Doug Essek’s victory in the Fredonia mayoral race will create a vacancy on the Fredonia Board of Trustees.

Essek is currently a trustee. He was elected twice to his trustee seat. In 2016, he won a one-year term of office — an unusual term that came up due to a vacancy. Essek then successfully ran again for an ordinary four-year term in 2017.

The term he won then ends Dec. 31, 2021. But as of January 2020, he will be mayor of Fredonia.

Since he can’t be a mayor and a trustee at the same time, Essek will have to give up his trustee’s seat. He told the OBSERVER in an email that that will happen the moment he takes his oath of office. The Board of Trustees will then appoint a replacement to fill the vacancy, he wrote.

That means Essek, a Republican, may have to deal with a heavily Democratic board, if party politics play any role in the decision. After Essek becomes mayor, Fredonia’s Board of Trustees will have three Democrats, Kara Christina, James Lynden and Roger Pacos, against one Republican, Roger Britz.