Ginny Chadwick resigned from her seat as Columbia’s 1st Ward councilmember this week. The resignation comes shortly after city clerk Sheela Amin said she had received a valid recall petition from first ward voters. In her address to the council chamber Chadwick said, “As a leader it’s time to know when to step down, and as the representative of the most important ward and one of the most influential votes on council, it was not a decision that I took into light consideration.”
While only on the job nine months, Chadwick had multiple clashes with her constituents. The first came shortly after she was elected when she sponsored an agreement with the Opus development group to build a student housing structure in downtown Columbia. The second and more extreme wave of backlash came after Chadwick voted against an ordinance that would have reduced the penalties for cultivating marijuana. While campaigning, Chadwick had said she would support such a measure but she said after hearing concerns from school and public safety officials as well as taking into account the conflict it would present law enforcement officials, she had to vote against the ordinance.
Eapen Thampy was an advocate for the lesser marijuana penalties and got behind the recall effort because he says there was a fundamental lack of trust between the voters and Chadwick.
"Publicly in a couple of forums and privately to specific people that she would support such an ordinance. Now we’re not saying that she doesn’t have the right to change her mind but we don’t have to be happy about it and we have lost, completely lost faith in Chadwick,” Thampy said.
Chadwick stood by her decisions at the city council meeting, noting that although she was often the swing vote, her vote alone could not force a decision to be made.
“No single decision that I made on council was the sole reason that we chose the path that we did. But as a council representative I stand firmly behind every decision that we made as a majority and feel that I was a part of great leaders moving our city forward.”
Other members of the council thanked Chadwick for her service to the community in what can be a very trying job. 5th Ward councilmember Laura Nauser commended Chadwick’s passion.
“You have been very passionate about the issues you have brought forward. We cannot please every citizen in this community and there’s always going to be those that dissent with what we decide to vote for and I wish you very well in your future endeavors,” Nauser said.
Those future endeavors are the reason Chadwick gave for resigning. She is a graduate student at The University of Missouri and said she did not want to be campaigning through a second semester of grad school. She also noted the possibility she would have to leave Columbia and resign in August to pursue her doctorate in public health. By choosing to resign now, the 1st Ward will be without a councilmember for a month less than if she had lost the recall election. The nominating period for the vacant seat is now open and the council passed a measure to hold a special election for the seat on April 7th, coinciding with the previously scheduled elections for wards 2 and 6.
City council will have six members until Chadwick’s replacement elected, meaning in order for any resolution or ordinance to pass, it will need the support of four of the six members. If the city council is split 3-3, then whatever they are voting on will fail.
