Lodi City Council votes to keep one seat vacant

Lodi officials agreed to leave former City Councilman Bob Johnson’s seat vacant until the November election, following his death on Feb. 26.

The decision was made Tuesday morning during a special meeting held at Carnegie Forum. City Manager Steve Schwabauer presented the council with three options during the meeting: appoint someone to Johnson’s seat, hold a special election or do nothing.

After the city established council districts under threat of litigation by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 2018, Districts 1, 2 and 3 held elections that November. Districts 4 and 5 already are expected to go to vote this November.

“To call a special election today would necessarily at the earliest occur at the regular November election date, because there is not a natural election date between now and November,” Schwabauer said on Tuesday. “There would have been one, except California moved to an early primary this year.”

Due to timing constraints, city staff recommended the council either appoint someone from the public to the council seat before the general election in November or do nothing, which could open the city up to litigation.

“The challenge would be that you did not take any action that the law set in motion,” Schwabauer said.

Council members received a confidential memorandum from City Attorney Janice Magdich, which further explained the threat of a lawsuit, according to Schwabauer.

Councilman Mark Chandler asked Magdich what ramifications the city would face under litigation if the council opted to do nothing.

“The legislation mandates either the council fill the vacancy or call a special election. It does not give you the third option which is to do nothing,” Magdich said. “What could happen is a registered voter in the city could file an action called a Writ of Mandate asking the court to order you to fill the seat.”

If a resident were to pursue legal action, Magdich says the city would incur the court cost and could be responsible for paying the petitioner’s legal fees.

Councilwoman JoAnne Mounce said she too would prefer to keep the seat vacant, but if the city is threatened with litigation, the council should appoint a former council member to serve.

“I think that it is unfair to the citizens of Lodi to appoint someone that hasn’t already been elected, because it takes their voice away from the process,” Mounce said.

It would be difficult to appoint a member of the public due to a steep learning curve and a limited amount of time to navigate city policies and procedures, she added, while also voting on action items that have realworld implications for the city’s residents.

Mayor Doug Kuehne preferred to divert the threat of litigation entirely by requesting his fellow council members consider appointing either a member of the public or former council member to the seat.

“I’m looking at the options currently in front of me and an appointment makes sense to me because I am thinking about a quorum here on the council,” Kuehne said.

Magdich confirmed that in 2019, the city canceled three shirtsleeve meetings due to a lack of quorum and canceled one combined shirtsleeve and special meeting in 2017, adding that all meetings were canceled ahead of the meeting times.