City Council requirements
Candidates must be 21 years old, a resident of Lexington for at least one year prior to the date of election, a registered and qualified voter in Lexington and must continue to live in Lexington during the term of office.
The Lexington City Council is searching to fill its open seat.
Greg Reece and Cindy Haynes stepped away in December, and Jennifer Whitlock took over one of the seats, joining Ronnie Boggs, Jill Severn and Cory Crayton.
That leaves the city council one person short.
Boggs, who has served eight years, said the city has struggled to find people to fill the seats.
"Individually, as council members, we have talked to different people, and we’ve yet to get a warm body," he said.
Lexington will hold qualifying in August and an election in November for the open seat, city clerk Kim Bradford said.
While the council can run its operations, having only four voting members can lead to a split vote. Lexington manages its council meetings with Mayor Craig Snow setting the agenda and the council members making the decisions and voting.
Snow steps in to make the deciding decision when the council reaches a split vote.
The council meets on the third Thursday of every month, receiving the agenda 24 hours before each meeting.
Boggs said he’s retired, freeing up time to serve on the council, but at the same time, he said it’s not a huge time commitment to serve at monthly meetings.
“I grew up in a family where my dad was the mayor and state representative,” Boggs said. “And it’s just natural that if you’re not happy with the way things in your community are going, you got two choices — you complain about it or you step up and do something. And I was raised to step up, do something about it.”
One of the biggest issues facing the city, Boggs said, is the “blighted” downtown buildings. He said the council orchestrates the process to address this situation, and if residents want this situation resolved, joining the council is the most direct way to fix this problem.
Linda Parish, the tourism and hospitality director for Oglethorpe County, is also passionate about local government and heavily involved. Her former husband served on the Lexington City Council for 18 years.
“If you’re qualified and willing, it’s a commitment, you have to commit to one meeting a month,” she said. “Usually, if we do fundraisers or whatever, for the other things you have to do that. Maybe there’s other things that you might be good at doing that you could help with, like grant writing or whatever, but it’s just, I don’t know if people don't understand the process. I don’t know what it is.”