IRVINE : Decision Delayed on Election Solution

After hearing a committee’s solution for repairing the city’s confusing election code, the City Council decided Tuesday to postpone a decision.

At issue was finding one or more solutions to problems with the city’s ballot method. The council seeks to solve an election-code problem that could create an open City Council seat immediately after a council election.

Under the current election process, a sitting council member is allowed to run for mayor during elections that place two council seats and the mayor’s post before voters. If a sitting council member is elected mayor, his or her council seat suddenly becomes vacant.

The council created an election committee in January to suggest one or more solutions to that problem, which has prompted two lawsuits since 1988. The committee on Tuesday recommended that the council place before the voters a new election system that would allow four positions to be placed on the ballot instead of three when a sitting council member runs for mayor. Under that system, the fourth-place candidate would fill the remaining two years of the new mayor’s council seat.

Council members Barry J. Hammond and Bill Vardoulis said they disapproved of the extra-vote solution because voters may be confused by electing someone who might never take office.

Currently, an open council seat created during an election is filled either by the losing council candidate with the most votes, or by a special election if 7% of the city’s registered voters file a petition demanding one.