Last night, the Destin City Council voted 4-2 to temporarily appoint Bobby Wagner to fill the vacancy left by the suspension of Prebble Ramswell.

• You’ll remember, Gov. DeSantis suspended Ramswell following her October arrest.

The suspension of a municipal officer by the Governor creates a temporary vacancy in the office during the suspension. It is required to fill that vacancy for the period of the suspension.

Since technically there would be less than one year left on Ramswell’s term by the time a new appointee would be sworn into office, a formal election by the citizens was not required.

• The suspension occurred on November 4, 2021
• Next election is on November 8, 2022.
• However, the earliest Council could appoint a replacement is at its regular meeting on November 15, 2021.

Destin just did a special election that resulted in Jim Bagby securing the W, followed by Bobby Wagner in a close second. Because of this, and rather than taking applications and delaying the process, Council-member Kevin Schmidt immediately made a motion to appoint Wagner.

• He was seconded by Johnny King with Rodney Braden and Dewey Destin offering support.