La Crosse council approves line of succession for mayor

The La Crosse city council approves a new order of succession for top city officials, in case of emergency. 

Council members voted to have the fire chief and police chief serve as interim successors, if the mayor and council president cannot perform leadership duties. 

Mayor Tim Kabat says he wanted the appointments in place now because of the coronavirus outbreak. 

Kabat says this is something which should have been done when he became mayor seven years ago, and suggests the rules could be changed in the future to include more elected officials in the line of succession, because the police and fire chiefs are not elected. 

The city council president has been first in line behind the mayor. 

A proposal to name a vice-president of the council was replaced with the structure approved on Thursday night.

Mayor Kabat and a few other city officials took their usual seats in the council chamber during the meeting, while most council members took part through video links from their homes.