ISU students will once again have a nonvoting voice on the Ames City Council.

On Wednesday, Government of the Student Body President Mike Banasiak is expected to submit to the senate an executive order naming the group’s new ex-officio representative to the Ames City Council.

The new officer, Andrew Tugan, junior in political science and current GSB senator for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will replace the office left vacant in late January by Nathan Johnston.

Tugan’s new responsibilities as a nonvoting representative to the Ames City Council will be to foster greater communication between the two governing bodies, which officials say has been a problem in the past.

“I’m glad to have been picked for it, and I feel I have a lot to offer to the position,” Tugan said.

Tugan is expected to be officially appointed as a member of the City Council at the next meeting in two weeks.

His time as an ex-officio officer may not be long, as Banasiak’s administration will end in April. After that, he said, the duties of appointing an ex-officio officer fall to the new GSB president. However, Tugan said he is planning to run for the position again in two months.

“He’ll only have the position for a few months, so I hope he can do something with it, that he’ll get involved enough to show that he should stay in the position,” Johnston said.

Banasiak said Tugan stood out during the selection process because of his work with student government.

“He was the most qualified applicant,” Banasiak said. “There were only a few people who applied for the position, and we felt that his past experience, as well as his current work with the GSB, would help him settle into the position quickly and help bring relations with the city council to the next level.”

Former ex-officio representative Johnston, who resigned due to time restrictions, said Tugan seemed to be a good choice.

Johnston said he had been impressed by Tugan’s work on the tailgating issue from earlier this year and felt he’d displayed traits that would prove favorable while working with the city council.

Tugan’s appointment to the office of ex-officio representative comes at a time when emphasis has been placed by GSB on relations with the council. At the Feb. 4 GSB meeting, the senate passed a resolution endorsing the concept of bringing a member of the city council to sit at GSB meetings as a nonvoting member.