SAGINAW, MI — The Saginaw City Council is complete again.
The council appointed Tobias Young, a General Motors electrician and business owner, to the vacant seat on the city’s 9-member board.
During a Monday, Sept. 22, meeting, Young received the five council votes necessary to clinch the seat vacated when Monique Lamar-Silvia was removed from the group last month.
Young took an oath of office to join the council immediately after his victory.
The council vote came down to two of nine candidates who were interviewed for the position during the Monday public gathering.
Council members Michael Balls, Eric Braddock Sr., Priscilla Garcia, Carly Rose Hammond and Bill Ostash voted for Young.
The runner-up, Carla Lamarr, received four votes, falling one nod short of clinching the seat.
Candidates Charles Allen and Nathan Hanley were nominated to receive votes but were eliminated in the first of two rounds of voting.
Young is a first-time politician, although he was no stranger to campaigning before Monday. He was a candidate for a council seat during the November 2024 election.
When the council interviewed him before the vote, Young told the council he hoped to focus on housing issues if elected to office.
“That’s very important and dear to me,” Young told the council during his 6-minute interview. “I’m a landlord, as well, and I have rehabbed houses myself.”
Young said he pursued a seat on the council beginning last year after community members encouraged him to pursue politics by residents who know him in part via his involvement as a community organizer, including with the annual Saginaw African Cultural Festival.
While the day began with 11 candidates scheduled to pitch their case at the meeting, that number shrank to nine by the time the interviews began.
The candidates included former Saginaw City Council member John Milne as well as 2024 council candidates Young, Allen and Charles A. Sledge.
The other candidates include Lamarr, Hanley, Dylan Hellus, Richard Russell and Rachel Weidinger.
Annie Boensch, who spent 13 years on the council before losing her seat in the 2024 election, withdrew her name from consideration hours before the meeting, citing a desire to focus on her family.
Another candidate, Malachi Bryant, did not show up at the Monday gathering. His absence was not explained by Saginaw City Hall staff.
After council members interviewed each candidate, the council nominated finalists to be considered for votes.
Balls and Braddock nominated Young.
Mayor Pro Tem Priscilla Garcia nominated Lamarr.
Hammond nominated Charles Allen and Nathan Hanley to receive votes.
During the first round of votes, Hammond and Heidi Wiggins voted for Allen, who also is the romantic partner of Wiggins.
With the fewest votes received in that first round, Allen was eliminated from the field, setting up the showdown between Young and Lamarr, a member of the Saginaw Planning Commission.
Per the city charter, the winning candidate for a vacant seat is determined when receiving at least five votes among eight voting council members.
If an initial tally fails to capture five votes for an individual and there are more than two nominees in the running, the individuals with the fewest votes are eliminated until there are at least two candidates remaining. If that scenario results in a 4-4 tie, the council continues to vote until the tie is broken.
Young will hold the office until November 2026, when voters will choose a candidate to serve out the remaining two years of Lamar-Silvia’s four-year term.
Lamar-Silvia was elected in 2024 before she was removed following her conviction last month for election fraud felonies.