Eau Claire City Council re-elects Catherine Emmanuelle to VP spot

Apr. 20—EAU CLAIRE — Catherine Emmanuelle will continue her role as Eau Claire City Council vice president after facing no competition for the spot on Tuesday.

A unanimous vote of the council re-elected her to the post that is responsible for leading meetings if council President Terry Weld is unable to attend.

"We have a really exciting and important year ahead of us," Emmanuelle said.

She noted that the council will be involved in helping the community's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as resuming the search for the next city manager this fall.

Though no one else stepped forward to challenge Emmanuelle this time, she encouraged her peers to consider a run for vice president in the future.

Held every year following the spring election, Tuesday's organizational meeting also swore in council members who won new terms.

Council members Emily Berge, Jill Christopherson, Andrew Werthmann, Jeremy Gragert and Emily Anderson were all re-elected earlier this month.

Also during Tuesday's meeting, council members nominated themselves for positions on numerous committees, commissions and boards.

The only competition for one of those spots this year was for the newly formed Chippewa-St. Croix Rail Commission. The independent, multi-jurisdictional body was recently formed to work toward bringing passenger rail service back to west-central Wisconsin.

The Eau Claire City Council only has one spot on that group, which both Berge and Gragert wanted.

Berge cited her interest in serving on a group that is more regional in its approach as a change of pace from other panels that are focused just on what's happening in Eau Claire.

Gragert cited his longtime advocacy for passenger train service and how he'd expect to be a customer on a route that connects Eau Claire to the Twin Cities and beyond.

"This transportation route would definitely help me. So I feel the need, passion and necessity of it," he said while pressing his candidacy to the council.

The council voted 6-4 in favor of appointing Berge as Eau Claire's representative to the rail commission.

Gragert said he'd still be involved in rail advocacy regardless of losing out on the commission seat.

For all the other panels that have seats reserved for Eau Claire City Council members, there was no competition on who would serve in those spots.

Toward the end of Tuesday's meeting, seating assignments for which desks in council chambers that each member will sit at were chosen. Since the pandemic began over a year ago, only Weld and a couple of other council members have been attending meetings in person with others have used online videoconferencing software to participate.

However, Weld voiced hope that sometime in the "near future" the council will return to meeting together in chambers.

"I know we're not there yet, but we'll soon be there," he said.

Last month the council extended its ability to hold virtual meetings until May 25. The council could decide to return to in-person meetings before then or continue to extend holding virtual meetings.