Patterson City Council looks to fill vacancy. Here’s how to apply for the appointment
Patterson is accepting applications for a new City Council member to represent District B, the city’s southeast section.
The City Council will appoint an applicant to serve the remainder of Dennis McCord’s term because voters elected him as mayor in November.
Applications are due by Jan. 14 and interviews will take place on Jan. 26, per a council vote at its last regular meeting. To qualify and serve as a council member until December 2022, applicants must reside in District B and be at least 18 years old. The council decided to fill the vacancy by appointment instead of a special election by a 3-0 vote, with Council Member Shivaugn Alves abstaining.
Given a special election could occur in November 2022 at the earliest, city staff recommended making an appointment to prevent tie votes in the currently four-member council. Choosing the appointment process also saves money, staff said. A special election would cost the city around $35,000, City Manager Ken Irwin said, based on previous estimates.
Still, two Patterson residents told the council in public comments they preferred holding an election. Referencing how the council approved a 6% raise for Irwin earlier this month, raising his base annual salary to about $215,000, Mia Mendez asked the city consider paying for a special election.
“Could we find the funding so that the people essentially have their say?” Mendez said during the Dec. 15 meeting. “It just kind of inhibits a little bit of the democratic process for me. We kind of took the vote away from the people on this one.”
The appointed council member will serve about two years, until the term McCord was elected for in 2018 ends. To prevent future vacancies when a council member rises to mayor, another public commenter requested the council consider making mayor and council member terms the same. But even if Patterson mayors serve four years instead of two, the council member terms are staggered with two seats expiring in general election years and two in midterm years.
Before abstaining on the vote to make an appointment, Alves said she was interested in discussing aligning mayor and council member terms at a future meeting. The last time the council appointed a council member was in 2017, when it selected Alfred Parham to serve the remainder of Debroah Novelli’s term after she was elected mayor.
Applications are available online and at Patterson City Hall. Applicants must also complete a questionnaire and submit a resume along with a short essay on why they are the best candidate.
After the Jan. 14 application deadline, the council plans to discuss the candidates at the regular meeting on Jan. 19. McCord and Council Member Cynthia Homen are scheduled to interview applicants during a special meeting on Jan. 26.
