It's back to the drawing board for the Common Council in filling the vacant South District seat.
The seat has been vacant since Mickey Kearns was elected to the State Assembly.
It's been a difficult seat to fill since one applicant turned out not to live in the district and another had done time in prison and no one could come up with the necessary five votes.
While the eventual winner won't swing the Council to either of the feuding factions, electing a supporter of the group led by Council President Richard Fontana and Majority Leader Demone Smith would give them six votes of the nine while electing someone on Kearns' side would keep votes at five-to-four.
"The original pool (of candidates) was 11, whittled down to six. Out of that six, we couldn't get six votes (needed for appointment)," Fontana said.
"Many of the members wanted to....re-offer this to the public."
To be appointed, someone has to be a Democrat and have lived in the district for a year.
