The Tacoma City Council will begin accepting applications today for a pair of soon-to-be vacated council seats.

Interested individuals have until 5 p.m. Dec. 4 to submit applications to the city, the council decided at Tuesday night’s meeting. (A city spokesman said details should go up online today at www.cityoftacoma.org.)

Beyond that, an at-times-confusing discussion among council members over how to handle the imminent appointments drew little agreement Tuesday.

The vacancies will bridge two calendar years and involve two different councils, making the process “as clear as mud,” according to Councilman Rick Talbert.

Councilwoman Julie Anderson will leave her seat Nov. 24 to take the county auditor post. Councilwoman Marilyn Strickland will move across the dais to the mayor’s seat Jan. 1.

That leaves two years to be served for each of their at-large positions.

Already, a flurry of lobbying has begun among would-be candidates. Several Facebook pages have sprouted, and e-mails have flooded into city officials’ inboxes.

Among those expressing early interest are runners-up from this month’s election, prominent professionals and local characters, and at least two sitting council members who face term-limits on their current seats: Talbert and Councilwoman Connie Ladenburg.

Talbert and Ladenburg each face the end of their two four-year terms next month, but each has two more years of council eligibility under city law.

The openings also have generated questions about process and perception. Chief among them: Should the 2009 council fill Anderson’s vacancy or leave both appointments to the 2010 council?

“This situation is totally unique,” Mayor Bill Baarsma said recently.

Tuesday’s nearly hour-long discussion during the council’s noon study session aimed to bring clarity to the process. Instead, it largely devolved into a series of what-ifs, who-shoulds and how-tos – and exposed strong divisions.

Current council members agreed that, under the city charter, they must at least start the appointment process for Anderson’s seat. But they were divided about whether to actually make the appointment.

Ladenburg, Talbert and Strickland favored doing so.

“This council has a broader understanding for knowing what it takes to fill that role,” noted Ladenburg, explaining the rigors of the job are still unknown to the three newly elected members who will join the council next year.

But Baarsma, Lauren Walker and Jake Fey favored the 2010 council making both appointments, since those council members will serve with the appointees.

Fey, who returns next year, noted “running through this process with the old council” would look to the public like “an inside ballgame.”

Under the city’s charter, once a council seat is vacated, remaining members have 60 days to make an appointment by majority decision. If they fail to do so, the decision falls to the mayor, whose nominee, in turn, must win council approval.

Among a grab-bag of uncertainties is whether there even would be enough votes on the current council to make an appointment. With Anderson soon gone, Fey set to leave the country Dec. 18, and Talbert and/or Ladenburg potentially having to recuse themselves because of conflict of interest, winning a majority of votes before year’s end could be a tough task for any prospective appointee.

Lewis Kamb: 253-597-8542

lewis.kamb@thenewstribune.com