SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Although the city has until February 16th to make a decision regarding filling a vacant city council seat, if it came down to a special election you would be footing the bill.
City Manager Rick Haydon has said a special election would cost the city around $200,000 dollars.
When you hear a sum like $200,000 being thrown around, naturally people are going to wonder where that money could be used instead. But city officials say its not that cut and dry.
Political analyst Dan Payne says, "everytime you get a difference in opinions you're going to have to figure out some way to resolve the issues and many times it comes to a special election."
Payne says special elections are common. And he says the $200,000 price tag for a special election could be put to good use elsewhere.
"Those funds could be used for a whole slew of different projects," says Payne.
Santa Maria Police Chief Ralph Martin says that money could pay for 2 full time officers. City Management Analyst Mark van de Kamp added to that by saying the money could be used to add more officers to a police unit that conducts criminal investigations and works against gang violence. But van de Kamp says the money used for a special election would come out of a different pot than most city projects do.
"It's not sitting around," says van de Kamp. "It would have to come out of general fund reserves."
And van de Kamp says the general fund reserves are used as a last resort.
"We're very reluctant to dig into reserves unless we have to do so," says van de Kamp.
Lily Rivera, who fights to make ends meet, says she doesn't want to see her tax dollars go towards having a special election.
"I'm low income and I would like for my money to be put to use for something we can use," says Rivera.
