During its first meeting of 2023, the Solvang City Council discussed how to approach the seat left vacant by newly elected Mayor Mark Infanti, as two years remain on his City Council member term.
On Jan. 12, the council voted to appoint former City Councilmember Robert Clarke, who lost his 2022 reelection campaign, to fill the vacancy. That decision dominated public comment at the next meeting.
Five of the six public speakers at the Jan. 23 meeting denounced the decision. The only speaker not to address the vacant seat commented on the recent death of David Crosby.
“I find it hard to believe that a candidate who was not reelected to the council can be given a seat on the council,” Solvang resident Lorrie Flannigan said during public comment. “It makes the people of this city feel like they don’t really matter, so why vote?
“The voters should have the right to vote for who fills that vacant seat,” Flannigan added.
Solvang resident Sharon Price said she attended the Jan. 23 meeting to “express my complete dismay at your vote for putting Councilman Clarke back on the City Council.”
Price argued that the City Council should have voted to hold a special election, rather than appoint who was going to fill the seat themselves.
“The citizens of Solvang had a right to vote on who the next city council person was going to be,” Price said. “It was such an important decision; it wasn’t treated as such.”
Initially, during the Jan. 12 meeting, Infanti and Councilmember Elizabeth Orona, who beat Clarke for his seat in the 2022 election, wanted to appoint Solvang Planning Commissioner Jack Williams to fill the vacancy, while Councilmembers Claudia Orona and David Brown expressed their support for Clarke to return to the dais.
Infanti changed his mind to support Clarke, shortly after saying, “I keep getting interesting texts,” while looking at his phone.
Solvang resident Mary Beth Lee questioned those circumstances during public comment at the Jan. 23 meeting.
“Mayor, when the council reached an impasse, you refused to open the topic back up to public comments. But, you took public comments via your phone, via text message. It was after these ‘interesting texts’ that you changed your vote,” Lee said. “In changing your vote, you made your one vote count more than the 353 votes not only for Ms. Orona, but against Mr. Clarke.”
After Infanti changed his vote at the Jan. 12 meeting, Elizabeth Orona turned to him and asked “Why?”
“I’ve got to go with this; I’ve got to get this over with,” Infanti said.
The motion to appoint Clarke to fill the vacancy passed after a 3-1 vote, with Elizabeth Orona dissenting.
This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 2, 2023.