Clifton deadlocks on filling council vacancy

It’s a tradition in Clifton that when a city council seat becomes vacant, the interim appointment goes to the person who received the next highest number of votes in the last election.

But the death of three-term Councilman Bill Gibson last month has created a deadlock, after three of the six members of the governing body decided to bypass the tradition and appoint Gibson’s widow, Robin, to fill the remaining seven months of his term.|

Gibson is the second councilmember to die since the 2022 election.  When Lauren Murphy passed away in 2024, the other six picked Chris D’Amato to replace her.

Clifton fills all seven city council seats every four years in a November non-partisan election that typically draws a large field of candidates.  The top vote-getter – by tradition, not ordinance – becomes the mayor.

Vote tallies range from 9,401 for Mayor Ray Grabowski to 2,387 for Francesco Muoio, who finished seventeenth.  D’Amato finished 623 votes behind the seventh-place candidate, Mary Sadrakula.

To replace Gibson, three city councilmembers supported Fahim Abedrabbo, a former school board member who polled just 15 fewer votes than D’Amato in the last election.  That vote was 3-3; so was a subsequent bid to seat Robin Gibson.

It’s unclear whether the split is over loyalty to Bill Gibson or over some elected officials’ dislike of Abredabbo, who would become the first Palestinian American and the first Muslim to serve on the council in Clifton, where there is a burgeoning Muslim community.

Councilwoman Rosie Pino, who won the Republican nomination for Congress in New Jersey’s 9th district on Tuesday, said she voted for D’Amato to replace Murphy.

“I voted yes because I accepted the process,” said Pino.  “The voters spoke.”

The council has until June 13 to replace Gibson; if they can’t agree on an interim replacement, the seat will remain vacant until January.   The filing deadline for the 2026 Clifton council race is August 20.