UPDATE: The Tampa City Council this afternoon on its 17th ballot selecting Yvonne Yolie Capin to succeed John Dingfelder until March of 2011.
Capin initially only had one vote that kept her in the mix, but on the 14th ballot gained a vote, as Julie Brown lost a 2nd vote. As time wore on and the Council took a lunch break, the vote continued to be stalemated, leading Councilman Charlie Miranda at one point to suggest that the Council's newest member, Curtis Stokes, named to replace Linda Saul-Sena in District 3, be sworn in and allowed to vote.
However, Mary Mulhern , opposed the notion. She then said that she had sucked it up in the voting for the 3rd district candidate, and that somebody on the Council should change their vote so they wouldn't have to be doing the same thing the rest of the day.
Earlier before lunch, the Council voted on 13 different ballots , but did not come up with a new member to replace John Dingfelder as the interim City Council member representing District 4 in South Tampa Monday afternoon.
Demonstrating the inefficiencies in giving the Council the vote in the first place, 11 times the five individual council members selected the candidate of their choice, and never discussed the vote in between taking another vote, and another vote.
The "fab five," if you will, were neighborhood activist Sue Lyon, former Democratic House candidate Yvonne Capin, Hillsborough Clerk of the Court assistant Barry Cohen, former Tampa City Council candidate Julie Brown, and former Tampa City Councilman Joe Greco (who served from 1988 to 1998).
Finally on the 12th vote, Cohen was eliminated as Julie Brown got two votes. But she failed to get more than two votes on the next couple of ballots, and needs three to be the new council member.
Finally, at 12:37 p.m., City Council chair Thomas Scott declared a break until 2p.m., when the voting will continue.
Earlier in the day the Council selected Curtis Stokes to replace Linda Saul-Sena in District 3.
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2010.