In a night marked by division and uncertainty, the Guthrie City Council failed to fill the vacant Ward 1 seat and to reappoint a vice mayor during Tuesday evening’s meeting, resulting in three separate split votes and lingering questions about the council’s next steps.
The open Ward 1 position was vacated earlier this year when Councilman Adam Ropp transitioned into the mayoral seat after running unopposed. Four candidates submitted applications to serve the remaining two years of the term: Robin Case, Franklin Danley, Seth Robbins, and Ed Wood.
Each candidate met with three council members last week and with the remaining three earlier this week as part of the interview process.
According to Councilman Brian Bothroyd, a consensus during a Monday evening discussion was that former council member Ed Wood, who served on the council for four years (2015-2019), would be appointed. After being informed of the apparent consensus, Robbins withdrew his name from consideration, leaving three candidates remaining.
During the meeting, Councilman Grant Aguirre quickly nominated Franklin Danley, with a second from Councilwoman Menecca Gibbs. The vote fell short at 3-3, with Ropp, Aguirre, and Gibbs voting yes, and Councilmen Tracy Williams, Brian Bothroyd, and Jeff Taylor voting no.
A follow-up motion by Bothroyd for Wood also failed to pass, again deadlocked at 3-3 with yes votes from Bothroyd, Williams, and Taylor and no votes coming from Ropp, Aguirre, and Gibbs.
“I’m going to make the motion on the discussions that were had yesterday that I was given last evening,” said Bothroyd. “And [I] motion Ed Wood, who was informed that he was going to take the seat. The discussion is that it was determined last night and brought to me by apparently, through the consensus of this council. Similar to the way it has been done in the past where the seating party would be notified the evening before like Grant (appointed by the council due to a resignation in 2023) was so that they would know to come in and take their seat, bring their family, whatever they are going to do and be sworn in.”
City Attorney Billy Wheeler clarified, “I would add clarification that no vote has been taken” before the Tuesday night meeting.
Bothroyd expressed his disappointment during council comments: “It’s been a day, let’s put it that way. I’m kind of saddened a little bit—not a little bit, a very lot—about the process that went on here, and it’s just not right.”
Gibbs added, “I was hoping that we could come to a consensus together, and we failed. But, simple enough, we failed, so now it’s our job to go back and look at that again and work together and see how it failed and what we can do to get that position filled.”
Ropp also addressed the failed appointment, emphasizing there was no ill intent in the voting process.
“Try not to take anything personal,” Ropp said. “From everyone that I spoke with, nobody had any personal animosity or reason of why they voted the way that they did… we were going through kind of swimmingly in a nice process, [then] certain parts of that stipulations changed unexpectedly and that is why I believe you have a split vote.”
Following the failed Ward 1 appointment, the council attempted to vote on the position of vice mayor, a role currently held by Aguirre. Ropp made a motion to reappoint Aguirre.
“Well, considering myself the mayor, I will make the motion that Vice Mayor Grant Aguirre stay as the vice mayor. I think he’s done a great job.”
Gibbs quickly seconded the motion, but it too ended in a 3-3 tie, and no alternate nominations were brought forward.
“I would like to know how the current vice mayor has not done an adequate job?” Gibbs questioned afterwards.
Ropp responded by referencing behind-the-scenes conversations: “As Councilman Bothroyd had said in regards to the appointment of the vacant Ward 1, I had also talked to people that were perfectly willingly fine to accept vice mayor and then went back on that… To answer Councilman Bothroyd’s comment in regards to the vacant Ward 1 council seat, well, the stipulations under that changed.”
Bothroyd quickly responded: “I never said stipulations change. My position on it is since I’ve been on here every two years, we’ve pretty much appointed a new vice mayor.”
Wheeler, again, stepped in, stating, “And if I could interrupt this conversation, so at this point, I think that motion has died.”
As of now, it remains unclear what steps the council will take next to fill the vacant Ward 1 seat and resolve the vice mayor’s appointment.
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