This article was edited to remove the timeline of when a special election must take place.
On April 1, former Minot Mayor Tom Ross submitted his letter of resignation at the finalization of a months-long investigation that began on January 28. During a Special City Council Meeting held that same day, the Minot City Council stated their intentions to observe the required 15-day waiting period before appointing the next Mayor from within the Council.
In the interim, City Council President Mark Jantzer will assume the duties of the mayor. Based on statements from multiple city council members, Jantzer appears to be the likely choice to be appointed by the Council to serve out the remainder of the current mayoral term which expires in June of 2026.
The question facing the residents of Minot now is whether to allow the elected officials on City Council to appoint a Mayor from within Council or to trigger a special election by signing a petition, which must be filed within 15 days of April 1.
Appointment by Council:
Fifteen days after the mayoral seat is vacated, the City Council has authority to appoint a replacement. The appointment must be a current member of the Council, which would create a chain reaction, causing another seat on Council to become vacant.
Special Elections called by the Citizens of Minot
During the same 15-day window, Minot residents have the option to collect signatures from at least five percent of the city's qualified electors to request a special election. Once the petition is submitted, the City will verify the signatures. The special election must occur more than six months prior to the next city election.
The required timeline does not align with the upcoming special city election on Tuesday, June 3, regarding the 0.5% sales tax.
If a Special Election were held and a current City Council member were elected as Mayor, the process would repeat. This time, the council could appoint any citizen of Minot to be a Council Member. As an alternative, residents could once again initiate a special election as long as it took place more than six months from the regular election in June 2026.
Former mayoral candidate Miranda Schuler shared her thoughts in a Facebook post on Wednesday, stating, “I feel like the people of Minot want a say in who is seated as mayor, and we absolutely deserve it. That being said, there are some unique challenges.”
She went on to say, “I personally feel right now we have 6 people who have been elected by us to serve (a couple of them several times). I feel we should encourage leadership to come from this pool for the short time frame considered. Then, the council should follow the process to fill the vacated seat as they have done many times in the past by encouraging anyone in the community who is willing and interested to apply to fill that vacated seat until the June 2026 election.”
