About 4,000 Wauwatosa residents in the Pasadena and Tosa East Towne neighborhoods have been without representation on the Common Council for more than six weeks, with no timeline yet for filling that vacancy.
The Common Council, when full, has 12 members, but the District 6 seat has been vacant since Sean Lowe resigned effective April 30, less than a month after his election, after it was revealed that he had purchased a house in a different district. Since then, city officials have proposed new steps for filling Lowe’s former seat, though votes on those steps were delayed to this month.
The council’s Government Affairs Committee will have its next chance June 16 to consider how to address the District 6 vacancy, possibly setting up a full council vote on the new process on June 23. The council then would have to decide whether to fill the seat by appointment or wait until the next time the seat can be filled by election.
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In the meantime, District 6 constituents will be without a representative voice in city government. The mostly residential district is located north of North Avenue and south of Center Street, spanning from 92nd Street in the Pasadena neighborhood to 73rd Street in Tosa East Towne, as well as a few blocks north of Center Street.
Jeff Roznowski, a longtime Pasadena resident who previously served on the Common Council, told Tosa Forward News he was concerned by what he sees as a “lack of urgency” by current city officials in filling the District 6 seat. Vacancies are not unusual on the council. When they occur, they are often filled in the short term by council appointment — as happened when Roznowski was appointed in 2010 — and eventually by voters at the next election.