During a special meeting held last night, Mount Shasta City Council members voted unanimously to hold a special election in June to fill the empty seat left by the resignation of Katrina Howard.
The election will be held on June 2, 2009, and the city is currently looking for involved community members who would be interested in running for the position.
For the next four months, Howard’s seat will be left vacant.
Howard’s letter of resignation was received three weeks to the day after her arrest on Jan. 14, which stemmed from a large undercover drug bust operation by the Siskiyou County-Wide Interagency Narcotics Task Force.
Howard had been a member of Mount Shasta’s City Council for only two months. She was sworn in on November 10, 2008 after being appointed to the position as the only person who filed for the election.
Before her arrest, Howard was the director of the Woodsman Motel in Mount Shasta, and an active member of the Mount Shasta Chamber of Commerce. She has been a resident of Mount Shasta since 2004.
Howard pleaded not guilty to charges of possession of marijuana for sale with the special allegation of being armed with a firearm, maintaining a place where marajuana is processed and sold, and conspiracy to commit a crime during her arraignment on Jan. 16. She is scheduled to reappear in court on Feb. 25 for a pre-trial hearing, at which time a date for her trial will be set.