Our view: City council takes right election turn

Recently, newly elected Cloquet councilor Dakota Koski announced that he must resign his seat, as he is moving out of his ward and will no longer be eligible to serve.

First, congratulations to Dakota, who is buying his first house. And cheers to him as well, for stepping up to run for council in the first place. We applaud his civic commitment and hope he stays involved as he has so far.

But more cheers go to the Cloquet City Council for agreeing to hold an election for Koski’s replacement in Ward 3. In the 2018 election, three candidates filed for the seat, and the results were pretty close. Randy Flynn got about 30 percent of the votes. Richard Colson got a little bit more and Koski just a bit more than that. Clearly, quality people are willing to serve Ward 3.

It would have been easier for the council to take applications and choose someone to fill Koski’s term until the 2020 election at least, saving the city maybe $3,000 and some time. It also would have been easy to appoint Richard Colson, who came in second place in the general election last fall and who has been eager to serve in local government for some time. The council could have appointed a person known to be friendly to the members.

But the council members, most of whom were just elected to their current seats in the last election, obviously remembered that transparency was the top issue in that election. By holding an election rather than taking applications, the council is showing that it is dedicated to transparency and democracy in city government. It’s worth the expense and the extra time.

Now all we need are quality candidates.

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