The Morgan Hill City Council will spend its evening Jan. 11—and maybe even the early hours of the next morning—interviewing up to 30 applicants for the vacant fifth seat on the dais.
The lengthy list of candidates submitted their names and qualifications to the city clerk before the Jan. 6 deadline. The applicants are seeking to fill the seat left vacant by former Councilman Gordon Siebert, who resigned Dec. 8.
Shortly after Siebert’s resignation, the four remaining councilmembers approved a selection process that will play out at the Jan. 11 special meeting. This includes allotting each applicant a maximum of five minutes to introduce themselves and make their case as to why they should sit on the council. If necessary, the council will ask follow-up or clarifying questions after each applicant’s five-minute pitch, Mayor Steve Tate said.
The council does not have a specific list or set of questions in mind to ask the applicants, Tate noted. Any questions would likely be specific to what an applicant said in their introduction or what they have already submitted to the city clerk on written application forms.
City officials will also ask the field of applicants to sit in a conference room adjacent to the council chambers when they are not being interviewed by the council during the Jan. 11 public meeting, Tate added.
The list of applicants, which is much longer than Tate expected, includes at least one former councilmember and candidates for other local offices, as well as some newcomers to the process.
The single agenda item for the Jan. 11 meeting says after interviewing all the applicants, the council will discuss the results of the interviews and narrow down the field to the top three. From there, the council will discuss the decision further and then select a finalist, who would be sworn in at the Jan. 18 council meeting.
The selected new council member will serve the remainder of Siebert’s unexpired term, which ends in December 2018. The seat will be subject to a regularly scheduled election in November 2018.
The Jan. 11 council meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at council chambers, 17575 Peak Ave.
The full list of applicants, in the order they appear on the meeting agenda, is below. More information about the candidates, including their full application forms and resumes, can be viewed on the city’s website, morganhill.ca.gov. The applications include individual answers to questions about the candidates’ qualifications and why they want to serve on the council.
• Angela Young, a visual artist and freelance journalist;
• Caitlin Jachimowicz, a criminal attorney based in San Jose;
•Cappy Myers, an environmental health and safety manager;
• Carla Ernest, a clinical project management consultant;
• Carol Fredrickson, a Santa Clara Valley Water District retiree;
• Chris Harrington, a retired firefighter with the Santa Clara County Fire District;
• Daniel Kenney, a real estate broker and life/health agent;
• Danielle Davenport, a board member and advisor for StratusVR, who ran for the Gavilan College Board of Trustees in the Nov. 8 election;
• David Jefferson, an engineer with Synopsys Inc.;
• Erik Hansen, a marketing director for eBay;
• Gavin Daprile, an engineering manager for Verizon;
• John McKay, a retired construction contractor and Morgan Hill Planning Commissioner (and a columnist for the Morgan Hill Times);
• Joseph Carrillo, and entertainer and producer who has run in numerous city council and mayoral elections in Morgan Hill;
• Kirk Bertolet, an electrician and signal maintainer for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, and a mayoral candidate in the Nov. 8 election;
• Maria Guadalupe de Anda Antunes, a self-employed real estate agent/broker;
• Marilyn Librers, Executive Director of the Pauchon Research Foundation, and a former council member who served two terms from 2008 to 2016;
• Mario Banuelos, a retired analyst with the City of San Jose, and a candidate for council in the Nov. 8 election who was endorsed by Tate and sitting Mayor Pro Temp Larry Carr;
• Mike Brusa, a retired superintendent of schools;
• Mitan Gandhi, retired from a semiconductor company;
• Natalie Prcevski, a solution engineering manager with CenturyLink;
• Norm Alexander, a novelist and decorated U.S. Army veteran;
• Paul Pascoal, a Santa Clara County civil engineer;
• Prithpal Khajuria, an employee at Intel Corporation;
• Ryan Maggio, an account executive;
• Sanjar Chakamian, a self-employed management consultant;
• Theresa Pittman, a nurse practitioner;
• Thomas Spitters (no occupation listed);
As of Jan. 9, the clerk’s office was in the process of confirming the voter registration qualifications for the following three applicants:
• Monica Pette, Associate Counsel with West Marine Products, Inc.;
• Troy Knapp, an account manager with ADP;
• Yvonne Martinez, an urban planner.
