Who will be serving on the Oxford Village Council for the next two to four years was decided in the Nov. 4 election with the exception of one seat.
Incumbents Sue Bossardet, Bryan Cloutier and Maureen Helmuth were re-elected to four-year terms with 557, 509 and 380 votes, respectively.
Retired village Clerk Rose Bejma was elected to a two-year seat with 529 votes.
Who will occupy the fifth and final seat, which carries a two-year term, is uncertain and it’s definitely complicated.
Officials are attempting to sort it out.
Basically, there’s a legal question as to whether the person who will occupy this seat was elected or should be appointed.
In addition to the candidates on the ballot, there were five write-in candidates for village council ? Tom Kennis, Denise Kabalka-Chesney, Bonnie Staley, Tanya Heuser and Dave Bailey.
All of these write-ins filed for the four-year seats.
Kennis received 70 votes, Staley got 63, Kabalka-Chesney garnered 49, Bailey received 48 and Heuser obtained 31 votes.
But that’s not the end of the story because another 99 votes were cast for write-in candidates under the two-year portion of the ballot.
Trouble is, according to what township Clerk Curtis Wright has been told by the Oakland County Elections Division, those 99 votes have not been counted because none of the write-in candidates filed for the two-year seat.
To the county, since there was no candidate other than Bejma for the pair of two-year seats, council must appoint someone to the other seat.
But the village has a Sept. 29 legal opinion from its attorney, Bob Davis, that states, based on the village charter, this seat should go to the fifth highest vote-getter, which is this situation would be the top vote-getter among the write-in candidates.
If Davis? opinion holds true, the question becomes is Kennis considered the top vote-getter based on the write-in votes cast for the four-year seat or should the other 99 write-in votes cast for the two-year seat be counted and whoever has the most combined votes be elected to the seat.’
Village Manager Joe Young said Davis is expected to analyze the situation further later this week.
Stay tuned.