Belle Board of Aldermen on Dec. 22 voted 3-0 to approve former Ward 2 alderman Tony Gieck’s resignation and appoint former alderman Ken Stanfield to the seat.

The appointment did not come without controversy. Kayla Bray, the 2020 mayoral candidate against seated Mayor Steve Vogt, opposed the appointment.

“I have a few concerns as a citizen of the town of Belle,” Bray began. “One of my main concerns is a topic here tonight of the alderman seat here. The only concern I have on that is the people voiced their opinions during the election in June and they replaced Ken Stanfield with Sundi Jo (Graham) and I would like you guys to consider that when you make your decisions here tonight and vote for who replaces him.”

Bray said as a voter in town, even though she doesn’t have ill feelings towards Stanfield, the people voted him out during the last election and she doesn’t think the board should appoint him back in. He could run again later and the people could vote him back in.

Later in the meeting, Vogt asked the board to approve Stanfield as Gieck’s replacement. He asked the board for their opinion.

“I know there are some people who are concerned and Kayla has voiced her concern,” Alderman Ward 2 Graham began, “I also shared with her privately that it makes sense for me to choose Ken because he has been part of the council before, he has been present at the meetings, just online, but to me it makes sense to bring him in for just the three or four months and have somebody run for that position.”

Alderman Jeanette Struemph added, “When you look at that ward, the next person with the most votes would have been Ken and Ken has had a few years of experience. We have done some pretty broad spectrum things here in town. He is up to speed on everything.”

Vogt added that it is only for Gieck’s unexpired term. It would be up to Stanfield if he wanted to file for the April election — as well as anyone else in that ward.”