Tonight, Charlotte City Council may have an answer to this question – who is the next mayor of Charlotte?
But no matter what happens at tonight's meeting, Council will undoubtedly try to reassure the public the city is moving on from former mayor Patrick Cannon.
The resignation of a mayor caught up in an FBI sting can cause public confidence in city government to plummet. Which is why City Manager Ron Carlee and others have said time and again that Charlotte is more than one man.
And the city does have a plan to move past Patrick Cannon – officially at least.
At some point the council will, by law, to appoint Patrick Cannon’s successor.
No special election or public comment required.
In fact the only qualifications are that he or she is a resident of the city and that he or she is from the same political party as the mayor they’ll replace, in this case, a Democrat.
That person will then serve until December of 2015 - the remainder of Patrick Cannon’s term.
Jennifer Roberts would be interested in the job. But the former chair of the Mecklenburg board of county commissioners is the only person to go public with their desire to be mayor.
But other names are being bandied about.
Vi Lyles and David Howard for instance, two at-large members of the city council.
And there’s Mayor Pro Tem Michael Barnes and Councilwoman Patsy Kinsey who knows a lot about the job. She stepped in for six months when Anthony Foxx became the U.S. Secretary of Transportation.
If the council picks one of its own to be the new mayor than the remaining members will fill that council slot with yet another appointment.
All, some, or none of this could happen at tonight's Charlotte City Council meeting. But the Council is at least expected to lay out a timeline for when we’ll know who will be Charlotte’s next mayor.
