Steve Hoefs, 52, will be sworn in as a new Avalon City Council member on Tuesday, July 2, according to Mayor Anni Marshall. The council voted 3-1 on Tuesday, June 18, to select Hoefs to fill the seat vacated by the late Pam Albers, who died May 19. The council majority basically selected him because he received the next highest number of votes after Albers in the last council election. Council Member Richard Hernandez cast the dissenting vote.
The council had a limited time frame in which to either appoint someone to the vacant seat or call a special election. City Attorney Scott Campbell said that if the council did not act by July 18, someone could sue the city and force the council to act.
“I feel like the council did the right thing,” Hoefs said.
“I think it was the right process,” he said, referring to the decision to select the next person in line in the election.
Hoefs, a retired fire chief and past Avalon city manager, was one of six individuals who submitted letters to the city expressing their desire to fill Albers’ seat.
The others were Carl Johnson, Bryce Noll, Micah Phillips, Joseph Sampson, and Timothy Winslow. Sampson and Winslow are past council members.
Before discussing the applicants, Marshall checked to see if the council consensus was still against holding a special election.
Council Member Cinde MacGugan-Cassidy said she didn’t want to spend money on a special election. She described that as the “easy way out” for the council.
Mayor Marshall made a motion to appoint Johnson. Cassidy acknowledged that Johnson had attended every meeting. However, she said she felt strongly that the person who sat in the council seat should be someone who had gone through “the harshness” of an election.
The vote ended in a tie of 2 to 2, with Cassidy and Council Member Oley Olsen (sp) casting the no votes.
Marshall expressed the opinion that the council would tie again if anyone else were selected, suggested Hoefs. She did not, however, make a motion.
It was Olsen who made a motion for Hoefs.
Cassidy, however, said that for her it was important that the next council member be the person who received the next highest number of votes in the election.
Olsen amended his motion to appoint the person who got the next highest number of votes in the election.
