UPDATED 9:40 a.m.

CHAMPAIGN – Linda Cross took over as the city council's District 5 representative on Tuesday night.

She is the third person to represent the district in the past year, and a new member is likely to take over before the end of May.

Cross was the city council's choice from a field of five candidates, three of whom have already filed to run for the seat in the April 5 election.

Cross is not one of those three; she said she was interested only in serving the three-month appointment to fill in while the three candidates campaign for the office.

Council member Deborah Frank Feinen, who was among the seven of eight to vote for Cross' appointment, said she was pleased to have an interim representative who is knowledgeable about local government – Cross was a longtime county board member and township supervisor – and whose presence on the council will not interfere with the ongoing campaigns.

Appointing one of the three April candidates, Feinen said, would give that person the advantage of "being up here and being on TV for the next month and a half and getting a step forward that the other candidates aren't afforded."

Paul Faraci, one of those candidates for the seat, did get two informal votes from Marci Dodds and Tom Bruno, who said he was trying to avoid "another period of a short-term council member for District 5 followed by a change."

Dodds went further, saying the appointment of a non-candidate "removes any piece of democracy from the process."

"To take it away on the back end, too, that the voters cannot vote out whoever we put in, I think it's wrong," she said. "There's no accountability."

In addition to Faraci, the two other candidates vying in the April election for the District 5 seat are Cathy Emanuel and Jim McGuire.

Cross was sworn in and took her seat immediately following the vote. She fills a vacancy left by Gordy Hulten, who resigned in January to accept an appointment as Champaign County clerk.

Hulten had been appointed to the job in April 2010 after its previous holder, Dave Johnson, resigned in March 2010 to pursue a job in Cleveland.

Cross will serve until May, when the votes from the April 5 election are counted.