New Albert Lea Mayor Vern Rasmussen made the right decision. Take the job as mayor now by accepting the Albert Lea City Council’s appointment now, rather than waiting until January, when he would have been sworn in as a result of his election victory.

There are two main reasons why taking the seat now is the right thing to do:

1. Because it lets the 1st Ward decide its representative on the City Council. The decision Rasmussen, the former 1st Ward councilor, made will mean the city needs to hold a special election to fill that seat. If Rasmussen had waited until January, it would have had to appoint someone. Sure, an election costs more than appointments, but this is America. We embrace democracy, even though elections costs more than most of the alternatives.

2. Because with the city government lacking many of its top leaders for one unfortunate reason or another — it had been missing its mayor, city manager and finance officer — it is good for the morale of the city to have filled one of those positions.

Scratch that one off. Albert Lea has a mayor. Now City Hall can work on filling the other open spots.

Rasmussen has an important task ahead of him — leading the communitywide effort to find the right city manager for Albert Lea. The sooner he holds the gavel, the sooner he can take the leadership role in other the manager search, too. It’s a search that hopefully will not be rushed or taken lightly.