In a move that surprised many, Mayor Pro Tem Stacy Berry has resigned her seat on the Cypress City Council, effective July 5.
The move creates an interesting situation for the council, since voters approved a change in the city charter in 2020 that requires the empty seat be filled within 60 days and allows the council to appoint someone to fill the seat or otherwise hold a special election.
According to Measure P, a special election could cost taxpayers more than $220,000. Either way, appointed or elected, the new Council member will fill the remainder of Berry’s existing term, which ends in 2022.
According to a city press release, Berry “submitted a letter of resignation to the City Council on June 28, notifying the City Council that she will resign her position effective July 5, 2021, for personal reasons.”
Berry was first elected to the City Council in November 2014 and re-elected in November 2018, her City Council colleagues selected her to serve as Mayor from December 2018 to December 2019.
“I would like to thank Mayor Pro Tem Berry for her years of dedicated service on behalf of Cypress,” said Mayor Jon Peat. “We wish her the best in her new endeavors,” he said in the release.
Berry, meanwhile, thanked Cypress residents for their “overwhelming” show of support at the news. “It really touched me,” she said in an interview, “quite frankly, when you’re in the day-to-day bubble of always having another issue coming up, you don’t always see this side of it.”
“You don’t always hear the good comments,” she said. “I didn’t expect that kind of reaction.”
Berry said she and her husband are moving to Prescott, Arizona. “My husband recently retired and we have decided to move to a home we own there,” she said, “but this is truly bittersweet.”
Berry said she decided to resign now because it was the “right thing to do.”
“We are going to put a for sale sign up in our front yard,” said Berry, and “that’s not a good look for the Mayor Pro Tem,” she said.
“I feel so blessed,” said Berry, “for me, this has been the journey of a lifetime.”
While there have been some “tough votes” along the way, Berry said she is truly grateful that she decided to serve the city.
“I will miss Cypress, especially the wonderful people of Cypress,” she said.
Berry was set to term out in 2022, along with Peat and Council member Paulo Morales.
The Cypress City Council will discuss options to fill the vacant City Council seat at its July 12, 2021 meeting. The Cypress City Charter allows the City Council to appoint a replacement or hold a special election if the seat is not filled within 60 days of becoming vacant.
While one candidate, Carrie Hayashida, finished well above the rest of the pack in 2020, the city charter puts the existing council under no obligation to select the top vote getter in the most recent election.
If the council does, as expected, open the process to allow citizens to apply for the vacant seat, they will have the option to select any of the qualified candidates who apply by a simple majority vote.
The discussion is expected to begin next Monday at the regular council meeting on July 12.