Del Rey Oaks City Council appoints Bill Ragsdale-Cronin to a vacant seat, avoiding election.

When the four-member Del Rey Oaks City Council convened for a special meeting on Feb. 9, they were faced with two options: appoint one of two applicants to fill a vacant seat on the council created when Mayor Scott Donaldson – a former council member with two years left in his term – unseated former mayor Alison Kerr last November. Or, at a cost up to about $25,000, they could let the voters decide in a special election next November.

When the council considered six applicants for the vacant seat in January, four of them withdrew their applications during the meeting, as the council was unable to reach a consensus. Only Bill Ragsdale-Cronin – a planning commissioner – and Louise Goetzelt, who ran for city council last year and lost, remained.

With a deadlocked council, a special election to fill the vacancy seemed probable. But Donaldson, who ran on a platform of healing the city’s divisions, extended an olive branch to councilmembers Kim Shirley and John Uy, saying he would accept a motion to appoint Ragsdale-Cronin, Shirley and Uy’s preferred candidate. Ragsdale-Cronin was sworn in minutes later. (He was appointed 3-1, with Councilmember Jeremy Hallock dissenting.)

Donaldson says he came to that compromise after reflecting on what it means to be mayor: “I thought it was ultimately doing what’s best for the city as a whole.” He was also cognizant of the fiscal impact of a special election for a cash-starved city.

Ragsdale-Cronin, who positioned himself as a “centrist,” says he figured he would stay in the race and see how it played out, but was “caught completely off-guard” when he was appointed.