Sounds like your dad was a little better at balancing the job with raising a kid than mine was. Though in retrospect I can give him credit for trying.
There was an election for our council members, yes. Parker - that is, Audrey Parker, my partner - and I got the second-in-command jobs based on our experience with managing law enforcement in a place as crazy as this one, and the way we stepped up to do the same thing here.