City of Columbia
Columbia City Clerk Wesley Hoeffkin, left, is shown swearing in Ward 3 Alderman Gene Ebersohl as acting mayor on Wednesday night at a special meeting streamed live on Facebook.
Editor’s note: This story was originally published by the Belleville News-Democrat, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
It was a quiet and somber meeting that lasted only about four minutes.
On Wednesday night, Columbia City Council members elected former Ward 3 Alderman Gene Ebersohl as acting mayor.
Ebersohl replaces longtime Mayor Kevin Hutchinson, who resigned Monday after being indicted last week by a federal grand jury for allegedly lying to investigators about referral commissions he received on city insurance contracts.