Hollister Councilman Roy Sims moved just outside of his district and must resign from his seat.
Sims, the District 4 councilman, was elected in November to one of four council members joining the mayor on the dais.
“I will no longer be able to be on the city council, effective the end of this week,” Sims said during the meeting. “I have moved outside of my district into the county. It definitely was not something I expected, but it was an opportunity for my family and a personal choice that made more sense than to continue on the city council.”
Sims, who is the information technology director for the county office of education, was elected to the city council last November. The District 4 seat was the only contested council race outside of the mayoral race.
Monday night’s council meeting was Sims’ last representing the district on Hollister’s southwest side. He said that he’s across the street from District 4, and that if he was on the other side of the street he’d still be in the district.
“I’ve appreciated being on the city council and I made every attempt to try to figure out a way to continue that did not pan out,” Sims said. “I will continue to be involved in the community, so you will see me around at events. I’m now the county’s constituent.”
Mayor Ignacio Velazquez thanked Sims for the time he put in.
“We are going to miss you here, but we do appreciate everything you’ve done and we know you’ll continue being involved throughout the community,” Velazquez said. “It’s tough, but you always have to make the right decision for your family.”
Councilman Ray Friend said he was sorry to see Sims go.
“He’s very intelligent and does his homework,” Friend said Tuesday. “I thought he’d be an excellent addition. I’m sure we’ll see him around in other places. It’s a shame he had to go so quickly.”
Sims’ departure gives the council a couple options for filling the open seat. One option is the remaining council members could appoint someone to finish the term until it’s up in 2018.
“Within 60 days, we can appoint somebody to city council and then we’d have to have an election for that seat at the next election,” Velazquez said Tuesday. “In November 2018, someone would have to run for that seat. So basically we could work off an appointee until that point and then there’d be candidates running for that seat in November 2018.”
The second option is to hold a special election for District 4 only. However, the special election can only happen 114 days after the resignation, City Clerk Tom Graves said. The election would also need to be held on a prescribed election day.
That second option would put off a special election until November, Graves said.
“That means essentially they’ll have a four-member council for the whole year,” Graves said. “The fact that they can have lots of tie votes is not great.”
Graves said the council talked about appointing the runner-up for last November’s election, who is former city employee Tim Burns. The idea was also floated to bring back former Councilman Victor Gomez. Gomez was elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2012. He decided not to run for council last year, leaving a contested open seat in District 4.
Gomez was not immediately available for comment.
Graves said that there were multiple ideas going out, but the council didn’t decide on anything.
“The next council meeting, unless they throw in a special one, will be March 20,” Graves said. “I’m thinking that having two weeks to think about it, they’ll have concrete ideas.”
