BRADENTON BEACH – City commissioners discussed filling the vacant Ward 4 city commission seat, but the lone applicant, Robert Talham, didn’t attend the Jan. 15 meeting.
The Ward 4 seat has been vacant since commissioner Jan Vosburgh’s 11-year tenure ended on Nov. 20.
“To date we’ve had one applicant, Robert Talham,” Mayor John Chappie said.
Talham was not in attendance at the meeting. According to his application, dated Nov. 3, 2025, he is a retired contractor. The application states he is a full-time resident of Bradenton Beach. The application also states he will not be able to attend meetings in the months of June, July and August.
City Attorney Erica Augello explained the process for filling the vacancy.
“We discussed at one of the last meetings to put out an advertisement to see if you could get anyone specifically from Ward 4,” she said. “From any of the applicants that apply, the commission then gets to nominate a person; and then whoever is nominated and seconded, there needs to be a majority vote from the commission.”
She said if the commission chooses not to nominate anyone at that meeting, there would be a second meeting to consider additional applications.
“At that second meeting, if you do not have any nominations you are willing to make, you may nominate any of the applicants based on who you think would be qualified to fill the position,” Augello said.
If there is no nomination at the second meeting, then other qualified applicants from the city at at-large, not just Ward 4, would be considered. Two more meetings would then be needed to nominate and select the candidate.
“Then, if no candidate is nominated and no majority vote is garnered to select that person, it goes to drawing lots (drawing the highest card from a deck of cards),” Augello said. “It is a step-by-step process. You do have to weigh the qualifications of the person and the availability.”
Chappie addressed the difficulty in finding a candidate due to a decreased population in the city.
“We don’t have the population we had years ago. It’s been difficult at times to get people to volunteer and come aboard. I think some time in this year we want to talk about that. I think we’re going to have to face the facts,” he said.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population of Bradenton Beach was 908 residents in 2020. According to the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Office website, Bradenton Beach had 481 registered voters at last count.
Bradenton Beach is the only city on the Island that uses geographically based city commission wards. All commission seats in Anna Maria and Holmes Beach are citywide at-large seats.
‘I like the wards. I like that system, but things have changed,” Chappie said.
Commissioner Ralph Cole said he has known Talham for quite a while.
“He’s lived in Bradenton Beach for a long time. I know he loves Bridge Street. He is living in Ward 4 and has done so for a long period of time,” Cole said.
“The questions I have are about the June, July and August availability,” Chappie said. “That’s hurricane season and we have a lot of stuff going on. I just wanted to voice that. So, we’ll schedule this for our next commission meeting and hopefully we’ll have more applicants.”
