A different kind of election — How city council chose Lander’s new mayor
LANDER — The comments on social media posts regarding the selection of Lander’s new mayor following Mayor Monte Richardson’s death are awash with confusion and accusations of foul play.
An election but not a general election, evolving dates and timelines, uncertainty over statutes and ordinances – and what was for some an unexpected choice – all had their part to play; the politics of the choice itself were tense, with each council member receiving hundreds of emails from Landerites proclaiming their preferences.
Documents obtained by the Lander Journal show that of the written communications the council members received in advance of the election, Julia Stuble received the most support, Dan Hahn the second-most, and Missy White came in third.
White was eventually installed as mayor.
What happened
At first, it seemed as though the new mayor was to be chosen relatively swiftly, the Tuesday following Mayor Richardson’s death; then the city clarified that a temporary mayor would be chosen at that meeting, and the permanent mayor, to serve out the remainder of Richardson’s term, the following week.
It was unclear why a temporary mayor was needed for only a week, but city attorney Adam Phillips noted that clarifying language in city ordinance was needed for someone to take the reins temporarily.
The basic process of selecting a temporary mayor, or mayor pro tempore, is the same as the mayoral election process that would later be followed: Council members nominate each other, and then the council votes.
At the mayor pro tempore selection, public comment was not allowed prior to the nominations and voting.
Phillips pointed to Wyoming State Statutes 15-1-107 and 15-1- 108 as outlining the process for installing a new mayor.
The council amended its ordinances to provide for the council president to take on the duties of a mayor pro tempore should the seat be abruptly vacated in the future, and council members expressed a desire to wait to take a permanent vote until after Richardson’s memorial service.
Council member John Larsen nominated Council President Julia Stuble to serve as mayor pro tempore, later explaining that as the council’s president she seemed like the natural choice for the role.
Council member Josh Hahn nominated council member Dan Hahn, who had run for mayor against Richardson in the previous election and won 47.6% of the vote.
Stuble won in a vote of 4-2.
Then the night of the non-temporary election came. Phillips explained that the new mayor would be chosen that night, but because the selected council member would have to resign his or her seat to become mayor – and a city ordinance (Lander City Ordinance 12-5-1) requiring a specific period of time between when a council member submits their resignation and when it can go into effect – he or she could not be sworn into office until the following meeting.
Public comment was allowed that night, and the majority of those who spoke were in favor of Dan Hahn, citing his length of service on the council and the fact that he has run for mayor before.
Others spoke in favor of Stuble and council member Missy White, in both cases frequently highlighting that they felt confident they would listen to everyone in Lander.
Josh Hahn again nominated Dan Hahn; Larsen nominated White.
In another 4-2 vote, White was chosen to serve out the remainder of Richardson’s term as mayor.
The council held two meetings that night, a special council meeting and a work session.
Between the two, an audience member came up to Phillips and asked him to clarify on the record: The mayor had not been “selected,” but, as the language in Wyoming state statute specifies, “elected” by the council from among its own members.
Laws and democracy
The United States is a democratic republic. That means that the two underlying principles of our form of government are democracy, or a system under which power is vested in the people and decisions are made through popular elections, and republicanism, or a system in which people select representatives to work within the government on their behalf.
To illustrate by local example, the people of Fremont County directly voting to abolish the half-percent tax is democracy in action, while selecting senators and representatives to serve at the state legislature is republicanism in action.
The two concepts are often, but not always, complementary.
In a democratic republic, people elect their representatives, who then go on to make decisions on their behalf; it’s a more efficient system than making all decisions via popular vote, but also a fairer system than something like a monarchy.
The hiccups come when there are decisions to be made that some people feel should be put up to a popular vote, but which the system has decided are to be made by their elected representatives.
Phillips declined repeated requests for an interview, as well as subsequent requests for background information or a review of the Journal’s evaluation of the law.
In response to multiple requests to instead speak with City Clerk Rachelle Fontaine (who holds a law degree) or someone else the city felt was appropriate, Community Development Coordinator Anne Even suggested that, given the city attorney’s unwillingness to explain his legal interpretation, the newspaper ought to hire an independent lawyer to answer questions posed to Phillips.
“Legal opinions would not come from staff,” Even wrote with finality.
The legal advice provided to the council evolved over time, and the shifts in the city’s stance on what would happen and on what timeline contributed to both public confusion and doubts about the process. Much of the confusion appears to have hinged on the differing requirements outlined in state statute and city ordinance in regards to selecting a new mayor and a council member assuming that seat.
