The choice to fill the vacant Windsor Town Council seat has been kicked down to the road at least one more time as a deadlock remains over how to fill the seat on the council left vacant when Sam Salmon was appointed to fill out the remainder of former at-large mayor Dominic Foppoli’s term.
There are two options for filling the seat, one is a special election and the other is an appointment process, which can be done in any variety of ways, including a public process, an application process and/or a straight appointment.
The meeting kicked off with at least one vacancy being filled, when Rosa Reynosa was unanimously appointed to be vice mayor. But, the unity ended there as once again a deadlock ended discussion for another meeting.
Councilmembers Esther Lemus and Debora Fudge are both in favor of an appointment process with Salmon and Reynoza in favor of a special election.
Public comment was a back and forth between two groups that want an appointment process and others that want an election. The pro-election group wasn’t shy about venting their spleen on Lemus and Fudge.
They accused the town of not publishing all the letters received in favor of an election, and then called them out on not listening to their constituents, sometimes with creative and invective names.
On the other side of the argument Maureen Merrill called in reading a letter in favor of an appointment, specifically naming Oscar Chavez, that was cosigned by approximately 55 people. This led to a back and forth of comments trying to “out tally” each other and accusing the opposing group of political manipulation.
A former town council candidate, Gina Fortino-Dickson, called in to suggest an appointment option in which an entirely new crop of candidates submit applications and then participate in a public interview process and selection in an open meeting.
Fudge agreed to the process and for a moment Reynoza seemed to be swayed in favor of it as well, before suddenly changing her mind and voting against it.
Two votes took place over the course of the discussion, one in favor of a special election, and one in favor of the appointment process suggested by Fortino-Dickson. Both ended with a deadlocked 2-2 vote.
The discussion will now be moved forward to the next meeting on July 7, where the conversation will come around again. However, there are a few looming deadlines that must be taken into consideration.
If the town holds a special election and wants to piggyback on the Nov. 2 election already being put together — which will incur a significant cost savings — they must file with the registrar by July 11. They are not required to do that, and they have 60 days from June 2 — the day Salmon was sworn in — to make a decision as to how that vacancy is going to be filled. If they don’t make a decision it will default to a special election, but if that happens on Aug. 1, then it could be into the beginning of 2022 before an election could be held.
If the council ends up piggybacking on the Nov. 2 election, the new council member won’t be seated until the end of December or beginning of January, depending on when the election gets certified, meaning the council member will only be office for about 11 months before the seat comes up for election.
