Woodland Park City Council discusses filling mayor’s seat at Thursday’s meeting

WOODLAND PARK, Colo. (KRDO) -- Following the death of Woodland Park Mayor Val Carr on Tuesday, council members discussed the next steps in filling his seat

On Thursday, Council members started the meeting with a moment of silence to honor Carr, who passed away on Tuesday after his long battle with COVID-19.

There are a few options that will be discussed on how to fill the open position. One option is for the city to accept applications from interested citizens, and the council would then choose one of them to serve out the remainder of Carr's term.

Another option would be to call a special election to fill the seat. The council could also vote to allow Mayor Pro-Tem Hilary LaBarre to fill the position until the next election.

However, when KRDO spoke with Councilmember Jim Pfaff on Wednesday, he believed the council would not be able to come to a general consensus and will have to put this out to the voters in a special election.

No decision was made Thursday night. Council members saying they didn't want to rush into a decision to honor Carr and to also weigh all of their options. Councilmember Pfaff agrees but says this is a matter that needs to be solved sooner rather than later. "I don't think waiting until April with a three-three deadlock council is very useful for the city so we can get moving along doing what we need to do," Pfaff says. Reiterating that he believes this will end up going to a special election.

"We got to figure out the practical terms for that, there's expense involved which I am hesitant about to want to have to do but I think it is going to be necessary," Pfaff says.

Councilmember Stephanie Alfieri in agreement. That's how she was elected to her city council seat but says there is a faster option. Alfieri saying, "Certainly appointing a mayor is a much quicker, less expensive process than having to hold a special election." But she also wants to weigh all the possibilities which is what councilman Robert Zuluaga says he will do.

"I can't preempt where that journey is going to go right now," Zuluaga says. "It was an untimely loss of our mayor and we are just going through that right now."

Pfaff adds that the council should be able to come to a decision within a month.