DEL MAR — The Del Mar City Council will conduct its business one member short for the next two years after its four current members failed to take action to fill a vacancy.
The council has been operating with four members since the retirement of Dwight Worden in September, and had until this month to decide how to fill the seat. The council had the option to appoint a new member to serve the remaining two years of Worden’s term, allow voters to select a replacement through a special election, or leave the seat vacant.
On Monday, the council deadlocked in a 2-2 vote over whether to proceed with a special election in May 2025, failing for a third time to move forward with filling the seat. This means the seat will not be filled until the next regularly scheduled general election in 2026.
Council members Terry Gaasterland and Dan Quirk voted in favor of proceeding with the special election, and Tracy Martinez and Mayor Dave Druker voted in opposition, arguing that the projected $250,000 cost for the election was not justified.
“I cannot vote to have a special election,” Druker said, stating that he would rather leave the seat vacant.
Gaasterland and Quirk argued that voters should be able to choose their representative if the council cannot.
“We have not been able to settle on one candidate. To me, that proves we have a range of interests and a range of voices,” said Gaasterland. “At this point, our council has failed, and it’s time for the people to choose who they want in the fifth seat.”
The council also reached deadlocks when voting on potential appointees on two separate occasions last month. On Oct. 7, they came to a split vote between Del Mar Finance Committee member Jeff Sturgis and former Planning Commissioner Ted Bakker, and then again between Sturgis and Planning Commissioner Jas Grewel on Oct. 21.
Residents have criticized the council for not being able to make an appointment and have been split on how the city should proceed. On Monday, several advised the city against dropping a quarter of a million dollars on a special election and noted that the council has been able to find consensus on the majority of issues.
They also noted that the process of filling the vacancy has become too political.
“I think we need to consider taking a pause,” said Del Mar resident Carol Kerridge. “It has become a huge power struggle among neighbors and friends.”
However, others said the council should do everything possible to avoid having a long-term vacancy and prevent further deadlocks that could result in city business not moving forward.
“Our City Council cannot be an even number, which in my opinion, has been very obvious this past month. You have been unable to appoint a fifth member. We cannot have a stalemate the next two years,” Camilla Rang, another local resident, said.
Vacancy aside, Del Mar’s council is set to look substantially different come January. Druker will be retiring after nearly two decades on the council, and newcomer John Spelich will take a seat after being elected earlier this month. (He ran uncontested along with Martinez and Quirk, who were both elected to second terms.)
Grewel, whose appointment bid was supported by Martinez and Druker last month, accused Quirk and Gaasterland of scheming to get Sturgis on the council. On Monday, she shared an email in which Quirk said he would try to convince other council members to support Sturgis’ appointment.
Quirk did not shy away from stating that this was a political process and that he supported Sturgis because he believed he would be a favorable swing vote.
“I think someone like Jeff [Sturgis] would, yes, support me, which is why I’m in favor of someone like that,” he said.
Quirk also claimed that Martinez and Druker were only opposed to a special election because Sturgis would likely win and repeated his assertion that $250,000 is an inconsequential amount of money to spend for this process.
Druker argued that Del Mar voters’ approval of a salary increase for council members in the recent election proves that residents trust the council to make the right choice.
At the same meeting, the council unanimously agreed for city staff to continue investigating alternate financing options for the city’s utilities undergrounding project after seeing costs skyrocket above initial projections.
