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Mayor Howard said there is no set procedure to fill vacancies, but the Charter clearly says, "The Council, if there is a vacancy.... shall appoint, and if for some reason they cannot appoint, then they would hold an election. The way I am interpreting this, is the first priority should be given to the Council, to sit down and discuss the option of appointing." City Attorney Schricker read the provisions that pertain to General Law cities as opposed to Charter cities such as Redwood City: "If a vacancy occurs in an elective office provided for in this chapter, the Council shall within 30 days of the commencement of the vacancy, either fill the vacancy by appointment or call a special election to fill the vacancy." City Attorney Schricker said that provision provides an alternative. He said the Redwood City Charter states, "any vacancy occurring on the Council shall be filled by appointment by the remaining Council Members, but if the remaining Council Members fail to fill the vacancy by appointment within 60 days, then they must immediately cause an election to be held." Council Member Leipzig asked if "fail to fill" included: If the Council did not meet within that time, if there was a tie vote, or if the Council chose not to appoint? City Attorney Schricker said, "Anyone of those." Council Member Claire said the word shall is a command and the Council was commanded to appoint, and if there was no majority to appoint someone, then the Council must go to the next step. He said one of the newspapers suggested the Council could hold an election in June, but he did not believe that was possible. City Attorney Schricker said, "Under the Election Code which governs the conduct of elections in the City, the City Council must first adopt a Resolution calling the election. Then Notice must be published, and under the Elections Code there are a number of days that have to be (observed.) You have to count backwards ITom the election day and for purposes of that provision of publishing the Notice, the Notice must be published no more than 127 days before the election and not less than 113 days before the election.... If you count backwards, today would have been the last day to publish the Notice of the Election in the official newspaper." In response to Council Member Hartnett's questions regarding the Charter's requirement to first try to appoint someone within 60 days and then call an election, City Attorney Schricker said, "There is both an expressed and implied duty. The expression of the duty is the use of the word shall. The implied provision is to make a fair effort, or a good effort to fulfill that, and a 3-3 split that lasted for 60 days would obviously be a good try, but you couldn't come to an agreement." Mayor Howard called upon the members of the audience who wished to speak to this Issue. REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTE BOOK NO. 56 FEBRUARY 9, 1998 MINUTES Page No. 256 PAGE 14