When Del Rey Oaks City Council convened for business on Jan. 24, the top order of business was who to appoint to fill the vacant seat on the dais.
Mayor Scott Donaldson, a former council member with two years left on his term, unseated former mayor Alison Kerr in the November 2022 election. Donaldson was sworn in Dec. 13, which meant that, per state election law, the seat would have to be filled by Feb. 10, or the council would have to call a special election for Nov. 7, the same day as the general election, but nearly 10 months from the present.
Six applicants vied for the seat, but the seat still remains open, because the council is locked in a 2-2 deadlock. On one side is Donaldson and new council member Jeremy Hallock, and on the other are council members Kim Shirley and recently elected John Uy.
Donaldson, who ran on a platform of uniting a city whose residents have become increasingly polarized in the last six years, sometimes around national issues, but more specifically around the proposed 28-mile Fort Ord Regional Trail and Greenway that would travel through part of Del Rey Oaks, was unable to unite the council.
Donaldson made a motion, seconded by Hallock, to nominate Louise Goetzelt, a former (appointed) council member who also ran, and lost, to win a seat against Hallock and Uy. In the Jan. 5 meeting, Shirley and Uy advocated for a process in which the top vote-getter in the November election be appointed to the seat—should they want it—and if they didn't, the offer would be extended to the losing candidate with the second-most votes—those candidates were Kerr and Goetzelt, respectively, but the motion died for lack of support from Donaldson or Hallock.
Yet it was because of that prior motion, Donaldson said, that he nominated Goetzelt, but neither Shirley or Uy would budge—she made clear that now that the application process was opened up, there were other candidates she favored more.
Both Shirley and Uy’s first choice was Gary Kreeger, but neither Donaldson nor Hallock would support him. Their second choice was Bill Ragsdale-Cronin, but he too couldn’t get a majority.
Donaldson questioned why neither Shirley or Uy would support Goetzelt, and Shirley responded that there are other candidates she prefers, stressing that Ragsdale-Cronin was her second choice.
As the debate played out, every candidate but Goetzelt and Ragsdale-Cronin withdrew their applications, and the item was continued to special meeting to a future date yet to be decided (but before Fen. 10) that will be called by Donaldson, who City Manager John Guertin says is now in Hawaii.
It remains to be seen how things play out, but a divided Del Rey Oaks council seems to be in the cards.
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Editor's Note (9:30pm 1/26/23): A previous version of this story indicated the Jan. 5 motion to potentially appoint Kerr, or Goetzelt, were two separate motions; this story has been edited to reflect that it was in fact a single motion, which failed due to lack of support.