Greenfield City Council accepts a court decision deeming Drew Tipton’s appointment illegal.

For the third time since 2022, the District 1 seat on Greenfield City Council is vacant. This time, it is because of a court decision that nullified an appointment to the position.

On July 11, Superior Court Judge Thomas Wills ruled the City Council’s appointment of Drew Tipton to the seat was illegal because of a failure to properly notify the public of the intended decision to appoint him.

On Oct. 8, the council voted 3-0 not to appeal the judge’s decision (Tipton abstained).

Tipton served in this capacity for about a year. Since his appointment was invalidated, it’s still unknown what will happen to the decisions he made in that span of time. “The City Council has not yet decided how to handle the decisions voted on by Mr. Tipton nor how they will handle the vacancy should it occur prior to the election,” City Manager Paul Wood says via email. “These items will likely appear on council meeting agendas soon.”

The seat is now vacant again; Tipton resigned on Oct. 15.

“The bullies are going after someone who has more time (collectively) on the dais or on boards relating to the City of Greenfield than the rest of the Council combined,” Tipton wrote in a resignation letter on Oct. 15.

The saga began in 2022, when districting took effect. Tipton lost to his colleague in District 1, Angela Untalon (who had previously been elected at-large), by 17 votes. Then in 2023, she moved out of the district and resigned, and the council appointed Luis Dominguez to replace her. Six weeks later, Dominguez announced he was moving out of the district so he too would be resigning.

On Sept. 12, 2023, the council was set to discuss filling the new vacancy, with the agenda reading they would “determine a process to fill the District 1 Council Member seat.”

The Brown Act requires government agencies in California to post agendas in advance, so the public knows what they are voting on and has the option to participate. The agenda indicated the topic at hand was choosing a process – but council voted 2-1 that night to appoint Tipton.

That prompted Andrew Sandoval (a Salinas resident and council member in that city) to file a lawsuit, claiming the council violated the Brown Act.

Wills agreed. In his decision, he wrote, “The Brown Act unambiguously states that an agenda shall describe ‘each item of business to be transacted or discussed’ at the meeting. Here, the council failed to disclose in its Sept. 12 meeting agenda that it would be considering the appointment of Mr. Tipton.”

District 1 is still midterm, and two candidates are running on Nov. 5 for a partial term to serve until 2026: Stephanie Garcia, a litigation paralegal who has long been engaged in city issues, and Belen Garcia, a retired educator who is campaigning on the importance of uplifting young people.

In her candidate statement, Stephanie Garcia acknowledges the churn in representation: “If elected, I pledge to fulfill the remainder of the term.”