Timing is important factor in filling unexpired term of council member

Sunday, June 12, 2005

By Ralph Pokorny

Nevada Herald

Timing is an important fact of life and death and timing was a major factor in the selection of Jim Stacy to fill a vacant Nevada City Council seat.

Questions were raised during last Tuesday's council meeting relating to the selection of a new council member to serve the remainder of the late Mike Straight's unexpired term.

His death, on April 27, occurred 22 days after the annual municipal election, and according to the provisions set out in Section 6-3 (c), the Nevada City Charter, that meant the remaining four members of the Nevada City Council would appoint his successor, rather than hold a special election.

Had Straight's death occurred before the April 5 election the charter would have required a special election be held to select a successor. Thursday afternoon Nevada Mayor Brian Leonard said that following the advice of city attorney William McCaffree, during the May 3 city council meeting, he requested that each council member provide the name of someone for the council to consider to fill the vacant seat.

"This was not a job someone could apply for," he said.

Leonard said that he talked to each of the other councilmen individually to find out what their suggestions were, and he said that when the name of Jim Stacy came up, they all thought "Yeah."

The other possible names they provided included Mike Turnbull, who has been chairman of the parks board and Larry Bradley, who is a past president of the library board and currently a member of the park board.

Leonard said that all of the people suggested were contacted and they said that they would be willing to serve. He said that everyone on the council felt that with Stacy's past experience on the council in the 1980s, he would not need as much time to learn how things work.

"Several people have told me in the last week that Stacy was good choice," Leonard said.

However, during the June 2 city council meeting Larry DeLaney, who with 233 votes finished 340 votes behind Bill Edmonds in second place with 573 votes in the April 5 election, told the city council that according to precedent set in the past the person with the next highest vote total on the April 5 ballot should be appointed to fill the vacancy.

"This seems only logical and sensible, especially considering a city election was held within mere weeks of this happening. The picking of the next candidate in line from the most recent city election compliments that person for caring enough to run for city office and above all else, it shows to the citizens of Nevada that the council members respect their decision," DeLaney, told the council while reading from a prepared statement.

The charter, however, does not mention precedent as basis to choose a person to fill a vacancy, Leonard said Thursday.

In fact, the charter does not require that the person appointed by the council has ever run for city council or even expressed any interest in serving in the government.

DeLaney further told the council, "I was never contacted or called. Further, I made it apparent that I was interested. I never had any council member return my calls and messages, which is in itself disrespectful in as much as I am a registered voter in the city."

Councilman Tim Moore said that DeLaney contacted him and asked about his being put on the council.

Moore said that DeLaney also asked how much councilmen are paid. As required by the city charter, councilmen are paid nothing for their service and can only have their expenses reimbursed by the city.

DeLaney also raised several other concerns about the appointment of Stacy and anyone else under these circumstances, to the council, such as according to Section 8.1 (c), a person appointed to fill a vacancy of less than one year cannot be recalled by a vote of the public during that year, since the charter does not allow for a recall during a person's first six months or last six months of his term on the council.

DeLaney also questioned why the provision set out in Section 2-100 of the charter about filling vacancies on the council in the case of a disaster is different than during normal times. Section 2-100 calls for the council to hold a special election if the time before the normal municipal election is more than six months, instead of the one-year time allowed during normal times. This section also sets out how to reconstitute the city government if multiple council members die -- if, for example, a tornado would strike the council chamber during a meeting or the Soviet Union were to have dropped an atomic bomb near Nevada. DeLaney also questioned the short time it took the council to select Stacy during the May 17 meeting and whether they were following Roberts Rules of Order, which the charter refers to by stating, "Rules of order not specified by statute, ordinance or resolution shall be governed by Roberts Rules of Order, Newly Revised, 2000 Edition, as published by Perseus Publishing."

According to DeLaney's prepared statement, if the council is supposed to follow the charter and Roberts Rules of Order, then he has several additional concerns: First, "Anyone can put a name into nomination to fill the council member's seat." Second, "Also, no one made a motion to seize the nominations so that a vote could be taken." Third, "Then after the rushed vote a motion was made to go into executive session, (which upon passing had the council members literally come out of their chairs immediately)."

Brian Leonard said that during the May 17 meeting Jim Stacy's name was presented in a motion by councilman Bill Edmonds and seconded by Jim Rayburn before it was voted on by the councilmen.

There were no nominations to cease before a vote was taken, because there were no nominations.

The charter does not call for a request for nominations, he said.

DeLaney's statement continues, "All of these concerns and issues have led me to be suspicious. I know that I do not stand alone in my uneasiness with recent actions taken by this council. You are supposed to look out for the best interest of this town and its citizens in all things, whether it be in the prevention of short cuts undertaken in the process of filling a vacancy on the council, to the matter of preventing one dollar or thousands from being missing."

Leonard said Thursday that several people had told him during the last week that they thought that Jim Stacy was a good choice to fill Mike Straight's seat. "This was almost like hiring a city manager," Leonard said.

City attorney William McCaffree was unavailable for comment.

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