REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Conduct Interviews and Appoint Candidate to fill the Vacancy for a Partial Term Ending November 2020 in Council District 5
Report
BACKGROUND
Former Councilmember Patricia Mahan resigned from office, effective February 1, 2020, thereby creating a vacancy for Council District 5 for the partial term ending November 2020. On February 11, 2020 the City Council declared the office in Council District 5 vacant. In accordance with Charter Section 703, if the Council chooses to appoint a Council Member to the vacant seat, the Council must do so no later than March 12, 2020 (30 days since the seat was vacated). At the February 11 Council meeting, the action taken was to initiate a candidate application process to fill the vacancy by appointment.
The vacancy was advertised as follows:
* City website:
o Homepage
o City News item
* Email sent to 1,426 City News subscribers
* City Hall News
* City Manager's Biweekly Report
* Social Media
o Facebook
o Twitter
o Nextdoor
* Email sent to current/former board/commission members and vacancy interest list
The recruitment to fill the vacancy for the office of Council District 5 was opened on February 12, 2020 with an advertised deadline of February 28 at 5:00 p.m. The Office of the City Clerk received 8 applications by the advertised deadline. The requirements for holding office for City Council are set forth in Section 600 of the City Charter as follows:
No person shall be eligible to hold any elective office in the City including Mayor, City Council, Chief of Police Department and City Clerk, unless he or she is a resident and a qualified registered elector of the City.
As a result, the Office of City Clerk has been verifying eligibility of all applicants for this process. Upon receipt of the Candidate applications, staff forwarded the applications to the Registrar of Voters (ROV) for the purpose of completing due diligence with certifying that each applicant was a registered voter in Council...
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