Council Picks Renee Goddard to Fill Vacancy

The Fairfax Town Council voted 3-1 Wednesday to appoint resident Renee Goddard to the council seat that has been vacant since Ryan O’Neil resigned in February. 

The council interviewed seven candidates to replace O’Neil at a prior meeting, when the council members initially appeared to be divided between two candidates, Goddard and Barbara Coler.

But at the April 3 council meeting, Mayor John Reed, Vice Mayor David Weinsoff and Councilwoman Pam Hartwell favored Goddard. Councilman Larry Bragman voted in opposition, still preferring Coler.

Goddard will serve until the November 2013 election, when the seat will be placed on the ballot.

The council will have to fill another vacancy after Hartwell’s planned April 9 resignation.

The town has re-opened the application process in case anyone else wants to apply for the next vacancy. 

If there are less than three new applicants, the candidates will be interviewed before the next Fairfax council meeting, set for Wednesday, May 1. The council will decide which applicant to appoint at the same meeting. If there are more than three new applicants, the council will hold a special meeting for interviews.

Hartwell, who is moving out of the state this summer, said she didn’t vote when the council made its decision on how to replace her.

The future resident to fill Hartwell’s vacancy will, similarly to Goddard, serve on the council until the seat is placed on the November ballot.

Two other seats on the council — those occupied by Weinsoff and Reed — will also be on the ballot, meaning four of the five council seats will be up for election.

At the same meeting, the council OK’d efforts beginning to create a permanent street mandala downtown, a project brought forward by Hartwell. 

“It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for almost 10 years,” Hartwell told Patch.

She also said she was happy to see Goddard sit in a council seat. “It felt really good to be able to sit with her on the council for one meting,” Hartwell said. “It was just a delight to look down the dais and see her thoughtful face and hear her really critical points. She was ready for her first meeting and she did a great job.”

Goddard, a teacher and environmental consultant, is the zero waste project coordinator for Sustainable Fairfax and was the project coordinator of last year’s popular Streets for People event in downtown Fairfax.

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