By Mary Hladky
City Council members appointed Andrea O’Rourke to be deputy mayor, replacing U.S. Navy reservist Jeremy Rodgers, who has been called to active duty for an overseas deployment.
“It would be my greatest pleasure to serve as deputy mayor,” O’Rourke said before the unanimous council vote.
Monica Mayotte has assumed O’Rourke’s previous role as Community Redevelopment Agency chair and Andy Thomson became CRA vice chair.
Council members made the appointments on July 28, a month after Rodgers announced he would deploy in August to Qatar in support of NATO operations in Afghanistan.
At the time, Rodgers said he wanted to complete his term of office, which ends on March 31, 2021, by attending meetings remotely. But he stepped down as deputy mayor, saying the position should be held by a council member physically in the city.
If he found he could not attend meetings, council members would appoint someone to temporarily fill his seat until his term ends.
Since then, Rodgers has not attended council and CRA meetings. He has not posted any updates on his status on social media.
He remained a council member at the end of August and a city spokeswoman did not have an update on his status.
O’Rourke was elected to the council in 2017 and was automatically re-elected in March when she faced no opposition. Mayotte was elected in 2018.
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