Modesto officials won’t fill council vacancy, will let voters decide in November
The Modesto City Council will not appoint someone to serve the remaining seven months of Councilman Bill Zoslocki’s term in office after he resigned April 20.
The council voted 3-2 at a special meeting Tuesday to have the voters pick the new District 4 council member in the regular Nov. 8 election.
The purpose of Tuesday’s meeting was for council members to provide staff with direction on how to fill the vacancy.
Mayor Sue Zwahlen and council members David Wright and Jenny Kenoyer voted to have the voters decide, while Councilmen Chris Ricci and Tony Madrigal supported having the council appoint someone. Councilwoman Rosa Escutia-Braaton was not at the meeting.
La Loma neighborhood residents Chris Murphy and Doug Highiet spoke in favor of an appointment, saying their district needs representation during the six months before the election. La Loma is part of District 4 and is one of the most well-organized, active and effective neighborhoods in the city.
Murphy said the council has two really good candidates if it decided to appoint someone: Nick Bavaro, who also is a candidate in the November election, and Mike Moradian, who Murphy said helped start Modesto Neighborhoods Inc., a nonprofit that works to improve the city.
Murphy said Moradian, who was not at the meeting, has indicated he would not be a candidate in the November election.
Bavaro told council members he and his wife have lived in District 4 for 24 years, he has been endorsed by Zoslocki and others, and would submit his name if the council decided to fill the vacancy through an appointment. He also said he understood the council faced a difficult decision.
Kenoyer said while council members are elected by district, they represent the welfare of the entire city and District 4 would not be ignored, a point Wright and Zwahlen reiterated. Kenoyer also said six months was not enough time for someone to learn the job and be an effective council member.
The city charter gives the council 30 days to appoint someone once a council seat becomes vacant. That would be May 20 for Zoslocki’s seat.
Zwahlen said that is a very short timeline for a process that includes giving everybody interested in the appointment time to apply, interviewing applicants and scheduling and holding special council meetings.
And appointing someone could give the person an advantage if he or she ran for council in the November election.
City staff is expected to ask council members to ratify their Tuesday decision by resolution at a council meeting. Resolutions require four votes. City Attorney Jose Sanchez said if the council deadlocks on a 3-3 vote over the resolution, the city’s default position would be to fill the vacancy at the Nov. 8 election.
Zoslocki, 68, and his wife are in the midst of a divorce and sold their home March 2. He has said he is moving out of the district. He was elected to the council in November 2013 and was finishing his second term.
Council members are elected to four-year terms. But Zoslocki was among the council members who got an extra year in office as the city moved from odd- to even-year elections in 2020 to increase voter turnout.
This story was originally published April 28, 2022 at 6:30 AM.
