According to Owen L. Martin, he filed a legal notice that appeared on page E9 of the June 28, 2007 West County Times that is the initial step toward allowing the voters an opportunity to change the method used to fill City Council vacancies. The legal notice is a precedent to circulation of a petition to place the matter on the ballot.

He feels that any vacant seats should be filled by people who have been willing to stand for election.

Martin emailed me, “I am not trying to waste money on special elections, but I would rather see the voters pick candidates for the City Council than watch the City Council appoint someone who has not asked the people for their vote.”

Following is an abbreviated version of the legal notice Martin filed:

NOTICE OF INTENT TO CIRCULATE PETITION

Notice is here by given by the persons whose names appear hereon of their intention to circulate the petition within the City of Richmond for the purpose of changing the City Charter Section 10 of Article 3 in regards to filling one or more vacancies on the City Council.  A statement of the reasons of the proposed action as contemplated in the petition is as follows:

I believe that the voters of Richmond should keep control of the Democratic Process and elect the Richmond City Council Members who represent us.

The Richmond City Attorney’s office has prepared the following title and summary:

PROCESS FOR FILLING CITY COUNCIL VACANCIES: CHARTER AMENDMENT

The Richmond City Charter currently provides that a vacancy is deemed to exist on the City Council if a member of the Council is absent without permission from all regular Council meetings for 60 days.  The Charter also provides that if a vacancy occurs on the Richmond City Council, it is filled by a majority of the remaining members of the City Council.  If the Council does not fill the vacancy within sixty days after the vacancy occurs, then the Council must immediately call a special election to fill the vacancy.

This proposed measure is a charter amendment that would alter the provisions regarding vacancies on the City Council.  First, the proposed measure provides that in addition to vacancies created by unexcused absences, a vacancy will be deemed to exist on the effective date of a notice to vacate the Council for any reason.  The measure does not define the circumstances when a notice to vacate the Council may be issued.

This measure also provides that at the first Council meeting after the City Clerk knows of a pending or actual Council vacancy becoming available, the candidates from the previous election receiving votes equal to more than twelve percent of the registered voters will be asked whether they are willing to serve the unexpired portion of the Council, with the person receiving the greatest number of votes having the right of first refusal.

If no one is available under this process to fill a vacancy on the City Council, or if there is at any one time more than one vacancy on the City Council, then the measure provides that a special election will be held by mail within 120 days of the notice of election being announce at a Council meeting and being printed in the local paper.  Candidates to fill the vacancy would be required to apply to the City Clerk within one week of this notice being announced and printed in the local paper.

Owen Louis Martin, Jr., 1019 Ventura St., Richmond, CA 94805, owenlmartin@earthlink.net