Eleven months ahead of the next mayoral and City Council At-large election, City Council is expected to appoint Jeff Brooks to  fill the remaining year of an unexpired term on the governing body during its annual reorganization meeting on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

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City Councilman At-large James Baker resigned, effective Dec. 31, in a letter to the city clerk dated Dec. 1. He was among three candidates on the Union County Democratic Committee line to win four-year terms as county commissioner in November. Baker was first elected in 2006, and won re-election to a four-year term in 2018 with At-large Council members Joanna Miles and Jeremy Mojica and Mayor Ray Giacobbe, Jr.

Since Baker is a Democrat, the Municipal Democratic Committee met in December to nominate three people for the vacant council seat, which expires at the end of 2022 and would be up for re-election in November:

• Jeff Brooks of Cornell Avenue
• Al Parker of East Milton Avenue
• Roy Smith of Stockton Street

Municipal Democratic Chairman Kevin O’Brien submitted the three names in a Dec. 24 letter to the city clerk. The governing body will choose one of the three during its annual reorganization meeting on Tuesday, which will be in person and livestreamed. Brooks, a local Realtor who sits on the city’s Planning Board and Social Justice Commission, is expected to get the nod.

UPDATED: City Council unanimously (7-0 with one absent) approved a resolution (AR-1-22) appointing Brooks to the unexpired term.

It’s the fourth consecutive year that an unexpired term on the governing body has been filled by City Council:

• 3rd Ward: Vannie Parson was appointed in August 2020 after Robert Bresenhan stepped down three months ahead of the General Election.
• 5th Ward: Danni Newbury was appointed in October 2019 to the remaining 15 months of the term vacated by Jennifer Wenson Maier, who resigned to become executive director of the Housing Authority.
• 6th Ward: Joseph Gibilisco was appointed in January 2018 and then won a special election to the remaining two years of the Giacobbe’s unexpired term. Giacobbe was tapped as interim mayor following the resignation of Samson Steinman on Christmas Eve 2017.

The six ward seats on City Council were up for election in 2020 and will be up again in 2024. The three at-large seats, including Baker’s, and the mayor will be on the ballot in November 2022.

All nine seats on City Council and the mayor’s office currently are held by registered Democrats. City Council representatives are considered part-time positions and receive annual stipends of about $8,000. Union County Commissioners — also considered part-time positions — earn stipends of about $35,000.

Under state law, the Democratic Committee has 15 days after the vacancy occurs (Jan. 15) to present three nominees to City Council, which then has 30 days (Jan. 30) to appoint a successor.

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