The Buellton City Council will remain a four-member panel for now.
On Thursday night, the divided council could not agree on how to fill the fifth seat, which has been vacant since Councilman Ed Andrisek resigned last month.
Andrisek stepped down July 8, citing health reasons, after serving 16 years on the council.
A proposal to appoint Art Mercado, a Buellton planning commissioner and former councilman, failed on a 2-2 vote.
Councilmen Dave King and John Sanchez favored naming Mercado to the fill the job, Mayor Holly Sierra and Councilwoman Elysia Lewis voted against it.
Likewise, Sierra and Lewis favored leaving the seat empty for now, but King and Sanchez disagreed with that vote also ending in a 2-2 tie.
Sanchez said he would like to have the seat filled now rather than wait until after the November election.
“The citizens deserve to have five people,” he said, adding that Mercado had agreed he would accept an appointment.
The council has roughly five or six meetings before the candidate elected on Nov. 8 takes office in early December.
Buellton will hold its first district-based election in November, with two seats on the ballot representing specific areas of the community and chosen by voters in those neighborhoods. The mayor will be chosen by voters from throughout the city, including council districts not on this year’s ballot.
Mercado has filed papers to run for council District 4 representative. Andrisek’s open seat represents District 1.
“Art Mercado is dearly loved by everybody I know,” Sierra said. “He’s a really good guy.”
But she questioned the fairness of appointing a declared candidate to the council during election season.
“I think it’s unfair to appoint somebody,” Sierra added. “It gives that person an unfair advantage during campaigning.
“I would rather ride with the four of us for the rest of the year.”
Because of his experience, Mercado would bring knowledge about city issues and the role of the council, King and Sanchez contended.
“I’m just concerned with the perception that new people don’t have the chance to be part of committees and groups here,” Lewis said.
After both motions failed, the question of how — or whether — to fill the empty seat will return at the council’s Aug. 25 meeting.
City Manager Scott Wolfe said the filing period for council candidates will be extended to Aug. 17 since none of the incumbents filed for re-election.
King and Lewis are both running for mayor. In District 1, Hudson Hornick and Isaac Oltmans have picked up candidate papers while Mercado and David Silva have done the same in District 4.
In another item, the council discussed how to honor Andrisek’s service to the city.
Before the council, he also served on the Buellton Community Services District board and the Planning Commission.
The council ultimately voted — unanimously, this time — on a bench at Zaca Creek Golf Course, setting the project’s limit at $10,000.
Andrisek had expressed pride in the city’s acquisition of the golf course at 223 Shadow Mountain Drive because of the benefits it provided for Buellton.
“I think a beautiful bench down at the golf course would be a fitting tribute,” Sierra said, noting that Andrisek was the longest-serving councilman in the city’s history.
“It would be a nice recognition to Councilman Andrisek, and I also think it’s a benefit to the golf course.”
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.