Bena Ahlberg has been appointed to fill a vacancy on the Paddock Lake Village Board.
Ahlberg was appointed at the regular board meeting in May.
Ahlberg’s appointment divided the board, half of which supported appointing former village Trustee Richard Fish to fill the vacancy, created by the Dec. 31 death of Trustee Gary Kaddatz.
The effort to fill the board seat stretches back months. In April, the board deadlocked on appointing Fish, with three trustees voting for and three against.
Burns favored Fish, who he said had engineering and local government experience that would benefit the village. He also was concerned about Ahlburg’s appointment meaning there would be four members of the VIllage Board who also were active members of the Paddock Hooker Lakes Association. Having such a quorum possible would mean that all PHLA gatherings would have to be publicly noticed as a potential meeting of a quorum of the Village Board.
Other board members who belong to the PHLA are Garland, Spencer and Brenner.
At a committee of the whole meeting in May, Spencer said he would remove his name from his family’s membership in the PHLA to eliminate the conflict of Ahlberg’s appointment,
In May, Fish was nominated again by President Terry Burns, but Burns abstained from the vote. Fish’s appointment failed with Trustees Kathy Christenson, Scott Garland and Robert Spencer voting no and Trustee Barb Brenner and Gloria Walter voting yes.
Typically, in Paddock Lake vacancies on the board have been filled with a nomination by the village president and confirmation by the board.
However, after Fish’s appointment was defeated again in May, Burns allowed Spencer to nominate Ahlberg, who then was approved with Christenson, Garland and Spencer voting yes and Walter and Brenner voting no, with Burns abstaining again.
“Welcome to the board Bena,” Burns said after the vote.
Burns said he abstained and allowed Spencer to make a nomination in order to avoid going forward with a six-member board until the next election in April.
