A former Riverside City Council member has been appointed to fill a vacancy in the council.

Ralph Schnoebelen was appointed to fill the seat left vacant by Robert Weber at the council’s recent meeting. Schnoebelen had served on the city council for 26 years until 2017 when he lost his seat to Andy Rodgers. He’s also served as mayor for 12 years. Mayor Allen Schneider comments on Schnoebelen’s appointment, “I think Ralph’s experience and knowledge with what’s fairly current within the city right now is the biggest positive in my mind. We had two other candidates who expressed interest in this position I thought both of those would have done well in this position as well and we may still see a request for a special election but I think short of that I’m very positive about having Ralph on the council now and he’s got a lot of experience in the city government there in Riverside and I think he’ll do a great job.”

Riverside residents have until September 18th to file a petition with the county auditor’s office for a special election to fill Weber’s vacancy. The term is set to end on December 31, 2019.