11 Candidates Vie for Interim Seat on San Carlos City Council.

June 5, 2011

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Huge Turnout.

When the City Council of San Carlos opted against holding a special election to fill the vacant seat on the Council and instead decided that it would appoint  an interim Council member after a series of interviews, nobody was quite sure who (or how many) would ultimately put their hat in the ring for this short stint on the City Council.   After all, the last few seats that were filled via the election process were not what one would consider hotly contested.  You'll recall that Andy Klein, the last member elected to the council, ran unopposed in his bid for the position.

Well, according to Bonnie Eslinger's column in the Daily News, no fewer than 11 people have officially signed up to for the interview process!  It's absolutely fantastic that so many citizens have expressed an interest in this civic duty.   The Council plans to interview all of the candidates in a series of meetings on Monday June 6, with the possibility of actually naming the interim Council member later in the evening in a special City Council Meeting.  According to Bonnie's Daily News Article, here is the list of interested candidates:

• Linda da Silva, executive director of construction planning for the San Mateo County Community College District.

• Don Eaton, former San Carlos mayor and vice president of Argus Financial.

• Ricardo Garcia-Pacheco, a business consultant and former member of San Carlos' Economic Development Advisory Commission.

• Neha Singh Gohil, an attorney and nonprofit manager.

• Deborah Kemper, associate executive director of the San Mateo County Bar Association.

• Brad Langford, a technology marketer for Cisco Systems.

• Brad Lewis, a former San Carlos mayor and director/producer for Pixar Animation Studios.

• Alex Phillips, a retired 17-year resident.

• Jeff Richards, managing partner of The Office of the CIO.

• John Sieling, a Realtor at Today Sotheby's.

• Elizabeth Torrez, a retired San Carlos School District employee.

Who Will Be the Interim Council Member?

Who do you think will be chosen as the interim Council Member from the above citizens?  It's going to be a tough decision to decide on just one from such an outstanding pool of candidates!   Cast your vote in the poll below, and perhaps as early as Monday evening we will all find out the actual results.

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

 

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3 Comments

  1. pat b on June 5, 2011 at 11:38 pm

    I’m really impressed with the number of applicants, though some said they thought it would be interesting to dabble in local politics.

    I hope some of the serious ones will come back in August and pull papers for the November election. I read that several Facebook employees has moved to San Carlos; maybe they’ll jump in too. They are certainly used to thinking outside the box, problem solving, and team work. And not one of them has worked at Facebook for 27 years!



  2. Debra Monroe on June 6, 2011 at 7:32 pm

    If anyone is interested in reading the applications filled out by the 11 San Carlos residents who’d like a shot at the interim City Council seat, they’re online at the city’s website in PDF form.



  3. pat b on June 7, 2011 at 5:54 am

    I did read them and also listened to the interviews. We have some very exciting people interested in getting involved in city government. I have already talked to several of them, who are outstanding. The council voted unanimously to appoint Brad Lewis to fill the remainder of Omar’s term, which is what I was hoping they’d do and agrees with the poll above.

    So for me it was a long evening but very exciting.



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