MTAS Recommends No Special Election To Fill Monterey Mayor Vacancy

Monterey’s Mayor JJ Reels resigning before his term ends leaves the city without an official mayor for five months.

MTAS Consultant Warren Nevad said that his initial recommendation to address this issue is to hold off on filling the role until elections in August.

“If the mayor had resigned like a few months into his term and he still had another year and a half left then I would recommend that they fill that expired term,” Nevad said. “But since it’s so close to the election I would recommend that they wait for the election. But that’s the board’s decision to make.”

Nevad said that typically, the board would appoint Vice Mayor Mark Farley to fulfill mayoral duties. Nevad said that to fill Farley’s role, the board can choose to appoint someone.

Nevad said according to section 4 of the city’s charter, “All vacancies in the Board of Mayor and Aldermen shall be filled for the unexpired term by a majority vote of the remaining Aldermen and mayor.” He said that in this case, since there is little time left in the term the board should make a good faith effort to fill the vacant seat.

“There’s no really specific way, but a lot of times board members to fill a vacant seat, they’ll nominate residents who meet their residency requirements and so forth,” Nevad said. “They might nominate them and then the board would vote on that. They filled a vacancy about a year or so ago with an Alderman that had resigned. Sometimes cities will have a few people who are interested in the vacant position to give a speech at a meeting and listen to what their goals are and so forth.”