Hancock Seeking Applicants to Fill Lancour’s Vacant Council Seat

The next item for the city council to consider was how to rectify Michael Lancour’s election to the city council. Lancour is currently a member of the Hancock Public School Board. Originally he had plan to run for a vacant council seat during the 2022 city election. After realizing he would not be able to hold a position on both leadership teams, he wished to withdraw from the council race.  But he had missed the deadline to withdraw from the race within four days of the August primary. Hancock’s charter calls for the city to follow the state’s rules of procedure for such an occasion. 

“For Michael (Lancour) to have withdrawn, he would have had to within the four days after the primary election. And he did not do that. So truly the residents did elect Michael to council, and he was a member of council, and he did resign. So we have to go back to the way we usually do it. And I was back and fourth on the whole thing, until I read that, and understood it. So I think it is the proper procedure on how we generally do things.” – Lisa McKenzie, Hancock City Councilor

The city will need to post the position for a period of 30 days in a public setting, and allow applicants to submit their resume. Mayor Paul LaBine encouraged the other candidates who ran for the council seat to apply for the position. The city will accept applications for the unfilled council seat until December 2nd, 2022. And will select the seat at a regular council meeting on December 7^th, 2022 The candidate selected to fill the empty council chair will hold the position until the next city election.