for city residents to apply for the position. The appointment could be made as soon as the next regular council meeting on July 22 or the council could choose to hold a special meeting to make the appointment before the 30-day deadline.

The consensus of the council, and the citizens present at the meeting, was that both Gerias’ and Albright’s seats should be on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Since Blackmun’s term also expires this year, there would actually be three open seats on the November ballot.

City Manager Joan Phillipe explained that Sunday, July 13, is the last legal day to finalize the general election ballot. County counsel would have to approve the ballot change, she added.

If the county counsel, for whatever reason, rejects the ballot change, the city could be forced to hold a special election at considerable cost. A general election could cost about $1.25 per registered voter, whereas a special election would cost between $7 and $8 per voter, Phillipe reported.

Before the council finished reorganizing and making decisions on how to replace Albright and Gieras, the public was allowed to comment on any issues they wanted to bring before the council. Virtually all the comments concerned the resignations and the vitriolic tone of last week’s public hearing.

Bill Bean Sr. stated he felt Jim Albright had been treated unfairly and urged Albright to reconsider his resignation.

Ed Herrnberger thanked the city council and staff for their hard work. He went on to apologize for the verbal abuse heaped on the council and staff at last week’s disorderly public hearing.

“Most people in Colfax are not like that,” he said.

Robby Robinson added, “I feel badly that two members of the city council resigned. We all need to work together. We need to act like adults.”

During her public comment, rate protestor Kathy West announced, “I was pleased that the two people [Albright and Gieras] stepped down.”

She said she was offended that Albright called her a “baby” during least week’s public hearing.