A candidate on November’s ballot for the Langley City Council is now also in the running for an appointed seat on the council.

Bruce Allen filed an application for the vacant Position 5 seat on Monday. He joins retired Langley physician Doug Allderdice, who has also submitted an application packet to the city.

If the council appoints Allen to the Position 5 seat, it would be a shortcut of sorts.

Allen was one of three candidates in August’s Primary Election for Position 4 on the council, a seat now held by Robert Waterman. Waterman earlier announced he would not seek another term.

Thomas Gill pulled in the most votes for Position 4 in the three-way primary race on Aug. 16, edging Allen and Jonathon Moses. As the two with the most votes in the primary, Allen and Gill will appear on the November ballot.

The winner of the November race for Position 4 will take office in January.

Council members will pick a replacement for Robert Gilman — who resigned from Position 5 on Aug. 1 — at their meeting on Sept. 19.

Allen said applying for the post would give him a better shot at a council seat.

“It could give me a leg up on being on the council earlier than I thought if they select me,” he said.

“It doesn’t affect the other campaign in the least,” Allen said, explaining that his name will stay on the ballot even if he is appointed.

“It’s not going to change my running at all,” he added.

Allen, 70, retired at the rank of command sergeant major after 30 years in the Army. He was also a department manager for Safeway and is currently working at Mo’s Pub in Langley. In his application packet, Allen noted his extensive volunteer work in Langley and stressed the need for the council to work collaboratively on common goals.

Gill also said Allen’s move for an appointment won’t change things.

“This won’t affect my campaign,” Gill said, noting that Allen’s name will still appear on the ballot. “I don’t really have any feelings about it one way or another.”

Allderdice, 68, served on the city council from 2000 to 2006.

He was first appointed to the seat to fill out the term left vacant by former councilman Ed Parr, and Allderdice resigned his post due to his workload as a physician during his second term.

Allderdice could not be reached for comment Monday; he was out of town on a bike trip.

In his application for the council seat, filed on Sept. 12, Allderdice noted his previous service on the council. “That experience should help me to get up to speed fairly quickly if appointed,” he wrote.

Allderdice came to Langley from Spokane to run a family physician’s practice with Dr. Steve Shapiro in 1978. He left his Langley practice to become an emergency room doctor in Everett in the mid-1980s.