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Parenteau resigns from city council

Havre City Councilwoman Bonnie Parenteau is resigning her seat to move to Helena.

She will announce her plans at tonight’s City Council meeting.

She said leaving her hometown will be difficult, but, she said, she and her husband, Joe, are moving for family reasons.

“I’ve been a Havreite for 58 years,” she said. “So it will be hard to leave.”

The Nov. 3 council meeting will be her last, she said.

Parenteau was elected in the 2011 general election as a Democrat. She was unopposed.

“I wish Bonnie wasn’t leaving,” said Hill County Democratic Chair Brenda Skornogoski. “She’s a lovely woman.”

Council advertises for the position, and interviews candidates before selecting a successor.

Skornogoski said the Democratic committee will be “looking for good citizens who can serve on the council.”

She said she knew of Parenteau’s pending resignation, but didn’t get the search into full swing until it became official.

Hill County Republican Chair Andrew Brekke said he suspected his party would be looking for candidates, but wouldn’t limit potential successors to Republicans.

In 2013, when 3rd Ward Republican Rick Dow moved out of town, the politically divided council elected, on a party-line vote, Democrat Jay Pyette to succeed him over Republican Debi Rhines.

Shortly thereafter, Brekke, who is also 4th Ward alderman, proposed that city elections be nonpartisan as they are in most Montana cities. That passed council unanimously and was approved by voters overwhelmingly.

With Parenteau, four council members were elected as Democrats and three as Republicans. Mayor Tim Slomon is a Democrat.

The 2015 elections will be the first in which candidates have no party identification on the ballot.

Whoever is appointed to Parenteau's seat will served until the 2015 election.

 

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