By Robert Sullivan

robert.sullivan@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — In an email to Salisbury City Council members on Tuesday, Rowan County Republican Party Chairman Tony Yon called for a Republican appointment to fill the council’s current vacancy. The request prompted a response from Mayor Pro Tem Tamara Sheffield stating that the city council has not begun deliberation and emphasizing that the council is nonpartisan.

Salisbury is currently without a mayor after Karen Alexander’s death in late December. Alexander was the first mayor to die in office, leaving the members of the Salisbury City Council in relatively uncharted waters, although city officials pointed out that this was not their first time filling a vacancy on the council, which they did in November 2024 after Councilor Anthony Smith resigned.

Yon asked for the consideration in an email to the members of the city council because Alexander was the only registered Republican sitting on the council, and that even though the office and council are nonpartisan, he wanted “continued equitable representation for our citizenry.”

Currently, the council has two Democrats, Sheffield and Carlton Jackson Jr., and two unaffiliated council members, David Post and Harry McLaughlin Jr.

Sheffield responded to Yon’s email, stating that out of respect for Alexander, “there hasn’t been discussions about filling the vacancy. However, we expect to very soon. My expectation is the first meeting in February as we cleared the agenda to honor her (at) our first January meeting.”

Yon wrote that he hoped they would consider appointing a “registered Republican, who has either served on the council previously or has run as a candidate for a seat on council.”

William Brian Miller is the most recent Republican besides Alexander to hold a seat on the city council, serving for 12 years before deciding not to run for reelection in 2021.

City Attorney Graham Corriher said in a phone call on Friday that the process to fill any vacancy on the council is governed by state statute 160A-63, which is vague enough that it effectively gives the councilors carte blanche in what qualities to consider in appointing a new mayor, as well as freedom in time frame.

“A vacancy that occurs in an elective office of a city shall be filled by appointment of the city council,” reads the entirety of the relevant part of the statute.

“Again, who is selected and how they are selected is entirely up to council, however I can assure you party was never a discussion in this most recent appointment because we are a nonpartisan body,” wrote Sheffield in the reply.

Both Corriher and Sheffield noted that while the office of mayor is vacant, the mayor pro tem fills the special duties of the office. Sheffield wrote that the duties “are largely ceremonial” and primarily include signing contracts and deeds on behalf of the city council and presiding over the meetings.

Corriher noted that the city council could fill the mayoral vacancy with a sitting member of the council, which would then make it so that the council would fill the resulting empty seat.