FRUIT HEIGHTS — November's election wasn't a total failure for DeeEll Fifield, who was voted out of office after serving one term on the City Council.

Eileen Moss and Jody Trujillo were elected in his stead. But when one of the council's members, Todd Stevenson, was elected as mayor, a vacancy was left on the five-member council.

Tuesday night, after a public 75-minute job interview, Fifield was selected by the Fruit Heights City Council to fill Stevenson's seat by a vote of 3 to 1. Richard Muhlestein received one vote. Another applicant for the seat, Jeff Johansen, received none.

A similar scene played out recently in neighboring Kaysville.

Gil Miller and Lynn Galbraith were the top two vote getters in November's at-large election, and Mark Johnson, who was the next highest, suddenly found himself out of office. But council member Neka Roundy was elected as mayor and a seat was left vacant. Johnson landed the appointment.

"The council felt like that was the voice of the people," said city recorder Linda Ross.

All three applicants for the Fruit Heights position have been on the council before, as well as a fourth man, Jack Palmer, who was excluded from Tuesday's interview because he lives on the east side of U.S. Highway 89. On Jan. 17, the council voted to interview only the west-side candidates.

Questions from the council members for Fifield, Muhlestein and Johansen dealt with their perspectives on how to spend a hypothetical $100,000 surplus, whether to open Center Street to through traffic and how committed the candidates would be if selected.

But the candidates' answers didn't make the council's decision any easier.

"This is tougher than any meet-the-candidates night," said council member Hoyt Stephenson. "You're all qualified people."

Monday, Fifield told the Deseret Morning News he believes in a "pay-as-we-go" philosophy when the council creates its budget, and it's a philosophy the council has followed.

"We're one of the cities that doesn't have any debt," he said. "That's a great position to be in."

Because the mostly residential city raises most of its funds through property taxes, there need to be new revenue sources for the city to expand services to its residents, he said.

Fifield works for the Davis County Planning and Zoning Department.

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E-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com