Even if he only gets three and a half months in the position, Murray City’s newly-appointed interim mayor thinks he can provide the stability the city needs needs after the death of former Mayor Ted Eyre left the position vacant.
City Council members on Tuesday interviewed one of their own, Councilman Douglas Blair Camp, then voted unanimously to appoint him to fill the rest of Eyre’s term until Jan. 2, 2018. He was immediately sworn in.
“Having worked very closely with Mayor Eyre over these past four years — knowing what his vision is, knowing what he wants to see accomplished and as a council what we want to see accomplished — I believe will provide a very smooth continuity of leadership,” Camp said during his interview.
Whether that continuity will extend beyond January will be determined by voters on Nov. 7. Camp is currently running for mayor against former three-term Mayor Dan Snarr after the two emerged from the August 15 primary.
“Whether or not I’ll be continuing on in January doesn’t really matter right now,” Camp said in a brief speech after his swearing in. “What matters is we have work to do and I intend to work with you to get it done.”
Camp’s appointment leaves his District 2 seat vacant until the council conducts another public meeting to interview and appoint a replacement, according to City Council Administrator Jan Lopez.
There were initially four candidates for the interim mayor position, but Camp was the only one the council interviewed. Candidate David Sundwall knew when he filed he couldn’t make it to the meeting, Lopez said, and Kathleen Stanford withdrew her name from consideration Tuesday night when she was called before council.
Council Chairwoman Diane Turner, who has served as acting city mayor since Eyre’s death, was the fourth applicant. She said she initially applied for the position to ensure the city could appoint a qualified candidate from the pool but withdrew her name last week once she was satisfied it could.
Turner, who was elected at the same time as Camp — 2013 — said she is confident in his abilities and said the appointment “turned out the way it should have.”
“He’s been here through the whole four-year term of Mayor Eyre, so he knows what we’ve started,” Turner said. “He knows the council intimately because he’s been part of it. He also knows the mayor’s position. I mean, he’ll just hit the ground running.”
Camp has worked in the city fire department for 26 years, including a six-year stint as chief.
In addition to his long-term relationship with the city, Camp said in his interview that he has another reason to believe he’s the best one for the job: Eyre’s support.
“It was his desire for me to finish his term,” Camp told the council. “He told me that he wanted me to do it. That was certainly in the back of my mind as I thought about putting in for the interim mayor, and I believe that the reason he wanted me to are some of the reasons I stated — that continuity in leadership would be able to continue what he started.”
Though he may only have a short time as mayor, Camp said he won’t “be a placeholder.”
“Ted [Eyre] was here for less than four years, but what a legacy he left,” Camp told The Tribune. “People looked up to him and I think a lot of that was because of his amazing leadership skills and his amazing ability to work with people. He got a lot of things rolling that I want to try to finish. I want to leave a legacy that I left this place better than I found it.”