What’s up with the City Council Vacancy

The City Charter has general guidance on filling vacancies in elective offices: “If a vacancy occurs in any elective office, then the Council by a majority vote of its members elect, shall fill such vacancy except as otherwise provided by this Charter for the unexpired term of such office.“

In the past the council has received resumes of people interested in filling the vacant seat; council members speak with the candidates, nominate their choice to fill the vacancy and the rest of the council votes to fill it. 

Normally this is a smooth process:

• Councilwoman Roberts resigned effective January 1, 2017 the seat was filled at the same meeting where resignation letter was read on January 3.

• Councilman Garza resigned effective January 1, 2019 the seat was filled at the February 5 council meeting.

• When Councilman Slaven passed in August 2023, the vacant seat was filled at the second council meeting in September.

With the vacant seat in 2023 the council decided that instead of people applying for the vacant seat, they nominated next highest vote getter from the 2021 council election.  Tina Daniels was elected 5/1 to fill the vacant seat.

At the December 19, 2023 meeting, Councilman Ramik resigned from his seat.  At the January 3, 2024 council meeting the next highest vote getter from the 2021 election was nominated and voted down 2/4.

Since then candidates to fill the vacant seat have been proposed 19 times, 16 different candidates (3 candidates were submitted multiple times.  Each one has been voted down.  Councilwomen Rose and Daniels consistently vote together and have only voted yes on the 8^th place finisher from the 2021 election, former councilman Ramik and Justin Mordarski, who, at the time he was nominated, was running for City Council and campaigning with Councilman Rose. Councilwoman Daniels has made it clear that she feels the vacant seat should only be filled by the next highest vote getter.

This leaves us with a council of 6, which wouldn’t necessarily be an issue, except that Brandana, Daniels and Rose have formed a voting block and consistently will vote together to block things.  They have earned the nickname on social media as the “No-No Sisters”.  At the June 3,^, 2025 Council Meeting, Councilwoman Rose was legitimately sick, so Councilwomen Brandana and Daniels called in “sick” to prevent having a meeting where they did not have sufficient votes the block motions.  A special council meeting was called and Councilwomen Daniels and Brandana agreed to attend only if nothing important was on the agenda.  A nomination to fill the council seat was made, but the council chair abstained, allowing the vote to fail 2/2.

There have been calls to change the charter; put a time limit on it, make it clearly someone who lost the election, etc.  The easy solution is to vote out the people who made it an issue for the first time since the city was chartered almost 60 years ago.

Below is chart showing the nominations to fill the vacant seat, I think it is complete, but I may have missed one or two.