Council Tilts Toward Election to Fill Seat : Oxnard: Manuel Lopez’s mayoral victory creates a vacancy. The alternatives are a special ballot or an appointment.

Weeks after a hard-fought campaign that forged an historic shift of power at Oxnard City Hall, voters may once again have to weigh into the political process to decide who should fill an open City Council seat.

The newly elected Oxnard City Council is leaning toward a special election to fill the unexpired term of Mayor-elect Manuel Lopez, despite the $40,000 to $60,000 tab for such an election.

“I believe the citizens would like to have the say in who is going to represent them,” said Lopez, who on Nov. 3 became the first elected Latino mayor in the city’s history and who has two years remaining on his council term. “The cost is of real concern, but I think the voters should decide.”

To elect or to appoint, that is one of the first questions that the new council will take up when it is installed Nov. 24.

According to the city clerk’s office, council members will have 30 days to fill Lopez’s vacancy by appointment or to call a special election.

If they choose an election, it will be held on the next scheduled Election Day, which is March 2.

Lopez said there are benefits to an appointment. If the council could agree on a replacement, not only would the city save money but a full five-member council could immediately get to work.

But he rejected a proposal, advanced by some to save election costs and escape the wrangling that accompanies a political appointment, to appoint Councilwoman Geraldine Furr who finished third in the race for two council seats.

“The incumbents who ran for election were not approved by the voters,” Lopez said. “Now for the incoming council to tell the voters that they were wrong and that we are going to appoint someone they did not want just isn’t very logical.”

In an Election-Day transfer of decision-making power in Ventura County’s largest city, retired parks and recreation supervisor Bedford Pinkard became the city’s first black councilman and businessman Andres Herrera became only the fourth Latino elected to the council in Oxnard’s 90-year history.

The two new councilmen, who unseated incumbents Furr and Dorothy Maron, said they also support a special election to fill Lopez’s seat, but want community input before reaching a final decision.

“I think the voting public would welcome the opportunity to choose the fifth person for the council,” said Pinkard shortly after the election.

Added Herrera last week: “I think we on the council were elected to make hard decisions on how to run the city. I don’t think we’ve been anointed with special powers that allow us to elect ourselves.”

Councilman Michael Plisky, who lost a bid for the mayor’s spot to Lopez by a slight margin, could not be reached for comment.

The current City Council had an opportunity to help the soon-to-be-installed council avoid the controversy.

Months ago, Councilwoman Maron suggested adoption of a policy that the third-place finisher in the council race be appointed to an open seat should Lopez or Plisky become mayor.

No one on the council supported her idea.

“It was very shortsighted on their part,” Maron said. “Now they’re in a pickle. They can either appoint or they can go to an election, and whichever way they go there is going to be criticism.”

Herrera agreed that the council was shortsighted, but said adopting Maron’s suggestion now is not the way to go.

“There is no such thing as third place in a two-way race,” he said. “I think the electorate has spoken on that issue.”

From Oxnard’s run-down barrio to its upscale bay, community leaders say an election would be best if the city could afford the price tag.

“I think ideally everybody would like to have a special election,” said Bodine Elias, chairwoman of the Mandalay Bay Neighborhood Council. “I just don’t know whether the budget will allow that.”

And in the middle-class community of Tierra Vista, neighborhood council head Paul Chatman said initially that he thought that the third-place finisher should get the nod.

But not anymore.

“The voters were saying something, and quite obviously they were saying that they don’t want the status quo and they don’t want our leaders to reach down and pull up the third person for the council,” Chatman said.

However, Chatman said he cannot support funding a special election at a time when city officials are cutting police services and closing park restrooms because they cannot afford to pay someone to clean them.

“We elected this council, we should trust their judgment,” he said.

But across town, in Oxnard’s La Colonia district, neighborhood council president Carlos Aguilera wants the people to decide who the next council member should be.

“We need to clean the slate and start anew,” he said.