MCK to Hold By-Election as Rice Moves into Executive Office
Written by Paul Graif on 13 September 2022
The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake will shortly have to call a By-Election as one of its youngest elected officials, Alan John Rice is resigning as Ratsénhaienhs in order to take a full-time job as the Executive Operations Officer at the MCK.
“That’s right in my skill-set,” Rice told K1037 News. “Three of the four units fall under my portfolio right now. I think I have the skill set and past knowledge to excel more in this position than I did as the Ratsénhaienhs. I enjoy my time here and I really like the job. And in a perfect world this position would be available 21 months from now. But unfortunately it’s available now. Unfortunately I am not fulfilling the commitment I made for the three years but I do feel that I will be better able to help the community in this position.”
He replaces Kevin Kennedy who retired last month. Since Rice was elected in July, 2021, Kahnawake’s election law stipulates that a by-election must be held to replace him if there is at least 18 months left in an elected official’s tenure. The next full MCK elections aren’t scheduled until July, 2024.
Despite being only 32 years old, Rice has experience now as an elected official and on the administrative side as well.
“I have a great respect for both worlds, the political side as well as the administration side. The experience I’ve had in the past with administration work, the office of the KKR. I worked at OCC for a little while, and even my time spent, my year and two months in this position has all been in the same area. It’s all been with the client based units at the MCK. So I’ve learned a bit on both sides so it’s actually going to help me a lot to make sure we can serve this community the best way we can.”
Rice will remain on in his current job for approximately a month. A date for a by-election has yet to be set. The last time this occurred, Frank McComber won the by-election in 2019 when he replaced Lloyd Phillips who left to become the Director of Public Safety in February, 2019.
