The Oakley City Council voted 4-1 at a special meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 27, to declare that Councilmember George Fuller's District 5 seat is vacant. Fuller cast the only no vote. At the regular meeting later that evening, the council chose to fill the seat by appointment instead of holding a special election. We reported on the proposal before the vote.
The legal basis
City Attorney Derek Cole's staff report relies on Government Code section 36513. Under that law, a council seat becomes vacant after 60 consecutive days of unexcused absences, or 70 days when a council meets monthly or less often. Oakley held just one regular meeting a month in June, July and August. Fuller attended on June 9 and missed July 14 and Aug. 11. The report concludes that the seat became vacant by operation of law on Aug. 19, 70 days after June 10. He also missed the Sept. 8 meeting. The report cites state attorney general opinions involving Bell Gardens in 2017 and Moreno Valley in 2023.
Fuller's side
Fuller told the council he had surgery on July 6 and was hospitalized for 13 weeks. "I have not abandoned my office," he said, according to the East Bay Times. "I intend to serve and will keep serving unless I am ordered to stop by a court, by a judge." He argued that the city has no process for requesting permission to miss meetings and that enforcing the requirement now "seems discriminatory." He attended the Sept. 22 and Oct. 13 meetings after he was discharged.
What the council heard
Contra Costa News reports that Cole said Fuller's lawyer told him before the July meeting that Fuller would be having surgery. Cole said he did not recall any word about the August meeting, and that he left voicemails offering remote participation. Councilmember Anissa Williams asked whether the city needed its own excused-absence policy before applying the law. Cole said it did not. Fuller won a second term in 2024, and that term was set to run through 2028.