Orange City Council member resigns, council to replace vacant seat

Mike Alvarez, who has served on the Orange City Council for 16 years, resigned from his seat March 8 to due a judge-confirmed violation of a two consecutive-term limit. Panther Archives

The Orange City Council declared its District 3 seat vacant after council member Mike Alvarez resigned from his position March 8. Alvarez had a 10-day period to file an appeal against a previous court ruling stating he must vacate his seat due to term limits, but no further legal action was taken. The council will now either appoint a replacement within 60 days or hold a special election in November, but no decision has been made.

Alvarez was not present at the March 9 council meeting. The vast majority of public comments at the meeting expressed the desire for a special election to replace Alvarez’s seat in District 3.

“I don't think that the seat should be vacant for any longer than it needs to be because we have a lot of city business to take care of,” Michael Fischer, a District 3 Orange resident, said in a public comment to the council March 9. 

Although Mark Rosen, Alvarez’s attorney, told The Panther Feb. 25 that they were planning to appeal, Rosen clarified March 9 that after weighing the pros and cons, Alvarez had decided that it wasn’t worth pursuing expensive, unnecessary litigation — especially due to Orange being one of the few Orange County cities that does not financially compensate their city council members.

“Mike ran for office as a regular citizen — not to make money or be famous or run for higher office,” Rosen said. “For him to go and spend thousands of dollars on an appeal to hold onto an office just didn't make sense.”

Alvarez did not respond to The Panther’s request for comment.

Since the discussion regarding the vacant council seat was not planned for the council’s March 9 agenda, Orange Mayor Mark Murphy addressed Alvarez’s resignation as an urgent matter in need of preliminary discussion. At the beginning of the meeting, the council voted unanimously to add the topic to the agenda, although no official action was taken to determine how the seat will be replaced. 

At the meeting, Murphy said that members of the public have until March 26 to apply for appointment consideration, should the council choose to replace the seat via direct appointment. However, City of Orange Attorney Gary Sheatz explained that due to the details spelled out in the government code, the special election must be held on the next regularly established election date — which in this case would be November 2021.

Sheatz also added that the special election for District 3 would cost approximately $150,000 to conduct.

The last time a council member was appointed to fill an expired term was in 1993, when Murphy was first elected to the Orange City Council, he said. Murphy told The Panther that vacant city council seats have historically been reseated through both appointments and special elections; the city doesn’t have a preference for either option.

“I don't know what’s best for the city because I haven't seen the applications or anything yet,” Murphy said. “We'll see what happens once people apply… It’s far too early to decide one way or another, and we wouldn't do that because we came to a public meeting and had a public discussion.”

John Russo, Alvarez’s opponent and runner-up in the November 2020 District 3 election, originally filed the election challenge against Alvarez after the results, which the judge ruled on Feb. 4 and confirmed Feb. 24.

“My goal in filing this legal challenge was to ensure that the will of Orange voters was upheld,” Russo wrote in a March 9 press release sent to The Panther. “I am pleased that we prevailed and achieved our goals… It will now be up to the (Orange) City Council to do the right thing and schedule a special election as soon as possible.”

Russo also gave a public comment to the council March 9, calling for a special election because he said it would offer a fair way for District 3 residents to be heard and best represented on the council. A number of written public comments recommended Russo’s appointment to quickly fill Alvarez’s empty seat in the most cost-effective way.