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Arvada attorneys to revise vacancy policy; council favors resignation upon certification
Summary
City attorneys briefed the Arvada City Council on draft rules for filling council vacancies and the council directed staff to revise the draft so a council member elected to another office resigns upon certification of election results, triggering the 45‑day appointment clock.
Arvada City Attorney Rachel Morris told the council at a study session that the Charter (Section 4.6) identifies when a council seat becomes vacant — for reasons including resignation, recall, felony conviction, loss of residency, incapacity or three unexcused absences — but does not set out the procedure for filling a vacancy. Morris said the draft policy aims to fill that procedural gap.
Morris explained council staff asked for direction on several issues, including whether the appointment process should use a more elaborate voting procedure. She also read the related Section 4.3 language and said a sitting council member who becomes employed by another municipality would be prohibited from holding both roles; her office’s view is that such employment would require resignation and could lead to litigation if contested.
Council members questioned details of the draft selection criteria. One member flagged an item that used a 1–10 score for whether an applicant has lived in Arvada more than one year, saying residency is a threshold and better handled as a binary yes/no. Several members favored treating minimum residency as a disqualifier rather than a scored factor.
A central practical issue was timing: when must an elected council member resign if they win another office, and may that person participate in choosing their own successor? Rachel Morris told the council the city clerk may begin administrative steps when given sufficient notice, but the charter’s 45‑day appointment clock starts only when the vacancy is created (the resignation effective date). To reduce the risk that the 45th day falls on a holiday, council members discussed alternatives such as setting resignation to take effect before the swearing‑in or defining resignation to occur on certification of election results.
After back‑and‑forth, the council asked staff to revise the draft policy to state that a council member elected to another office should resign upon certification of election results and that the certification date will create the vacancy that triggers the 45‑day period for council to appoint a replacement. Rachel Morris said the revised policy will be placed on a formal agenda for council approval (amendments require notice prior to action).
