UPDATE: Shasta Lake City Council approves Special Election to fill vacant council seat

CITY OF SHASTA LAKE, Calif. — UPDATE, NOV. 1, 2022: The Shasta Lake City Council approved to hold the Special Election in March to replace Larry Farr at their meeting on Tuesday night, Nov. 1.

Voters in the City of Shasta Lake will be electing city council members in early November and then they might be doing it again in early March.

That was a topic of discussion at this week's council meeting.

When Councilmember Larry Farr passed away, Matt Doyle was appointed to the seat. However, he recently moved out of the city.

Regardless, Shasta County Clerk Cathy Darling Allen says the remaining two years of that term should have been on the ballot, but it was inadvertently left off.

“Folks have asked, ‘how did this mistake happen?’ My office absolutely has culpability here. We made an error, for sure. We did not include that separate contest that was two years," said Cathy Darling Allen.

“It seems like all the candidates in our candidates forum, put on by our league of cities, we were told that there are three vacancies. And everybody understood there were three vacancies. So, somehow, it was only the county that didn’t know that there were three vacancies,” Councilmember Greg Watkins told Darling Allen.

“As I said, that was an error on our part. That is absolutely my office’s error, which is why, like I said, I would absolutely support us sharing costs because it’s definitely not the city’s fault that that happened," Darling Allen responded.

“I don’t see how it could possibly be a shared cost even. And, especially, if it’s going to be at that kind of a fee. For heaven’s sakes, we’re a city of only 10,000 people; not all of us vote. How could it possibly cost that much? And, why are we required to do it when we had no intention of doing it that way?” CouncilmemberJanice Powell told Darling Allen.

“Thank you for coming here tonight and helping us to understand the mistakes that happen. Mistakes happen, unfortunately, this just happens to be a more-public one than most," finished CouncilmemberPamelyn Morgan.

The council will have to decide on a special election which will be on March 7 of 2023.

Cost estimates discussed during the meeting varied widely from less than $40,000 to more than $80,000.

Shasta Lake City Manager Jessaca Lugo told KRCR the city has requested the county supervisors to pay for the cost of the special election, which they will decide on in their meeting next week on Nov. 8.

District Supervisor Patrick Henry Jones also said that he would support them in that effort.

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