Council Chairman Todd Apo said this morning that by law, the council must hold a special election within 60 days to fill the vacancy created by the sudden death of Councilman Duke Bainum.

The council went through the process earlier this year in filling the vacancy created by the death of Councilwoman Barbara Marshall in February.

“Unfortunately, we have a model that we’ve gone to relatively recently to fill a vacancy,” Apo said. “We will follow that model.”

The election to fill Marshall’s vacancy was conducted by mail only and resulted in a 48 percent voter turnout. Marshall’s aide, J. Ikaika Anderson, was elected as her successor.

“It’s a pretty quick process, but I think we’ve got a plan and a system that works,” Apo said.

Apo said there were some thoughts of possibly postponing or recessing today’s Council meeting, but the Council is unable to do so because it faces a deadline to pass the operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

“We all run through those thoughts of: Do we keep going?” Apo said. “I think whether it’s Councilmember Bainum, whether it was Councilmember Marshall, whether it was any of us, we all understand the job of the city needs to continue. We can’t hold that up.

“We’re going to move forward with that and I think his staff and his family all understand that and appreciate that.”;