A four-person Islamorada Village Council couldn’t garner the necessary votes to pick one of seven candidates interested in filling a vacant seat during a special Jan. 30 meeting at the Founders Park Community Center.
Council members mulled and tussled over the decision for more than two-and-a-half hours as they remained at an impasse over two finalists in Anna Richards and Greg Dully. At the advice of village attorney John Quick, the council agreed via 3-1 vote to table the decision to a March 18 meeting — despite needing to pick a replacement in a 30-day period as required by the charter.
A tabling came following multiple votes, several recess periods and uncertainty on how to proceed. A motion to table the appointment to March was made by Mayor Sharon Mahoney and supported by Vice Mayor Don Horton and Councilman Steve Friedman. Councilwoman Deb Gillis was against the tabling.
Per the charter, the appointment was in the four council members’ hands and not the village voters. Following a 3-minute pitch by each candidate, council members used paper ballots to whittle the list to three names. Anna Richards, Greg Dully and Tom Raffenello were among the finalists.
Another round of paper ballots were distributed by human resources director Jamie Terry to the council; this time they picked two names. Two votes were for Anna Richards, co-owner of a surveying business, licensed floodplain manager and real estate agent. The other two votes were in favor of Greg Dully, a real estate agent and chairman of the village’s Land Acquisition Advisory Committee.
Several paper ballots were given to council members to revote in an attempt to break the tie. There were even formal motions made for Dully, who was supported by Friedman and Gillis, and Richards, who was supported by Mahoney and Horton. A stalemate persisted as council remained in a 2-2 tie.
Two motions were made and supported by Mahoney and Horton for a coin flip to decide who would fill the seat, but even that resulted in a 2-2 vote with Friedman and Gillis dissenting. Neither Richards nor Dully stepped away as finalists as council remained at an impasse.
During a period of uncertainty and silence, former councilman Ken Philipson rose to the microphone to urge council members to ask Dully and Richards about the time they could devote to the job and the expertise they could bring that “we don’t have on council or could use on this council.”
“Those are the two things I think are important,” Philipson said.
Those questions were never asked by the council members, but they did allow Richards and Dully to come back up and explain why they’d be the right fit for the seat.
A tabling briefly ended the tense discussions and the brick wall council members hit through the duration of the meeting. The idea for a tabling came during a recess toward the end of the meeting, as Mahoney spoke to Quick on possible options.
Quick said the charter requires the council to appoint someone in 30 days. Pinder resigned from his post on Jan. 12, which started the timeclock for the council to appoint someone by Feb. 8. Interested candidates had until Jan. 27 to submit their names for the seat. Eight candidates originally filed the necessary paperwork to be considered for the seat. The list went to seven as council members convened for a special meeting; Stephanie Scuderi withdrew her name.
With council failing to pick a candidate before the deadline, Quick said the village could face a citizen lawsuit for violating the charter. The village wouldn’t be on the hook for monetary damages; rather, a judge could force the council to come back and make a decision.
However, the village could be faced with costs for defense if a lawsuit were filed from the public.
“The court couldn’t tell you how to pick … you can’t get out of it that way,” Quick said regarding an appointment to fill the vacant seat.
A four-person council will return for a regular meeting on Feb. 13. A decision to fill the vacant seat, however, won’t be decided until the March meeting.
