After a bit of confusion on the vote, LPA member John McLean was appointed to the Fort Myers Beach Town Council Tuesday. He’ll fill the seat vacated by Jim Atterholt at the end of last year.
Before the process started, Town Attorney Nancy Stuparich clarified that 3 votes were needed to win the seat and it appeared McLean received 3 votes on the first ballot. Then, Council member Rebecca Link spoke up and stated she filled out the ballot wrong and meant to vote for Tom Brady. That resulted in a 2 (McLean), 1 (Brady), 1 (Boan) vote which led to a second ballot.
On the second ballot, Mayor Dan Allers changed his vote from Boan to McLean with Link sticking with Brady. That gave McLean the 3 votes he needed to take the seat. He was then sworn in and finished the meeting as the 5th Town Council member.
McLean will occupy the seat until November when it will be on the November ballot, along with Link’s seat and John King’s seat. Both McLean and Bray have publicly announced they plan to run in November.
With McLean moving to the Town Council there is now an open seat on the Local Planning Agency. Interested residents should contact City Clerk Amy Baker to apply.
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First, Congratulations to John McLean and Respect to the entire council for taking on an arduous, largely thankless task. But I think the Council should have appointed Brady, who had a strong show of support from the Voters via the Recall. No worries, we will try again in November!