FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) — A new Fort Pierce city commissioner will be named in exactly one week, following the arrest of former Commissioner James Taylor last year. The special election has moved into a runoff phase because no candidate managed to win a majority of the votes during the initial election. This election is considered long overdue by many in the community, as the District 2 seat position has remained empty since August of last year.

The seat became vacant following the arrest of James Taylor in July. Taylor is accused of sending sexual images to a child via Snapchat and currently faces 22 felony counts while remaining under house arrest. Now, the final two candidates, Jaimebeth Galinis and Chris Dzadovsky, are sharing their different approaches to tackling the city’s challenges and changing the perception of local government.

Jaimebeth Galinis, who is a senior director at the Fortune 500 medical device company BD, says the situation with the vacancy was a primary motivator for her campaign. “I think that was the main driver to me saying, you know what? Enough’s enough, and it’s time to bring some change to the city. Some new ideas and some new blood into the cit.y I’m really excited to get in there and really earn the trust and improve the representation of district,” Galinis said.

RELATED: Early voting begins in parts of Palm Beach County, Fort Pierce ahead of Special Elections

Chris Dzadovsky, who previously served on the St. Lucie County Commission for 16 years, believes his professional background will help him reshape the city’s image.

“There’s a lot of work to do. Fortunately, I was a communications director for the Association of Flight Attendant for many years, and that background will come in very handy for actually changing the perception and getting a better message out there, and Fort Pierce deserves that,” Dzadovsky stated.

One of the specific issues Galinis hopes to address is the presence of trash trains that travel through the city.

“The trains come up from Miami, then they use our streets, our infrastructure, our water in order to get those trash trains over to Okeechobee without any financial benefit to the city,” she explained.

When asked about his priorities, Dzadovsky emphasized the importance of working closely with city employees. “I would actually take time to get to every department and talk about things that I have brought forward as ideas on how to move the city forward, from policy changes that I’d like to bring forward. And to get the staff’s input. I think that’s incredibly important,” he said.

The runoff election comes with a $60,000 price tag for the city. Early voting is currently underway, and the final vote will take place on January 13th between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.