Traditionally, when a vacant seat opens on city council, the person with the next most votes is appointed to the seat.
In this instance, Chris Patrie was sworn in as a member of council at Monday evening's council meeting.
This doesn't sit well with local resident Cathy Clement, who also ran in the 2014 election and secured more votes than Patrie.
As reported earlier by ElliotLakeToday, Ed Pearce (with 1,275 votes) was appointed to replace Candace Martin Scott when she resigned and Clement would have been next in line with 1,172 to replace Scot Reinhardt who resigned last month.
But Clement said she was bypassed and not offered the position.
Instead it went to Chris Patrie who finished the 2014 municipal election in Elliot Lake with 1,087 votes.
"The City of Elliot Lake has always appointed the next person in line with the highest number of votes to sit on council when there is a vacancy," Clement said. "They did not do this this time as they are swearing in Chris Patrie at tonight’s council meeting. For your information, myself should have been the next councillor as I had the most votes."
Clement stated that she was an employee with the city and was let go in January of 2012. She believes she was wrongfully terminated from her position and has since launched a lawsuit against the city.
"As I disagreed with their reasoning and did not sign off on my package, I started a lawsuit against them and it is ongoing," she said. "Now, they are using this to prevent me from being a councillor."
Mayor Dan Marchisella said it would be a conflict of interest to have Clement as part of the city's council.
"Council does not require by law to even take anyone from the candidates list, past practice has been this way which we try to maintain," he said. "Council did obtain legal advice as Mrs. Clement does have a pending lawsuit against the city. Regardless, it was the decision of council that Mr. Patrie would best serve the City at this time."
This doesn't settle Clement's feelings on the situation.
She sad that, even though there is a conflict of interest with her pending lawsuit, it doesn't seem "fair" that this would happen.
"It is a conflict of interest only in this situation and has nothing to do with other city business," she said, explaining her lawsuit shouldn't reflect on her abilities as a city councillor. "As I have been directly involved in council procedure when working with the city clerk, I have seen and learned that there is a better way of doing business for our city (and this) is why I ran."
According to Clement, this lawsuit against the city has been ongoing for more than four years and she didn't hide the fact she was suing the city when she ran for council in the 2014 election.
"It is easy to declare a conflict on this reason, but I was suing the city when I ran and I never hid the fact," she explained in a public forum. "My opinion is that the City has not followed the democratic process when filling the vacant council seat. How is that fair? Not only that, it would have been common courtesy to inform me of their decision."
As of now, all vacant seats on city council have been filled.