The six-remaining Newport City Council members voted 4 – 2 in favor of appointing Marco Camacho to fill the remaining current Council term (January 9 through December 1, 2018) that was vacated by John Florez.
Councilor At-Large John Florez announced in November that he would be stepping down from Council effective January 9th for business reasons. Ten residents applied for the vacant seat during a public application process -David Allard, Marco Camacho, Neyda DeJesus, Nancy Stafford, Roland Chase, Richard (Wick) Rudd, Kim Ripoli, Brian Rochelle, Adrienne Haylor and Justin McLaughlin.
Harry Winthrop, Lynn Ceglie, Jeanne-Marie Napolitano and Kate Leonard voted in favor of Camacho, while Susan Taylor and Jamie Bova voted in favor of Roland Chase.
The Charter for the City of Newport states that any vacancies arising from resignation in the membership of the Council shall be filled by four affirmative votes of the remaining members of the Council within thirty days after the Council learns of the vacancy, or in the event of a tie vote or inability to elect, the vacancy shall be filled as soon thereafter as possible by a majority vote if all the remaining members of the Council; provided, however, the Council shall provide for the public solicitation of applicants.
Camacho served on the council from 2012 – 2016 before losing a re-election bid to Susan Taylor, current Ward 1 Councilor.
On Sunday, I had written Letter From The Editor: City Council process to fill vacant seat hasn’t been open enough where I question the process that was used and explain why I filed a letter to the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office questioning whether there has been potential violations of the Open Meetings Act by Newport City Council.