A vacant seat on the Wauwatosa Common Council will get filled sooner than expected, after voters in Aldermanic District 6 called on city leaders to appoint someone now rather than wait until the April 2027 election.
The council's Government Affairs Committee had voted last week to send the vacancy to a special election next year and not appoint someone to represent District 6 in the meantime. That scenario effectively would have left the district, which includes most of Pasadena and part of Tosa East Towne, without a voice on the council for about a year.
Sean Lowe was elected in April 2026 to the District 6 seat but resigned at the end of that month after announcing he had bought a house in a different district.
No one from the public spoke for or against the committee's recommendation at last week's meeting, but after Tosa Forward News reported on the looming decision, numerous District 6 voters contacted the 11 sitting members of the Common Council and Mayor Dennis McBride calling on them to appoint someone to fill Lowe's former seat.
Those appeals included a letter signed by more than 40 residents and business owners and submitted to McBride and the council before the July 28 meeting.
"We have been dismayed that the council has not moved to fill the District 6 vacancy for nearly three months now," the letter said. "We were further dismayed this week to learn that the Government Affairs Committee had advanced a proposal to leave us without representation on the council until after a special election in April of 2027, leaving us without a voice in our city’s legislative process for an entire year."