The Bethel City Council has a new member. John Lloyd is the newest city councilman as of February 11th, 2025. He was chosen to fill the recently vacated seat held by former councilmember WG Anaruk who resigned on January 28th, 2025.
Lloyd’s appointment came via the drawing of straws.
The two city council candidates submitted their letters of interest in joining council and were determined to be qualified candidates according to Bethel Municipal Code – John Lloyd who works as an insurance agent and Greg Shiedler an engineer who manages the data center at the local school district.
“I have been volunteering (in) multiple committees for over a year at this point,” Lloyd said when addressing council. “I’m really passionate about the community. When I saw that there was an open seat for short term for city council I decided to jump on the opportunity.”
“I strongly believe that collaboration between city council and city management is key to improving Bethel’s infrastructure and financial sustainability,” said Shiedler.
Council members took turns asking the candidates various questions covering topics such as reasons why they want to be on council, how they deal with conflict resolution, issues regarding water sewer, what they think about living in Bethel, community engagement, and priorities for council.
Both candidates were nominated. In the first through third rounds of voting conducted by City Clerk Kevin Morgan via open ballot, both received 3 votes apiece. It boiled down to drawing straws which was won by Lloyd.
Newly appointed council member Lloyd took the oath of office and took his seat. On council’s agenda that night were items related to animal issues, land, teleconference attendance at council meetings, appointment of committee and commission members, the Cama’i Festival, and an administrative review of a local business along with various council reports.
