by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — By a 3 to 1 to 1 vote, the Wellington City Council voted in Bill Butts to fill out the term of John “B.J.” Tracy who vacated his seat last month.

Butts, who will serve out the term until the fall of 2017, was selected amongst seven applicants at the council meeting Tuesday night. The other candidates included Cindy Antonich, Kim Woodrow, Kevin Dodds, George Hitt, Michael Cody, and Eric Page.

Council member Vince Wetta nominated Butts and Kelly Green seconded the motion. Kip Etter would follow with an affirmative vote. Jim Valentine voted against the motion and Jan Korte abstained.

“I am retiring this month and I have lived here for 38 years,” Butts said after the meeting on why he applied for the seat. “I felt it was time to give back to the community.”

The appointment came after a 15-day application period and a city work session on May 27 in which the candidates were asked to be interviewed.

After Wetta’s nomination, it was clear from the onset Butts was not going to win unanimously.

“In this country we have a representative government, and this council should be representative part of that government,” Korte said. “We have three people, who ran and all three received votes. To disregard the votes of the people is a departure of democracy and the democratic process. I hope the council reconsiders and selects one of the three candidates.”

Green she viewed it differently

“I went back and read the city policy and it said the council will decide who is best candidate for the job. It said nothing about whether the applicant ran for an election or not,” Green said. “Therefore I’m going to choose what I think is the best of the seven applicants.”

“Then in that case, I won’t vote,” Korte responded.

Although Valentine did not mention Antonich by name, Valentine said she was the fifth highest vote getter and was deserving of the nomination.

“Those 500 people out there deserve her attention,” Valentine said. “To go away from this would be the wrong thing to do.”

After the vote was taken, an audience member immediately expressed his displeasure.

“I am not believing this,” said Wellington citizen Tom McAlister from the audience. “Nobody gets to address you people? I don’t believe this. My wife and I were one of 526 people who supported Cindy and you guys just ramrod this through without addressing anybody.”

Cindy Antonich

Antonich was also upset, who immediately went to the Facebook social media site to express her displeasure of the selection, calling Butts “Mr. Golf Course Bill Butts” and ‘the golf course nervana (sic) for special interest Green, Etter and Wetta.’”

Later in a telephone call to Sumner Newscow Antonich said she never had a chance to address the council before the selection was made.

“I have never seen such a blatant show of disrespect for the voters in my entire life,” she said.

Antonich said she knew nothing about the city work session. Two of the seven were present for the interview: Butts and Page. Wellington City Clerk Shane Shields said in the minutes that all seven candidates were contacted before the work session meeting. This morning, Shields sent an e-mail to Sumner Newscow stating:

Just FYI, forwarding the email that was sent to the first four council applicants informing them of the work session.  It was sent May 22 to Antonich, Butts, Dodds, and Hitt.  Cody was informed of the work session in person when he submitted his app on Monday.  Page and Woodrow were each sent an email after they submitted their applications.  Emails were sent to the addresses given on the applications.  

He then forwarded the e-mail of the work session sent on Friday, May 22.

Korte said even though she abstained from voting for Butts it was time to move on.

“In a democracy, majority rules,” Korte said. “I’m sure Mr. Butts will do a fine job. I’m willing to let it lie.”

One of the accusations being spread on social media is that Butts is only running for office so that a new clubhouse could be built on the Wellington Golf Course.

Butts, who is an avid golfer and President of the Wellington Golf Association, said although he supports the building of a clubhouse, that is not the main reason he decided to apply. He said a significant portion of the clubhouse is being funded through private donations.

As for his decision to apply for office while not running in the election.

“Heck, I did run for office 35 years ago and got beat,” Butts joked. “I figured if I can’t get elected, maybe the best way I can get on the council is to get appointed.”

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