A former council member is among the four finalists to fill a vacancy on ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s city council.
A special meeting is set for Monday to appoint a replacement for Steve Kozachik, who resigned from the Ward 6 seat at the beginning of April.
The top four candidates are:
Pamela Powers — She served in the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ House from 2017-22. In that time, she served on the state’s banking and insurance, commerce, and regulatory affairs committees. Powers is currently a freelance writer, as well as the social media and technology editor for the American Journal of Medicine. She has said she is undecided about running for the seat in 2025.
Ted Prezelski — He has been an aide for Ward 2 councilman Paul Cunningham for 11 years. From 2001-11, Prezelski worked as an educational assistant for Las Artes. He told the city that he is offering himself “as an interim councilmember.â€
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Vince Rabago — He worked in the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Attorney General’s office for over a decade in-total and spent over four years as an assistant attorney general for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, according to his resume. Rabago has said he does not intend to run for the open seat in 2025.
Karin Uhlich — She has both been elected to the council and has filled in for a departing council member. Uhlich represented Ward 3 for three terms, having first been elected in 2005. In 2017, Paul Durham won the Ward 3 race after Uhlich did not seek reelection. In 2021 Durham resigned, and Uhlich was appointed to complete the remaining 10 months of his term. Uhlich told city officials she would not run for the seat.
Kozachik, who first won the Ward 6 seat in 2009 as a Republican, was re-elected to the post three times as a Democrat. He announced his resignation in March and finished his tenure at the end of the month, explaining in a that he would become Pima County’s point man in managing the Mosaic Quarter sports complex.
The application process, which was open from April 1 through April 15, originally fielded applications from 11 Democrats and one Republican. While the appointee is preferred to be a Democrat, like Kozachik, the process was not limited by political party. All four finalists chosen are Democrats.
Former council member Nina Trasoff withdrew her name from the process during Tuesday’s hosted by the League of Women Voters of Greater ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.
The finalists were picked through a ranking system that the mayor and council completed by Monday.
The person chosen to fill the vacancy will serve the remainder of Kozachik’s term, which is set to end in 2025.
Proposition 413 raised the pay for city council members from $24,000 per year to $76,500.