SAXONBURG — Borough council members are livid because the Butler County Republican Committee nominated a candidate to run for a council seat that had already been filled by someone appointed by the council in March.

Scott Herbst, a sitting councilman, said Republican Joe Sepich was appointed by the council about eight months ago to serve the remaining two years of the seat vacated by Tom Knights, also a Republican.

Knights resigned because he planned to move to another municipality.

Herbst said Sepich has been an active and dedicated councilman since that time.

According to borough officials' interpretation of borough code, Herbst said they thought Sepich would need to face voters in 2020 to retain his seat on the council.

But Herbst said borough solicitor Mike Gallagher interpreted the borough code to require Sepich to run in the general election Tuesday to remain in the seat until the end of Knights' term, which expires on Jan. 1, 2022.

Because he was appointed after the deadline to submit paperwork to the county Bureau of Elections to run in the May primary, Herbst said Sepich knew he would have to mount a write-in candidacy for the general election Tuesday.

The day before the general election, Herbst said, council President Sherry Weinzierl reported that someone was on the general election ballot for the seat, and it wasn't Sepich.

Herbst said the county Republican Committee nominated June Crawford for the seat. As the single candidate on the ballot, Crawford won.

“Now (Sepich) has been taken away from us by a political body,” Herbst said.

He said he called the county Republican committee to communicate the council's anger that it nullified an appointed council member.

“They usurped our authority to put somebody else in that position,” Herbst said. “I'm a Republican and this is irritating to me.”

But Al and Patricia Lindsay, the chairman and external vice chairman of the county Republican committee, said Wednesday they received a letter from the county Bureau of Elections that listed the vacant seats throughout the county in case the committee wanted to nominate a candidate for any of those seats.

Patricia Lindsay said that according to the county Republican committee bylaws, committee members in a district with a vacant seat must be offered the chance to run.

“June is a committee person and said she was glad to do it,” Al Lindsay said.

Patricia Lindsay said the committee did not hear from Sepich that he wanted to be on the ballot, and the committee had no idea the council had appointed someone to the seat.

“If you have an interest, you've got to let us know,” Al Lindsay said.

Patricia Lindsay said committee members made inquiries in the area, and did not receive any potential names for the seat.

“We made an effort to find someone,” she said.

Shari Brewer, the director of the county Bureau of Elections, said those who are appointed to fill a vacated council seat must face the voters in the very next municipal election.

She said those who do not run in the primary must be nominated by their party to appear on the ballot in the general election.

Brewer confirmed that she sent letters to both the county Democratic and Republican committees regarding vacant seats throughout Butler County — including the Saxonburg council seat — because no one had been nominated by either of those parties.

Crawford will assume the seat in January as the winner in Tuesday's election.

“Nobody knows her or anything about her,” Herbst said.