The New Florence Board of Aldermen passed a resolution at its meeting on May 11 to declare the Ward 1 Alderman seat to be vacant.
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The New Florence Board of Aldermen passed a resolution at its meeting on May 11 to declare the Ward 1 Alderman seat to be vacant.
Michelle Fortmann was the winner of that seat during the April 7 municipal election, defeating Louis Johnson 21-19. But city officials stated that Fortmann didn’t take her oath of office at the May 11 meeting and doesn’t plan to do so.
“The Board of Aldermen of City of New Florence has determined that Mrs. Fortmann has failed to take her oath of office within 15 days of being elected,” City Clerk Tammy Powell said. “Therefore, it finds the seat of Ward I to be vacant.”
Powell also said that “the Board of Aldermen finding the Alderman of Ward I to be vacant shall take action to fill the seat in good faith effort to ensure proper representation of the ward.”
The City Clerk’s office named Fortmann as the Ward I Alderman-elect after receiving the certified election results from the Montgomery County Clerk’s Office on April 13.
The other members of the New Florence Board of Aldermen are Jason Carter, Deby Juntenen and Glenn “Crash” Bartlett. Carter ran unopposed for Ward II Alderman in April.
Fortmann first ran for Ward I Alderman in 2018 and defeated Steven Williams 56-35 in the general election. She ran unopposed in 2022 and 2024.
Also, New Florence officials are looking to upgrade the city’s website to make it more accessible for residents who are disabled.
City Administrator David Ingle discussed during the board meeting that the website (www.newflorencemo.gov) is not accessible as it doesn’t have any programs that would read information or be dictated in Braille. He’s working with the IT department to find out how much it would cost to improve the website.
“I’m not expecting this to be thousands and thousands of dollars, but there is going to be a cost for the work to install and get our website to the point to accept that program and get a new interface,” Ingle said. “Depending on what program that is, I’m assuming it’s a Microsoft license that will have either a renewal or some type of annual renewal to the license with that.”
Ingle said the website gets between 500 to 1,000 visits a month.
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