- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Clearlake City Council decides not to appoint members, approves finance director recruitment
Mayor Dirk Slooten and Councilman Russ Cremer filed for reelection, with no other individuals filing to run.
City Clerk/Administrative Services Director Melissa Swanson explained that because there are only two candidates for the two seats, elections code gives the city the option of appointing Slooten and Cremer rather than holding an election in November.
That was the option the city of Lakeport took four years ago, when the Lakeport City Council appointed Stacey Mattina and Mireya Turner, who were seeking reelection.
However, the Clearlake City Council decided against making the appointments due to concerns that it could limit options in the future should a vacancy on the council occur.
That concern is because of Government Code 36512(d), which Swanson said prohibits an appointment that would result in a majority of council members serving by way of appointment.
Swanson said the city already had budgeted the election for November. She said that if the council took no action by Thursday, the election would go forward for the two council seats as well as for the city treasurer’s job.
“I thought this was going to be a pretty simple decision for me,” said Councilman Russ Perdock.
However, he said if another council member left, it would leave the city with no option but to hold a special election, which could be expensive.
Other council members shared that concern. Slooten said he thought they should go forward with an election.
Swanson said no one filed to run for city treasurer, and the council also had the option to make an appointment or let the election go forward.
The city has not had an elected treasurer since 2006, when Elmer Maryatt retired. Since then, the council has appointed a city staffer to hold the job.
In 2016, the city put before voters proposals to make both the city treasurer and city clerk appointed, not elected positions. At that time, voters approved making the clerk an appointed position, but kept the treasurer as an elected job.
Asked by Lake County News during the meeting if the city was considering putting the treasurer selection process back on the ballot, Swanson said the council could approve an ordinance in an upcoming election cycle to put it back before voters.
The council chose to take no action on the appointment, which by default means that the deadline will pass and a municipal election, consolidated with the county’s general election, will take place on Nov. 8.
Swanson said write-in candidates can still seek both the council and treasurer seats.
Registered voters in the city can pick up papers at Swanson’s office and follow a process to become valid write-in candidates. The time frame for registering is Sept. 12 to Oct. 25.
The other item of business on Tuesday was City Manager Alan Flora’s request to immediately start the effort to find the successor to Finance Director Kelcey Young.
Young, who has been with the city just over a year, has accepted a position out of state.
Flora said he didn’t want to wait two more weeks for the next council meeting but asked to get started on the recruitment right away.
Over the weekend, he said some in-county candidates had developed.
He asked for, and received, the council’s unanimous approval to spend up to $30,000 to hire an executive search firm to find a new finance director in the case a local candidate isn’t selected.
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