Amador County – The city of Plymouth had two setbacks in the general election Tuesday, with its top vote-getter being ineligible, and a city-wide measure to raise the “Transient Occupancy Tax” failing by 32 votes.

The Plymouth ballot included three candidates for two positions, but only two candidates were eligible. Sean McGinness, who moved out of town, but still appeared on the ballot, received 172 votes, Peter Amoruso had 156, and Sandy Kyles 96.

City Manager Dixon Flynn said Wednesday that “Sean McGinnis came in this morning and signed his resignation, and it will be up to the city council whether to hold a special election or to appoint somebody.”

Flynn said he did not know which way the council was leaning in the decision, and he would only recommend that they make a decision. He said: “That’s such a political decision that is best left up to them.” He said “a special election costs money,” and “appointing somebody means appointing somebody for four years.”

City attorneys said the council has 30 days, until its December 9th meeting, to make a decision. Flynn said in January, state law will change to allow 60 days to make such an appointment, but it was not clear if it would apply to Plymouth. He said a special election takes at least 60-90 days to bring about.

The council will have the issue on its December 9th agenda, and they may have preliminary discussions November 18th, its only November meeting.

Also Tuesday, Measure O, to raise Plymouth’s Transient Occupancy Tax, failed with 169 “no” votes to 137 “yes” votes.

Flynn said “probably what happened was people don’t understand it,” and “probably thought it was a tax on them.”

He said he likely would recommend bringing it back, but first they “need to do an education program” because a TOT tax “is a tourist tax on visitors.”

Flynn said the 10 percent TOT tax proposed in Plymouth now is low compared to other areas. He knew “a number of people who thought it was a tax, and thought they were going to have to pay,” and “they don’t understand it.”

Election Supervisor Debbie Smith said the Amador County Election Department estimated there are 1,700 to 1,800 provisional and vote-by-mail ballots from across the county that must still be counted.

Ballots must be verified, and the counts updated, Smith said, and they “don’t know yet how many of those are going to be good.” She said the state wanted a rough estimate. The office starts its 1 percent manual count Monday.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.