Tonganoxie ? Jason Ward agreed Monday to give up his position as president of the Tonganoxie City Council to become the mayor of the city.

Tonganoxie has been without a mayor since Mike Vestal resigned the post July 28 after it was learned he sent an obscene e-mail from the city-owned computer he uses in his duties with the city’s telephone answering service. It was the second such incident in Vestal’s three-and-a-half-year tenure as mayor.

Ward will finish Vestal’s term, which is to expire in April 2011.

In his first act as mayor at Monday’s Tonganoxie City Council meeting, Ward appointed Chris Donnelly, a banker and former member of the Tonganoxie Planning Commission, to his open council seat. The position’s term expires in April 2013.