A new Evansville City Councilor is expected to be sworn in at Monday night's meeting. WNIN’s John Gibson reports:
Democratic precinct committee members selected 38-year-old Kendra Hatfield to fill the vacant 4th Ward seat during a party caucus on Saturday:
"I'm deeply honored, I'm excited, and I'm ready to get to work."
WNIN News asked Hatfield about her goals for the ward that includes the downtown area:
"I really want to make sure that the 4th Ward gets their fair share of the city budget (and) we're bringing the resources in that we need to
stabilize and continue to grow our community."
Vanderburgh County Democratic Chair Cheryl Schultz says Hatfield won the caucus among seven candidates on the first ballot:
"I had prepared for up to 5 rounds of balloting with this many candidates as we had. And you had to have a win number of 8, which was the 50% plus 1."
Hatfield is white and was chosen for a seat usually filled by a resident of color.
Schultz says eight of the 15 caucus members were black, but the vote result was not announced.
Hatfield is the wife of Judge Ryan Hatfield and has lived in the 4th Ward for several years.
She replaces Councilor Tanesha Carothers, who resigned over allegations of not meeting residency requirements for the seat.