It is uncommon in Lander’s history for a mayor to die while in office.
It seems reasonable to assume that while trying to research the interplay between laws and statutes and devise a plan for how to follow them and communicate that with the public, things may have been initially missed that later came to light.
Mayor Richardson was well-loved, and city staff who were involved in this process were likely grappling with their own grief.
As far as the statutes and ordinances in question go, the city of Lander seems to have followed what Wyoming law and Lander’s own municipal code require.
“The council followed, to the T, what the state statute says,” Larsen commented.
“We took great care to do the research,” Stuble added.
While she understands the concerns raised about the process, ultimately she felt it upheld the principles of a representative and democratic form of government as each council member was duly elected by the majority of voters in their ward. And one benefit of the process as it currently stands is that it can be done on a faster time scale than a general election, she said, allowing the new mayor to be installed relatively quickly.
But the question of whether these laws are as they should be – the tension between the principles of democracy and representative government – appears to have been raised, and not gone away.
“The process was done in accordance with city ordinances, which were based on state statutes,” White noted. “If the public wants a different process, the avenue for change is to ask for state legislators to change it.”
Public comment, nominees
The Lander Journal requested and received all written communications regarding who should or should not be Lander’s next mayor received by council members between Richardson’s passing and when White was voted into office.
While hundreds of communications poured in, the vast majority were sent to all council members alike; a few people contacted only one or two specific council members, but these individual contacts largely seem to balance each other out in terms of stated preferences. Often regarded as the council’s swing vote, and with a recent history of voting against his own opinions based on the feedback of his constituents, Larsen’s emails are broadly representative of the communications received by the council as a whole.
Each individual communication he received was counted. Some people sent him the same email more than once, and he also received communications with multiple signatures: Each piece of communication was counted once, regardless of redundancy or number of signatures.
Here’s what the Journal found.
Larsen received 143 written communications in support of Stuble; 85 in support of Hahn; 60 that stated a preference for either Stuble or White; 15 in support of White; seven that stated an opposition to Hahn; and three in support of council member Melinda Cox.
A significant number of those who supported Stuble noted that White would be their second choice.
When asked why he nominated White, Larsen said that while he thought Stuble performed excellently as mayor pro tempore, White also has strong qualities in her favor.
“I’ve been with Missy for six years on the council; I just thought she’s done an excellent job … She listens to everyone,” is relatively moderate, and has a level head, he described.
Hahn takes a different view on the nomination.
“This was totally calculated,” he alleged. “This was not an election … They’re not looking out for everybody.”
Hahn frequently emphasizes the idea of wants versus needs in conversations about what the city should and should not pursue. While he has gained something of a reputation for opposing things like parks and pathways, he explained that he doesn’t dislike those things – he just doesn’t view them as necessary expenditures at a time when the city will likely need to tighten its financial belt.
In addition to his running for mayor previously, his length of service on the Lander Volunteer Fire Department as well as the idea of infrastructure and his experience in that field were also brought up by those who supported him as the next mayor of Lander.
Some commenters raised the idea that Hahn had received more votes for mayor than White had for council.
While council members are voted on by a smaller number of people than mayor, as only people who live in a given ward can vote for them, this argument appeared to be persuasive for some.
On the other hand, Stuble pointed out, Hahn offered a distinctly different vision for the future of Lander when he ran against Richardson.
“He was the opposite of what voters asked for when they voted for Mayor Richardson … I felt it was incumbent on me to choose a candidate who best matched [Richardson’s] vision, and that was Missy White.”
One more potential source of friction is that, aside from White and Hahn’s acceptance speeches, the council did not discuss the nominees before casting their votes.
Stuble remarked that she regretted that as soon as she got home that night.
“In hindsight, I wish I had explained my vote in the moment,” she said. “Folks deserve to know what we’re thinking.”
Although their views are at times very different, Hahn clarified that he has no personal grudges against White.
“I like councilwoman White very much,” he remarked, and appreciated a recent remark she made about needing to weigh budgetary concerns against non-essential services and city projects.
“Now it’s on Missy,” he concluded, adding that he hopes she does well.
The true mark of a leader, he said, is someone who can listen to and take feedback from everyone, even the people they disagree with.
“My big thing is … there’s nobody on that council that wants to see the city of Lander destroyed,” Larsen commented. “[For] every one of us, this is home – and we want it to be home for generations to come.”
This story was published on April 2, 2025.