Coronado has just completed its latest election, a result of which will leave Mayor-elect Duncan’s Council seat vacant. Our new leaders should respect the peoples’ choices in the November 5th election and appoint the third place vote winner. Coronado has never filled a long term vacant City Council seat by appointment, instead calling for special elections to fill the six vacancies dating back to 1973.  The City Council repealed our local ordinance requiring a special election in 2021, because it wanted the option to appoint in situations where the vacant term was for a matter of weeks or months, not years. Watch the city council discussion here (from minute 57:42 to 1:22:30).

   The City needs to fill Mayor-elect Duncan's vacated City Council seat, which has two full years remaining.

    Despite repealing our local ordinance requiring a special election to fill a vacant Council seat in 2021, Council never passed a policy governing how appointments should be handled. Therefore, the newly elected Council can and should appoint the third-place vote winner to fill the vacancy. Coronado voters expressed their will during the general election on November 5, 2024, and their choice should be respected. We, the undersigned, believe that since the election was so close, the third-place finisher is the obvious peoples’ choice. This appointment will spare our city the unnecessary expense of a special election so close to the election just completed.

If the Council and Mayor reject the appointment of the third-place vote winner, we, the citizens of Coronado, respectfully request the Mayor and Council call immediately for a special election to fill Mayor-elect Duncan’s vacated seat regardless of the expense. We respectfully request the City Council save the city the unnecessary expense of another election by making the obvious appointment instead. 

The people have spoken. Please abide by our will.