(12/9) In its first order of business at its December 7 meeting, the City council elected Judy Fuller to succeed Joseph Vigliotti as the Mayor Pro Tem.
The Mayor Pro Tem is elected directly by the City Council from among its members. The Mayor is the presiding officer at council meetings, with the Mayor Pro Tem filling that role in the Mayor’s absence. The Mayor Pro Tem has the same voting power as any other Council member.
Joseph Vigliotti resigned his City council seat following his election to the Carroll County Board of Commissioner representing District 1, filling the seat previously held by held by Stephen Wantz, who was term limited as a Commissioner made an unsuccessful run for a seat in the House Delegates.
Vigliotti was first elected to the City Council in 2013. He was elected to the serve as the Mayor Pro tem in 2021. Vigliotti studied history, philosophy, and political science at Mount Saint Mary’s University where he graduated in 2008.
Fuller, who moved to Taneytown in 2002 from Texas, was first elected to the City Council in 2017. She has been a member of the Planning Commission and has served on several committees over the past 8 years.
Following the election of Fuller to Mayor Pro Tem, her first duty was to discuss how to fill Vigliotti seat, which Mayor Wantz said was up to the council. Wantz said in the past, the City advertized to solicit resumes from those interested in filling the seat. Letters of interest need to be sent to Fuller who will then circulate them to the members of the council for their review.
The last time the Council followed this process to fill a vacant council seat was back in June of 2021 when they selected Leroy Hand to fill Councilman Darryl Hale seat following his resignation upon being selected as the City’s planning and zoning director.
Anyone interesting in filling the remaining two and a half years of Vigliotti term will have until December 31st to submit their letters of interest. Fuller said that will give her and her fellow Council members more then enough time to review the applications and then vote on the best candidate at the January 4th workshop, with the selected individual being sworn in at the January 9th council meeting.
Taneytown is not the only local municipality that has had to face the less then opaque process for filling a vacate council seat. In November, the Walkersville Town Council opted to hold a special election in February to fill a recently vacated seat as opposed to appoint an individual as Taneytown intends to do.
