The first order of business for Chula Vista’s newly elected Mayor Mary Salas and City Council includes deciding how to fill Salas’s vacant council seat.
Salas must give up the remaining two years of her term as a councilwoman after she was elected Chula Vista’s mayor Nov. 4.
She will be sworn in on Dec. 9 with reelected Councilwoman Pat Aguilar and either John McCann or Steve Padilla.
Once she is officially sworn-in, her council seat immediately becomes vacant — at that time the City Council has two weeks to decide whether to call a special election or appoint someone to finish Salas’s term, said City Clerk Donna Norris
If the council decides on an appointment they will then have 45 days from Dec. 9 to name an appointee. Should 45 days pass without an appointee then the vacancy defaults to a special election.
An appointment must be made by Jan. 23.
A vote for an appointee has to be made by the majority of the council members. The appointee will hold office until December 2016, when Salas’s term would have expired. The appointee also cannot run for reelection and must sit out a year before seeking office again at City Hall.
When Chula Vista voters elected their representatives last week, they also voted to approve Proposition B, which will give the council control when it comes to filling a vacancy on the City Council of two years or less.
As of Tuesday, 75.8 percent of Chula Vista voters favored Prop. B, although the city clerk said Monday about 100,000 votes still need to be counted before anything is official.
“We have to suppose at this point because the election results are not final,” Norris said. “We can’t assume what the results are at this point.”
Prop. B will be ratified once the registar of voters certifies the election on Dec. 2, Norris said.
Norris said once it is certified the law will go into effect immediately.
Norris said a process on how to gather candidates for an appointment hasn’t been established yet.
Before the council talks about a candidate process, it must first declare Salas’s council seat vacant on Dec. 9, Norris said.
Prop. B was a ballot measure put forth by current Mayor Cheryl Cox with the agreement of the current City Council.
Cox’s reasoning for putting the measure on the ballot would be to save taxpayers “more than $1 million” on a special election.
Chula Vista’s old procedure included a special election for a City Council vacancy with more than 12 months left on the term.
However, the City Clerk’s Office said a special election to fill Salas’s vacated council seat would cost about $600,000, not the more than $1 million estimate as reported by the mayor.
If voters had voted down the measure then a vacancy would have automatically been filled through a special election.
McCann said he favors a special election over an appointment.
“My preference is for the voters to decide, but I understand the people’s intent with the passage of Prop. B to appoint and avoid the steep $600,000 cost of a special election,” he said.
When he served on the City Council the first time around, McCann was part of the council that selected Patty Chavez to replace Patty Davis, who left office because of an illness.
Then as a board member for the Sweetwater Union High School District, McCann — with the support of the board — appointed Dr. Ed Brand as superintendent.
McCann also called for a special election to fill the vacated seat of indicted school board member Arlie Ricasa.
At the time, McCann split the vote. Salas said she needs to speak with the council before she decides what to do.
“I have no preference,” she said. “It’s wide open.”
Councilwoman Pamela Bensoussan said she wants to avoid the cost of a special election.
“I would prefer an appointment because it would save the city a great deal of money,” she said. “Providing that we can get somebody we can all agree on, I think that is the best alternative.”
Bensoussan said she would support an appointee who understands how municipal government functions and who would not use the position as a stepping stone.
Councilman Rudy Ramirez, who is termed out on Dec. 9, knows what it’s like to make an appointment and said the new council should put politics aside.
“(Appointments) can be highly political endeavors, but they don’t have to be if the council just focuses on appointing somebody that will serve out the remainder of the term, and who will be independent and agree to not seek re-election,” Ramirez said.
“If there are other considerations besides those fundamental ones, then the council is likely to get into trouble because then it always gets contentious and difficult and could have consequences that are irreparable.”
Ramirez said if he still sat on the City Council he would favor an appointment because the money for a special election could be better used for something else.
