CHICKASHA – Four City Council seats will be decided during the annual election scheduled for April 1.
Councilors whose offices are up for grabs this year include Ward 1, Position 1 (Brian Gerdes); Ward 2, Position 1 (Georgianne Hebblethwaite); Ward 3, Position 1 (Oscar Nelson); and Ward 4, Position 1 (Kelly Boyd).
The filing period is set for Feb. 3-5, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Candidates will file with City Clerk Susan McDaniel at City Hall and must post a $25 filing fee.
Every candidate for the City Council must be a registered voter and a resident of the ward for which he/she seeks to be elected, but all candidates run at-large. The mayor and the eight council members are elected “by all [of] the qualified voters of the city,” the City Charter decrees.
• Gerdes was appointed to the council on April 20, 2020, was elected to a full term in 2021 and ran unopposed for reelection in 2023.
• Hebblethwaite, the city’s vice mayor, has served two terms; she ran unopposed in 2021 and again in 2023.
• Nelson has served on the council for a little over six years. He was appointed to the council on Aug. 20, 2018 (four months and four days after Mayor Zach Grayson took the oath of office for the first time in Ward 4). Nelson ran unopposed for a full term in 2019 and was reelected in 2021 and again in 2023.
• Boyd was elected unopposed in 2021 and was reelected in 2023.
Chickasha City Council members serve two-year terms, and unlike the Legislature and statewide elected officials, Chickasha councilors have no term limits. Service on the City Council is voluntary; the members receive no compensation.