Pocatello council to vote on appointment of new members
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POCATELLO — The Pocatello City Council is expected to vote on the appointment of its final two members at Thursday’s council meeting.
The council will vote on the confirmation of Brent Nichols and Corey Mangum, according to a meeting agenda.
“We had a lot of great applicants making this a challenging decision to narrow the field down to just two candidates,” Mayor Brian Blad said in a news release Wednesday. “I want to thank everyone who submitted their application and ideas for Pocatello’s future. Both candidates are dedicated to the city of Pocatello. I believe Brent and Corey will be great additions to our City Council and will continue to make Pocatello a great place to work and live.”
If their confirmations are approved by the council, Nichols would fill seat two, and Mangum would fill seat three. Both would then be sworn-in Thursday. Both positions will also be up for a vote during next year’s election.
Three of the council’s seats were left vacant following the resignations of Roger Bray, Claudia Ortega and Chris Stevens in August.
In order to form a quorum, Bray’s seat one was filled by former police chief Scott Marchand. He was selected by Gov. Brad Little, per the legal process, and sworn in on Sept. 1.
The resignations of Bray, Ortega and Stevens came after months of disagreements and arguments amongst the council’s six members. The council was split evenly on many decisions, often leaving Blad as the deciding vote.
The city received 38 applications for the two vacant council positions. That number was trimmed to 18 who interviewed for the positions last month. Blad finally chose to recommend Nichols and Mangum.
“Thank you to everyone who submitted an application,” Blad said in a Sept. 26 news release. “I am so proud of our community and proud to see so many wanting to make a difference by offering their services to the citizens of Pocatello. It was a very difficult task to narrow the candidate list down for interviews. All have good ideas for Pocatello’s future.”