- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Clearlake City Council to hold special meeting on council appointments, finance director recruitment
The council will meet at 3:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 22, in closed session to discuss a potential case of litigation before the public portion of the meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
The meeting will be broadcast live on the city's YouTube channel or the Lake County PEGTV YouTube Channel. Community members also can participate via Zoom or can attend in person.
The agenda can be found here.
Comments and questions can be submitted in writing for City Council consideration by sending them to City Clerk Melissa Swanson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
To give the council adequate time to review your questions and comments, please submit your written comments before 1:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 22.
Each public comment emailed to the city clerk will be read aloud by the mayor or a member of staff for up to three minutes or will be displayed on a screen. Public comment emails and town hall public comment submissions that are received after the beginning of the meeting will not be included in the record.
On Monday, city staff will ask the council to discuss and provide direction on whether to appoint nominated councilmembers to serve another term in lieu of holding an election for those seats.
City Clerk/Administrative Services Director Melissa Swanson’s report explains that incumbent council members Russ Cremer and Dirk Slooten were the only ones to file to run for election in November.
“Because there are the same number of available offices and candidates, Elections Code § 10229 gives the City the option to appoint these candidates in lieu of holding an election,” Swanson wrote.
“Government Code 36512(d) prohibits an appointment that would result in a majority of councilmembers serving by way of appointment. For this reason, if the Council chooses to appoint the incumbents in lieu of election, if any future seat would become unfilled before the next election, the City Council would not have the option to fill the available council seat via appointment and would have to hold a special election at that time,” Swanson sadi in her report.
She said there were no nominations for city treasurer. Likewise, the city has the option to appoint a qualified elector to the city treasurer seat in lieu of holding an election or authorize the election for city treasurer to move forward, which allows for a candidate to be nominated during the write-in candidate period of Sept. 12 through Oct. 25.
Swanson said that city municipal code requires that whenever a vacancy occurs in the office of city treasurer, the city manager is automatically appointed to fill the vacancy until a successor is appointed or elected.
There has been no elected city treasurer filling the vacancy since 2006, Swanson said.
Swanson said the options include holding an election for all three seats, appointing Cremer and Slooten while holding an election in November for city treasurer, and appointing a qualified elector to the city treasurer seat and appoint the two qualified City Council candidates to the Council seats.
Also on Monday, City Manager Alan Flora will ask the council to consider hiring an executive recruiter to fill the upcoming finance director vacancy.
Flora’s report said that last week the city’s current finance director accepted a position out of state.
The city’s finance director, Kelcey Young, was hired in June 2021.
“Staff would like to move forward expeditiously to fill the upcoming vacancy,” said Flora, who is requesting authorization to select and contract with an executive recruiting firm to fill the vacancy.
Flora is asking to spend up to $30,000 on the recruitment.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.