The Peoria City Council members have the next two weeks to meet with the 31 people who’ve applied to fill the remainder of Gary Sandberg’s at-large seat.
The longtime Councilman died of complications to heart disease and was found in his home July 19th. Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis says council members decided to function independently in the initial evaluation.
“Everyone is going to do their own due diligence and have discussions with people who are interested in filling that seat. We’ll come back into executive session in two weeks based on the due diligence everyone has done and narrow that down," Ardis says. "We expect that to happen pretty quickly.”
The mayor says he’ll try to meet with each person who’s applied.
The council had 60 days to fill Sandberg’s seat according to municipal law.
The list of people who’ve applied include two former councilmen: Clyde Gulley and Bill Spears. School board member Martha Ross is on the list as well as former city employees Randy Ray and Alma Brown.
The resumes of the applicants are on the city’s website.