St. Paul residents seeking to fill the Sixth Ward City Council seat recently vacated by Dan Bostrom will make their case at City Hall on Wednesday.
Council members will interview seven finalists who applied for the interim position, and the person chosen will serve until Dec. 31. Candidates for the interim seat must agree not to run in the November municipal election.
The interim candidates are community organizer Crystal Norcross, educator and youth worker Kassim Busuri, Minnesota Credit Union Network Vice President Mara Humphrey, retired mechanical engineer Gary Unger, Metropolitan State University Associate Prof. Neal Thao, arts consultant Hlee Lee-Kron and political organizer and restaurant owner Wintana Melekin.
Bostrom left the Sixth Ward seat at the end of December, after abruptly announcing his retirement a year before the end of his term. The Sixth Ward, on St. Paul's East Side, includes the Frost Lake, Hayden Heights, Hazel Park, Payne/Phalen, Phalen Village and Prosperity neighborhoods.
The other six council members are all running for re-election, and three candidates have launched campaigns for the Sixth Ward seat: community organizer Nelsie Yang, former Planning Commissioner Terri Thao and Alexander Bourne, a former small business owner who is running for office full-time.
