Montville — Town Council member Laura Tanner has resigned her seat on the council, a decision made official by a unanimous vote on the council Monday night.

Tanner, a Democrat, is ending her third two-year term on the council more than three months early after announcing in July that she did not plan to run again in the November election.

She attributed her decision not to run for a fourth term to "positive changes in my personal life" but did not elaborate Monday on why she was vacating her term early.

Tanner's decision to leave the board leaves three months left in her two-year term. The Town Council voted to accept her resignation retroactively, effective Aug. 1.

"I think she was one of the hardest-working council members," Town Council member Tim May said Monday, as Tanner sat in the audience in Town Hall's council chambers, her seat on the dais empty. 

Town Council chairman Joseph Jaskiewicz said Monday that Ryan Hartman, a member of the Parks and Recration Commission, will serve in Tanner's seat for the last three months and will officially join the board at its September meeting.

Jaskiewicz, who is also the chairman of the Montville Democratic Town Committee, said the switch will provide an opportunity for Hartman, who had already declared his candidacy for the Town Council this year, to get some experience on the council before his campaign kicks off.

"It gives him a little exposure," Jaskiewicz said.

The Democratic Town Committee nominated Hartman to fill the seat at a meeting last week.

All seven seats on the council, including the one temporarily filled by Hartman, will be on the ballot during the municipal election in November.

m.shanahan@theday.com