BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

OGDENSBURG — Ogdensburg City Council’s vacant seat will likely remain empty until January.

Despite a vote to fill the vacancy listed on the agenda, no action was taken at the Monday council meeting.

That’s despite several concerns raised by the public, at least one member of council, and an obligation to fill the vacancy laid out in the city charter.

At the heart of the issue was a vote taken at the previous meeting.

The city charter requires the council to fill the seat. Under the process a vacancy committee recommends candidates, then the council chooses which candidate will get the appointment.

The charter required council to vote indefinitely until a candidate received a majority, but after 20 consecutive votes council remained split 3 to 3 between Robert Edie and Michael Tooley.

However, despite 20 votes taken to choose a candidate in July, no consensus was made.

At the July meeting Edie, who was present, eventually asked his name to be removed for consideration in order to allow the city to move forward.

Although Tooley was then the only remaining candidate, a resolution to appoint him to the position failed in a 3-2-1 vote.

Voting in favor of Tooley’s appointment were councilors John Rishe, Michael Powers and Dan Skamperle. Against the appointment was Bill Dillabough.

Although they didn’t explain their reasons for doing so, Skelly and Deputy Mayor Fisher abstained.

The vote failed, according to City Clerk Cathy Jock who said a quorum, or 4 affirmative votes, was needed for the resolution to pass, but Tooley believes that due to the abstentions, he received the majority of votes.

Although many members of the public and Tooley himself believe he should have been appointed due to the vote based on the language in the charter, City Attorney Scott Goldie explained that was not the case.

In summary Goldie said that no candidate received the majority of votes as laid out by the charter in the process for selecting a candidate. This is technically true as the council did not take a candidate selection vote after Edie removed himself.

Instead the council opted to pass a resolution appointing Tooley to council, which has been past practice, but is not necessarily based on the language in the charter.

However, any resolution, according to state law, would have required four members of council to pass.

Although there was debate between council members and opinions shared by the public on the matter, not action was taken.

Councilor Michael Powers made a motion to hold a vote on the matter, but it failed to receive a second.

Councilor Dan Skamperle was not present.

Following the meeting Tooley issued a letter to North Country This Week with a request to print a letter he sent to the vacancy committee, which can be found at

Following the meeting Tooley issued a letter to North Country This Week with a request to print a letter he sent to the vacancy committee, which can be found at https://www.scribd.com/document/665121718/Letter-to-Nominating-Commitee-June-29-2023

In that letter he also briefly shared his concerns about the actions of council.

“In 1995 Mayor Dick Lockwood appointed me to serve on the City of Ogdensburg’s Charter Commission, then 12 years later in 2007 Mayor Bill Nelson appointed me to again serve on this commission (its members elected me chairperson). I find it interesting that some on the current City Council do not find me fit to serve the city by appointing me to fill the current City Council vacancy,” Tooley wrote. “While I may not have the votes of City Council now to serve, I ask voters to support me in the November 7 election by electing me to serve as Mayor beginning in 2024.”