The Castaic Town Council is set to have a discussion during a July 15 virtual meeting on what to do for the vacant seat in Region 5.
The Town Council is an advisory body that consists of 10 seats, representing five regions of Castaic, with each region having two representatives.
However, Region 5, which represents the area of Double C Ranch, Hidden Lake, Stonegate, NorthLake, Castaic east of Interstate 5 and north of Lake Hughes Road, was supposed to have a special election March 14 to fill one of the two seats for the region.
The March election, due to COVID-19 concerns and the fact that the in-person voting locations were closed to the public, had to be delayed until a later date, according to Town Council President Bob Lewis.
Now, the board plans to discuss how it will move forward, deciding whether to try a special election in the immediate future, or if they should wait to hold the special and November general election on the same day in the fall.
“It’s getting so close to our November election, I think we’re going to be looking at rolling the special election into our regular election,” said Lewis, adding that it is dependent on possible voting locations, such as the Castaic Sports Complex, library or schools, to be able to safely host the voting.
Lewis said on Thursday that the decision has not yet been made, but that it is something that will be discussed during the next council meeting.
Every two years, the Town Council holds an election where one of the two seats for each region is put up for election, with the winner committing to a four-year term. If the Town Council decides to have the special election on the same day as the general election, Region 5 voters would need to select a candidate for each of the two seats, Lewis said.
Lewis said that in the early fall, the council would announce the opening of the application process for the other five seats that will be up for election during the general election. The precise date of the November election has not yet been decided, Lewis said.
