Kathy Ennen, a nine-year veteran of the Champaign City Council, will vacate her at large seat this summer, leaving behind a divided council and a heated debate on her replacement.

“It’ll be a dogfight,” Mayor Gerald Schweighart said.

Ennen is moving to North Carolina in July to be with her husband, Don, who recently took a job in Southport as the business and commercial director for Primary Energy of North Carolina. In the past, the city council has filled vacated seats by nominating and voting on candidates themselves.

Whoever is chosen to take Ennen’s place will fill a crucial swing seat on the council, about one year after the members chose Marci Dodds over Deborah Frank-Feinen to represent district four in a similarly hotly-contested debate. Schweighart said the council has become split between members promoting a pro-business agenda and others trumpeting social causes.

“Half of the council is going to be looking for one thing, half is going to be looking for the other,” Schweighart said. “The last time we took a vote on this, when we got Marci, we were pretty well split. We couldn’t get the five votes we needed, and I expect this to be much the same.”

The council cannot nominate potential candidates until Ennen officially resigns, but Schweighart said he was sure there would “be some politicking between now and then.”

Ennen said she would probably remain on the council until early July.

“There’s no date yet,” she said. “I’m going to try to serve right up until the time the moving van leaves my driveway.”

Ennen, an assistant professor of nursing at Lakeview College of Nursing in Danville, said she would try to find a similar job at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, but would not run for a city council seat.

“I’m certainly going to go to some of their city council meetings,” she said. “But to be honest with you, after serving in Champaign, I’ll be hard-pressed to find a better place to work as a city council person.”

Ennen emphasized the absence of divisive politics on the council, where members are forbidden to run with a party affiliation. But the council may test that ideal in the 60 days it will have to choose her replacement.

Though the new member will only have about nine months before his or her term expires, Ennen’s replacement will have an early advantage in running for re-election and could cast a key vote on the lingering smoking ban issue.

Though the process has not officially begun yet, former city council candidate Matt Varble has already declared his intent to apply for the position, with the smoking ban as his central issue. Varble is the director of communications for the Champaign-Urbana Smokefree Alliance.

“There’s some support for me on the council, but there’s also some opposition,” said Varble, who lost to district 3 incumbent Vic McIntosh last year. “I think I’m going to be the most transparent candidate because all of my views are already out there.”

Varble said he expected Feinen and former council candidate Ken Urban to be among his opposition for the seat, but neither was available for comment at press time.

Ennen said she would miss the work of the council, even while resting in her dream retirement destination.

“This has been a real joy and it’s been a real privilege,” Ennen said. “I’ve traveled all over the country, and I’ve seen a lot of stuff, and we do it right.”