Advance cancels special election after discovering it's not legal

ADVANCE, Mo. -- A call from the Missouri Municipal League to the City of Advance has put a stop to the Nov.3 special election for mayor after municipal league personnel told the city a special election wouldn't meet state statutory requirements.

"I take full responsibility for the mistake," said Advance City Attorney Don Rhodes. "I learned in law school that you should never assume you know what the statute says, because it could have been amended. I should have checked it."

The Missouri statute in question is 79.280: "Vacancies in certain offices, how filled." The statute states that if an office is vacated, the board of aldermen is to appoint a successor, who will serve until the next regular municipal election, which is always in April. According to Rhodes, this amendment to the statute was entered into law about 15-20 years ago.

"We haven't had this situation arise in the last 20 years, so I hadn't seen that the statute had been changed," Rhodes explained. County clerk Don White was also relying on the advice of the city attorney, so he had not noticed the change, either.

"I apologize for this mistake," said Rhodes, who returned all the candidates' filling fees of one dollar. "I hope you'll all file again in the spring."

The way things stand now, Mayor pro tem Leeman Shirrell will serve in that capacity until Nov. 3, 2009, which is the date that Mayor James Harnes's resignation takes effect. At that time, the aldermen will have to appoint someone to act as mayor until the April 6, 2010 election. If the city board chooses an alderman as acting mayor, he will have to resign his aldermen's seat, and the board will have to appoint another aldermen to take over his position until April 6. At that time, a new alderman will be elected to finish out the term.

If the board of aldermen chooses someone else to be mayor until the election, Shirrell will finish out his term as alderman until that term is up in April 2011.

Tom Schmidt asked Rhodes who would reimburse him for the money he spent on signs and business cards. Rhodes suggested that the signs and cards could be used again before the April election, since they had no date on them, but Schmidt said he was unsure whether he would run again. Rhodes agreed to pay him back the money out of his own pocket. Schmidt gave Rhodes his receipts. None of the other candidates asked to be reimbursed for the cost of running for mayor.

Pertinent address:

308 W. Gabriel Ave., Advance, Mo.