The Arcata City Council will convene on Wednesday, Feb. 9 for a special meeting to attempt to decide how to fill the seat current councilmember Emily Goldstein announced she will step down from at the end of the month.

There are apparently exactly three choices on how to deal with the issue at hand, we learned today, which are laid out in a City of Arcata press release issued this afternoon. They are:

• The council could appoint someone to fill the seat until the November 2022 election
• They could call a special election for June 2022 where the winner would serve out the rest of Goldstein’s term
• They could remain a four-person council until the November 2022 election, at which point the seat would be filled by someone who’d serve a two-year term 

Read the full City of Arcata press release below: 

Vice-Mayor Emily Goldstein will be stepping down from her position on the Arcata City Council, effective Tuesday, March 1.

In a letter read aloud at the City Council meeting held on Wednesday, February 2, Goldstein shared the difficulty of her decision to resign in order to support her family’s medical needs.

Goldstein was elected to the Arcata City Council in November of 2020, and has served as Vice-Mayor since October 2021. Goldstein’s term is set to expire in November of 2024, and the City Council has 60 days to fill her vacancy by appointment or call a special election to fill the vacancy.

The Arcata City Council has scheduled a special meeting on Wednesday, February 9 at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the options they have to fill Goldstein’s vacant seat.

Their options include appointing a new council member who would fill the position until the next municipal election in November 2022, calling a special election for June 7, 2022 where the candidate receiving the most votes would serve out the full remainder of the term until November 2024, or the Council may also choose to not appoint or call an election in June, which would allow the vacancy to be filled as a two-year term to be elected on Tuesday, November 8, 2022.

The special City Council meeting will be held on Zoom, and all interested community members are encouraged to attend. The Zoom login information can be found at cityofarcata.org.

For more information on the Arcata City Council and to review the Council’s upcoming meeting agendas, please visit cityofarcata.org.