The results of the Nov. 3, 2020, Election in Mendocino County have yet to be certified, but when they are it is very likely that Ukiah City Council member Maureen “Mo” Mulheren will be chosen as the next Second District representative on the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, replacing John McCowen.
As of Nov. 13, the Mendocino County Elections Office had reported 3,447 votes for Maureen “Mo” Mulheren for nearly 60 percent of the vote, and 2,314 votes for Mari Rodin, for 40.17 percent of the vote.
Mendocino County Registrar of Voters Katrina Bartolomie said Friday that mail-in ballots “that are postmarked by Nov. 3 have 17 days to be delivered, which bring us to Nov. 20. We hope to certify the following week.” Bartolomie added that her office has 30 days from Election Day to certify the results.
If Council member Mulheren is elected Second District Supervisor, Ukiah City Clerk Kristine Lawler said that city code dictates that “within 60 days from the commencement of the vacancy on the City Council, the city must either fill the vacancy by appointment or call a special election, (and) the vacancy would commence when the council member is seated in January on the Board of Supervisors. If the City Council elects to fill the vacancy by appointment, the only qualification is that the appointee must be an elector in the city. If the Council called a special election, the election must be held on the next regularly established election date not less than 114 days from the call of the special election.”
City Council member Steve Scalmanini said there had been no discussion yet by the City Council about what the process might be, adding that he didn’t think “it will even begin formally until after (Mulheren) is seated, which I assume will be the first or second Tuesday of January.”
Scalmanini noted that if Mulheren were not to be seated until the second Tuesday of January, “then the first opportunity for the City Council to discuss it would be Jan. 20, and that would be too late to qualify for the March election cycle, so if the City Council decides to hold an election, it would likely not be until June.
McCowen was also on the Ukiah City Council when elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2008, and the City Council opted to appoint one of seven people vying for the seat.
At a meeting held in December 2008 after the election, “some speakers had suggested that the city institute an order of succession that included the next-highest vote-getter in the last election held for City Council being automatically appointed to fill the seat left by McCowen,” according to a story Rob Burgess wrote for the Ukiah Daily Journal that month.
“Were the council to have decided to go with that scenario,” Burgess continues, Michael Whetzel (who currently serves on the Ukiah Planning Commission) would have automatically taken McCowen’s seat because he garnered 1,593 votes or 15.02 percent in that election, behind McCowen (2,245 votes) and the late Phil Baldwin (1,639 votes).
While one speaker pointed out that “the less than 50-point vote spread in the last election between Mike Whetzel and Phil Baldwin means something,” another speaker said, “I believe that the most important criteria you should be considering is … that the voters would like someone who stands for the same things John McCowen does. They are big shoes to fill and they were shoes that were walking in a certain direction.”
Ultimately, the council voted to appoint another of the seven candidates, Mary Anne Landis, to McCowen’s seat instead of Whetzel.
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November 15, 2020 at 01:31AM
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How will a potential Ukiah City Council vacancy be filled? - Ukiah Daily Journal
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